From the course: Introduction to Music in Film and Video

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Background music and more: Examining the non-diegetic score

Background music and more: Examining the non-diegetic score

From the course: Introduction to Music in Film and Video

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Background music and more: Examining the non-diegetic score

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- We talked about the power of music in film with regard to many different musical strategies. Now in this movie and in the next one, we're gonna break down different types of music cues that can exist in film and talk about how each functions. Here, we'll delve into non-diegetic music and in the next movie, we'll discuss diegetic music. Now simply put, non-diegetic music is music that does not emerge from within the world of a film. That is, the characters can't hear it. Instead, it's there for the benefit of the audience to emotionally shape the film. This is what we traditionally think of in terms of most types of film score. Now, the score is made up of various orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues. And cues are specifically timed to begin and end at certain points within the film, right down to the frame. There are several types of non-diegetic music cues that we can talk about. First, there's the type that you probably think of first when you think of film…

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