Hollywood Cadences

Abstract

Cadences are one of the most powerful tools at a film composer’s disposal. The structure and placement of a cadence can shape the emotional arc of a scene, accentuate narratival information, and manipulate generic expectations. Drawing from theories of film genre and cadential definition from Altman (1999) and Caplin (2002), I explore several cinematically significant “cadential genres”—harmonic routines arising through the convergence of independent musical phenomena that together project a punctuative function. Through processes of attribute substitution and subtraction, a cadential genre can adapt to shifting scoring practices and generic expectations.I showcase four such cadential genres. The mixed plagal cadence imports transcendent harmonic associations from the Romantic era. Phrasal “mickey mousing” arises through cadential synchronization, as shown in an analysis of Korngold’s Robin Hood. The subtonic half cadence is strongly linked with a specific film genre: the Western. Through analysis of Jerome Moross’s subtonic-saturated scores and subsequent adapted and abstracted usages, I show the value of the generic approach to style-based analysis. Lastly, I inspect the chromatically modulating cadential resolution (CMCR): the strategy of initiating a diatonic cadence in one key only for the dominant to discharge onto the tonic of a chromatically related key. Through a variety of intrinsic and contextual traits describable by linear, transformational, and cognitive models, I explain the strong association of CMCRs with cinematic evocations of wonderment. This is illustrated through a case study of Williams’s Jurassic Park.