Analysis of chromatic mediant relationship in film music score with Neo-Riemannian theory

Abstract

Film has influenced the public as an important cultural form since the 20th century, and film music, as an integral part of film, plays an important role in shaping its content. Film music was influenced by late European Romantic music, and the Hollywood film score system was established based on composers of European descent, followed by the fusion of numerous emerging musical styles, such as Jazz, Rock, and EDM, etc. The orchestral music as the main composition of the film score has a sense of aural expectation in the sound expression, which largely comes from the chromaticization of the harmonies. When analyzing Hollywood film music, it is inevitable that chromatic harmony progression cannot be accurately expressed by traditional tonal music analysis. This study analyzes the chromatic harmony progression of chromatic mediant relationship in the film scores of four composers from the perspective of neo-Riemannian theory. And the correlation between the four sets of transformations and chromatically harmonic progression, H transformation, PL transformation, LP transformation, and RP transformation, is derived from the comparative analysis of neo-Riemannian theory and chromatic mediant relationship. These transformations have deepened the negative emotions of angst and fear or the positive emotions of grandeur and sacredness in film narratives. Exploring and expanding the use of neo-Riemannian theory in film music analysis has positive implications for the development of film music by demonstrating the rationality, accuracy, and intuitiveness of neo-Riemannian theory in the process of film musicology.