Why Comedy and Magic Share One Module
Welcome to this module on mastering musical emotions, with a particular focus on comedy. Unlike the previous modules, where the emotions we explored were fairly consistent from one lesson to the next, we're entering more varied and occasionally scattered territory here. Comedy and magic aren't intrinsically linked, but I've grouped them together for several reasons:
- Personal experience. Having worked on children's and young-audience series, I often combined comedy and magic elements. That lets me show you musical techniques that serve both contexts.
- Keeping the module count sane. There's no point fragmenting the course into an endless list of narrow styles. At this stage it's more useful to understand that a lot of musical techniques cut across genres and styles.
- Emotions are subjective. What music conveys varies from one person to the next. What matters is being in sync with what the director feels.
Clichés and Techniques
We'll also look at a few musical clichés along the way. The harp glissando, for instance, used through the sixties to signal a flashback or a dream, has become a stereotype. Use it with judgment or it reads as a cliché. Comedy has its own version: Mickey Mousing, where the music imitates the action on screen. That's often appropriate for children's cartoons, but it can feel excessive elsewhere, in a TV movie for example.
The Techniques We'll Explore
- Harp glissando, to suggest magical transitions or memories.
- Mickey Mousing, where the music follows the comic action on screen precisely.
- Instrument choices: harp, celesta, and the other instruments associated with magic.
- Harmonics and tremolos, string techniques for building mystical atmospheres.
- Comedy rhythms and melodies, the musical structures that support comic timing and punchlines.
What You'll Take Away
The point of this module is to have you practice and understand how music can shape and reinforce the comic and magical elements of a scene.