Mood Motif: Difference between revisions

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Sound and music are significant in storytelling to help the viewer grasp the personalities, moods or locales in which the story takes place.

[[Leitmotif~~|Leitmotifs~~]] are usually used to identify a character. [[Regional Riff~~|Regional Riffs~~]] are to give the listener an audio cue to the location of their story, and Mood Motifs are to help set the tone of the sequence. You may also find [[Standard Snippet~~|Standard Snippets~~]] traveling in tandem with the instruments common to this trope.

[[Leitmotif]]s are usually used to identify a character. [[Regional Riff]]s are to give the listener an audio cue to the location of their story, and Mood Motifs are to help set the tone of the sequence. You may also find [[Standard Snippet]]s traveling in tandem with the instruments common to this trope.

Here we're exploring Mood Motif - and the musical instruments that seem inexorably linked to certain moods and situations. Most of these are fairly ancient connections, often dating back to [[Opera]].

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*** Heard on ''[[The Price Is Right]]'', ''Blockbusters'', ''[[Card Sharks]]'' and a few other [[Mark Goodson]] shows, when a contestant loses a game.

*** Also heard on ''[[Sesame Street]]'' when a skit ends with Muppets who shake their heads and sob, such as when the Beautiful Day Monster ate the ukulele Ernie had just repaired..

** [[Proud Warrior Race Guy~~|Proud Warrior Race Guys~~]]

** [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]s

*** The Klingon Theme from ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture|Star Trek the Motion Picture]]'' is mostly elegant horns.

** Wacky

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*** The [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]] in the "Sister Sledgehammer" episode of ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]''

*** The "Here goes no mercy" moment at the end of "Slipping" in ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]''

*** The moment in ''[[Deep Impact]]'' where Jenny hits the net to find out what ELE ~~is -- and~~ discovers it stands for Extinction Level Event, thus making her understand why the White House willing to go to extremes to keep it secret.

*** The moment in ''[[Deep Impact]]'' where Jenny hits the net to find out what ELE is—and discovers it stands for Extinction Level Event, thus making her understand why the White House willing to go to extremes to keep it secret.

** Romantic Strings

*** That classic sound found now only in old films, complete with the [[Gaussian Girl|diffuse closeup of our leading damsel]]

*** Also invariably features in the middle portion of any 70s procedural TV show opening theme

** Strings that sound like animals

*** ''[[Batman|Batman Returns]]'' had the [[Mood Motif]] of strings evoking cats for Catwoman.

*** ''[[Batman|Batman Returns]]'' had the Mood Motif of strings evoking cats for Catwoman.

*** Flight Of The Bumblebee is the definitive string riff on invoking insects.

** There's a shrieky, staccato violin riff for 'ahh, get it off me, get it off me' creepy crawlies that are coming to do terrible things to us.

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* '''The Harpsichord of:'''

** [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|Beethoven]]

** [[Evil Brit~~|Evil Brits~~]] and other [[Blue Blood~~|Blue Bloods~~]] in [[Swashbuckler~~|Swashbucklers~~]], [[Historical Fiction]]

** [[Evil Brit]]s and other [[Blue Blood]]s in [[Swashbuckler]]s, [[Historical Fiction]]

** Japanese [[Elegant Gothic Lolita|Gothic Lolitas]]

** Snooty rich people/royalty/decadence

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* '''The Choir of Uplifting Inspiration'''

** The [[Sting]]

** Subverted and [[Lampshaded]] at the end of ''[[Airplane!]]'' when the choir gets more and more ~~obvious -- louder~~, higher, and with overarticulated vowels, finally ending in a screech.

** Subverted and [[Lampshaded]] at the end of ''[[Airplane!]]'' when the choir gets more and more obvious—louder, higher, and with overarticulated vowels, finally ending in a screech.

* '''[[One-Woman Wail]]'''

* '''Human Whistling of:'''

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*** ''[[Mars Attacks!]]''

** Ghostly Spookiness

*** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Flushed Away]]'' ~~-- Roddy~~ is frightened in the [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]], and hears the eerie theremin noise. When he turns around, he sees [[Sorry I Left the BGM On|musical slugs providing the appropriate Mood Motif]].

*** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Flushed Away]]''—Roddy is frightened in the [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]], and hears the eerie theremin noise. When he turns around, he sees [[Sorry I Left the BGM On|musical slugs providing the appropriate Mood Motif]].

*** There's a ''[[Pink Panther]]'' cartoon in which the titular cat is bedeviled by ghosts. So the Pink Panther's theme music is played on theremin to illustrate the spooky ghosts.

** [[Mad Scientist|Mad Science]]

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== Composers ==

{{quote|These composers have a certain [[Mood Motif]] that is a kind of auditory trademark in their music.}}

{{quote|These composers have a certain Mood Motif that is a kind of auditory trademark in their music.}}

* [[Danny Elfman]]

** [[Mood Motif]]: Ominous, Spooky, Wacky

** Mood Motif: Ominous, Spooky, Wacky

*** ''[[Batman (film)|Batman]]'', ''[[Beetlejuice]]''

* [[John Williams]]

** [[Mood Motif]]: High Adventure

** Mood Motif: High Adventure

*** ''[[Star Wars]]'', ''[[Indiana Jones]]'', and... ''[[NBC]]''(as well as [[Seven Network|Channel Seven]]) News

*** [[Two Words]]: ''[[Steven Spielberg]]''. Basically every single movie he has done has been scored by [[John Williams]]!

* [[James Horner]]

** [[Mood Motif]]: Battle Crescendo, Heroism

** Mood Motif: Battle Crescendo, Heroism

*** ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'', ''[[Krull]]''

* [[Randy Newman]]

** [[Mood Motif]]: Whimsical

** Mood Motif: Whimsical

*** The ''[[Toy Story]]'' movies, and several other [[Pixar]] vehicles.

*** ''[[Princess and The Frog]]''

*** ''[[Monk]]'' Series 2 onwards.

* Guy Moon

** [[Mood Motif]]: Whimsically Thematic Retro

** Mood Motif: Whimsically Thematic Retro

*** ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'', retro fifties

*** ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', ghostly rock with rap

*** ''[[Yin Yang Yo!|Yin Yang Yo]]'', [[wikipedia:Asian Riff|Asian Riff]] with rock

* [[Hans Zimmer]]

** [[Mood Motif]]: Battle Crescendo, Heroism

** Mood Motif: Battle Crescendo, Heroism

*** ''[[Gladiator]]'', ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', ''[[The Lion King]]'', ''[[Inception]]'', ''[[The Rock]]'', ''[[Black Hawk Down]]'', ''[[The Thin Red Line]]''

* [[Nobuo Uematsu]]

** [[Mood Motif]]: Melancholy, Hope, Defiance, [[One-Winged Angel]]

** Mood Motif: Melancholy, Hope, Defiance, [[One-Winged Angel]]

*** ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', ''[[Lost Odyssey]]'', ''The Black Mages''

* Howard Shore

** [[Mood Motif]]: Epic Adventure

** Mood Motif: Epic Adventure

*** ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''