This musical score was composed by Joseph Bishara for a horror movie called insidious. For a little context this film is about a house being haunted by a Demon, the music reflects heavily on this ghostly theme through it’s choice of instrumentation and arrangement.
This composition is structured in a A section and B section musical structure, the key this music is written in a minor key to communicate negative and fearful emotion through the tone of the key signature. The opening instrument in this composition is a violin using techniques such as sul ponticello and tremolo, this emits a screechy and haunting tone from the instrument instantly creating a haunting soundscape in the music. The main melody of the A section is being played by a piano which is subtle in the mix of the composition, the melody on the piano often staggers and misses notes creating an in perfect piano melody. The reverberant tone of the piano creates a haunting atmosphere that echoes through music creating a creepy theme within the music. The cello’s droning bass notes subtly lurk beneath the instrumentation of the music, the droning cello creates an ominous atmosphere within the music suggesting something bad is going to happen within the musical theme. The harmony of this section comes from 2 dissonant violins that create a evil harmonic tone to the music. These 2 violins both play a high pitch tremolo which creates an atmosphere of instability as the notes constantly wobble in pitchy, the harsh tones from the high pitches also radiate a aggressive and evil tone through the high harmonics of the 2 violins. A string instrument on occasion mimics the pulse of a heart beat through a pizzicato rhythm, this reflects on the fear the ghost may bring to the victims it encounters and the heartbeat is a symbol of their fear.
Over the corrupted instrumentation there is a sound effect similar to that of a wooden wind chime or dream catcher in the wind. This lingering sound effect sounds unnatural and out of place within the music creating an unsettling and disturbing atmosphere of uncertainty within the music as there is no clear explanation to why it is there. Another instrument that seems out of place is another violin instrument that plays a delicate melody in the music, this delicacy contrasts very heavily with the demonic tones of the other instruments in the music. This violin instrumental has a emotion theme of loss and pain in comparison to the other instruments which evoke fear through the instrumentals. This blend of beautiful and emotional instrumentals along with evil instrumentals highlights a theme of uncertainty within the music, this is because the music is showing positive and negative emotions through the instrumentation so that audience does not know where the music is going to go next in terms of structure. This unbalanced theme could also be reflecting on the spirit of the ghost and it’s history, for example it could be telling us this spirit has a emotional and troubled past which has lead to the evil malevolent entity it is know.
40 seconds into the music we reach the B section, this is where a pounding bass instrumental takes the foreground of the music. But before this bass comes in a scraping sound effect comes in which resembles a similar sound to a metal scrape. This indicates a danger within the music as metal and scrapes are often associated with aggressive actions due it’s rough tone and harmonics, this may be a reflection on the ghosts evil intentions of enforcing harm on someone. The bass then comes in which plays in a constant rhythm of 1/4 notes, this bass clearly is a representation of a human heart beat. This bass line seems to be inspired by the 2 notes used in the Jaws theme which indicates the threat of danger is close within the music. The fast heart rate in this music tells us that the threat of danger is close. this builds suspense and mystery in the music as we do not know what to expect. When this bass line comes in other instruments in the music play more haunted instrumentals reflecting on the close presence of the ghost. For example through the violin an image of a rusty rocking swing or chair is recreated through choice of articulation and instrumentation. The screech is created by a violin playing a sul ponticello technique which reflects on the sound of rusty metal or creaky wood, this rhythm of the rocking of the swing or chair is recreated through the sharp bowing of string which resembles a rocking rhythm.
The piano plays a detuned cluster of notes with almost random rhythms which are unpredictable without close inspection. When listening to this music the detune of the piano creates a haunting and ominous atmosphere within the music, while the random cluster of notes creates an unsettling them of unpredictability. To create depth within the music string instruments such as violins and cellos drone in the background of the music creating an ominous theme. These instruments harmonise with each other with clear dissonant presence creating a disturbing and evil tone though the harmony, the low attack speeds of these strings create a ominous and lingering tone creating suspense in the music.
Around 1 min 2o the C section begins as many instruments drop out, the bass line stays in the music allowing the theme of close danger to stay within the music. A very subtle cello lies beneath the music creating depth and holding onto the ominous tone of the instrument. The violin plays a dissonant and horrifying harmony which pulsates in dynamics, every bar this chord expands to create a bigger cluster of dissonant notes. A similar technique was used in score for the shower scene in Physco, in this score the dissonant chord was increased by more notes after each bar. This eventually leads to a cluster of dissonant notes which creates a horrifying shriek through the music. As the chord in the Insidious composition increases after 3 or 4 bars all the instrumentation except for the violin drops out, eventually the violin drops out creating a moment of silence within the music. This silence creates a horrifying theme of the unknown, darkness and suspense this is because we are left in the dark and we do not know what is coming next in the music.
After the brief silence in the music all the string instruments begin to create a horrifying theme of music using glissando, this technique has been used in many ghost movies to reflect on the presence of the spectre and the action of levitation and floating objects. A violin playing a very glissando at a very high pitch range creates aggressive and harsh tones making the music sound threatening and scary. All the string instruments using glissando creates a disorientating and confusing environment as we do not know which instrument to focus on. The reverb on the strings creates a haunting presence as the glissando notes echoes through or speakers or headphones.
Next in the music a terrifying sound which is similar to cans being dropped creates a shocking sound within the music, this unexpected sound creates a atmosphere of shock, disbelief and fear which passes onto the listener. This may reflect on being in contact with the ghost and the influence it has on the environment around them. At this point in the music we are being bombarded with disturbing sounds such as distorted bass glides, scratched strings and heavily plucked strings. The distorted bass being played with glissando (glide) creates a disturbing and evil presence within the music that engulfs the music in a strong dark presence. The plucked strings reflect on a theme of aggression and rage as the hard pluck of the instrument creates a sharp and sudden punch in the music. The scratched strings are being used to create a haunting theme of disturbance and paranormal behaviour, this is because in films ghost hauntings often show signs of scratching to scare people.
Before the final section of music plays a deep distorted atmospheric bass sound effect that plays a glissando down to a very low pitch. This reflects on the action of seeing a disturbing image, which in this movie may be seeing the ghost in it’s true form. This can be represented the feeling of your heart dropping in a state of fear or shock which we all may can relate to in our lives. After this glissando drop the music once again drops into silence creating another short moment of tension. This time the music is more intense as the bass drop creates a atmosphere in the music which resembles falling into a state of fear or shock, therefore the listeners expect to hear horrifying sounds and instrumentals to reflect on this theme of fear. From this silence a scratching sound effect plays, this sounds like a violin string being scratched close to it’s bridge which creates a haunting sound within the music of disturbance. An echo delay plays off of the sound creating space within the music in result adding more depth to the composition.
The music then plays a high pitch to low pitch glissando further emphasising the feeling of fear and horror. At the end of the glissando the strings create a deep scraping sound (similar to that of a rubber on a desk and creaking doors) which eventually brings the string to a halt. Before each glissando ends another string instrument plays another, this technique repeats eventually creating a cluster of glissando and scrape sounds in the music. These sounds emit a disturbing presence through the music, haunting the music with sounds of pitch bending strings and a various amount of scraping sounds. On top of these instruments the music also has sounds of plucked strings and tremolos to further enhance the tone of instability and messiness in the music. All of the instruments and sounds create a non-linear and dissonant sound which evokes fear and horror through the music. The high pitch of the glissando replicates the sound of a scream adding more depth to the theme of fear and horror in the music. After a while the glissando and jumble of sounds fade away while a plucked bass line enters the music. The bass line eventually stops to ring out one singular note that rises in pitch with the technique of a tremolo, this creates a wobbling effect in the riser which creates an instable atmosphere in the music. The rising pitch of the instrument build up suspense in the music as we do not know what is coming next.
In the outro to the music a cluster of sustained dissonant piano notes rings out in the music. This chord is played in the fashion of a piano slam, this articulation of the chord creates a aggressive theme in the music as it is slammed without care. The chord it’s self is very disturbing and haunting due to it’s dissonance which vibrates through the soundscape of the music. Along side the piano a sound effect of metal screeching creates a ominous presence in the music. At the end of the music a sound effect of a human cough or sneeze (panned in right ear) with delay is used as a form of a musical jump scare. This is because we expect the music to be over and the cough panned in our ear makes it sound like someone is next to us. This tries to scare the listener by tricking them to think the music is over.
This music acts as the central musical theme for the ghost in the movie of Insidious, therefore the music tries to personify this character through the compositions structure and instrumentation. The harsh and rusted tones of the strings represent the evil presence the ghost has and its old presence in the house’s history. The use of glissando’s represent the terror the ghost brings to those it encounters in the film does this very accurately .
Reading List
DemonzNight, 2011. Insidious Theme. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1TFVS23z7g> [Accessed 16 June 2021].