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I was totally kick-arse in Music and Gender today. Dr Sun used three of the points I brought up in class, not only saying they were good points, but then agreeing with them and using them as starters for Serious Discussions.
This may seem like a pretty dorky reason to post, but shhhhh! I've been shouted down in class several times, being the only one there to think a certain way about some of the topics and arguments (even once today, but I stood my ground as always), so being comended for my input was pretty damn good. Especially seeing as we've got our first assessment due tomorrow. It's a CD/DVD/Concert/Film review, looking at the (de)construction/performance of gender through music, and I'm doing mine on Pan's Labyrinth. It's supposed to be pretty informal, I've just realised, but I can go through and dumb it down a bit once I've finished. I just felt like posting some of it here... ok, all of it so far. It's about 1000 words of the required 1350/1500, and I've still got some things I want to add about the main theme, but it's nearly there.
Just before I post it, though, I noticed Amy's "Readability Tester" post and thought I'd run my review through it. Apparently, you need to have been formally schooled for about 15.52 years to easily understand it the first time through.
I guess that's about right, though, seeing as I've had 13 years of school and 2 years of university...
Oh, and there are a couple of spoilerish bits, so... you know, beware. I really suggest watching this movie if you can. It is just... wow. Seriously.
Pan’s Labyrinth; A Heroine’s Journey Home
Guillermo Del Toro’s masterpiece, Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto Del Fauno), winner of three Academy Awards, is likely the most simultaneously heart-warming and heart-wrenching tale of our time. It is the story of a young girl’s coming of age in fascist Spain, her loss of innocence to a cruel world, and her journey through mortality to her rightful place in the Underground Realm. After the death of her father and her mother's remarrying, our female lead, the young Ofelia, is whisked away to her new home with her new “father”, Captain Vidal, along with her mother Carmen and unborn brother. But her journey does not end with her arrival, as there she finds a faun, his three fairies, and a labyrinth whose heart can return her to her true home. While this is most certainly a fairytale, it is not, however, for children; Captain Vidal, in his portrayal of the overtly masculine “wolf” archetype, brings so much death and pain into the film that one almost forgets it is a tale of fantasy. The entire film can therefore be seen as a struggle between childlike feminine innocence, the need to find typically-male strength in feminine form, and masculine paternal cruelty.
The music in Pan’s Labyrinth is used to stunning effect. The central theme, the melody of Mercedes’ Lullaby, runs throughout the tale, springing up in almost every piece on the soundtrack in some form or another. This melody ties the entire film together, bringing every action and interaction, every triumph and sorrow, back to the tale of the labyrinth and to Ofelia’s journey. The few pieces in which the theme does not seem to appear are mostly related to Ofelia or the labyrinth in obvious ways anyway, such as in conveying and reinforcing the various environments of her three trials.
Not only does the music help convey story, but throughout the film it helps convey character as well. Some individuals and groups have certain instruments or ensembles attached to them, lending specific qualities to the characters. Ofelia, for example, is often represented by a lone violin, while the Captain’s forces are portrayed through the macho brass fanfare and strong marching drum beat.
Ofelia is represented musically through a lone violin, often set against deeper strings and the brass section playing dark harmonies and darker dissonances. Musically, we are being told that Ofelia is a lonely girl in a man's world. The sole violin, playing its lonely melody, segregated further by its higher pitch from the rest of the instruments, tells of Ofelia’s own loneliness in life. Its first appearance is ornamented with light and fluttery flutes portraying a carefree little girl with her head in the clouds, furthered through the melody’s ascending runs and slowly looping descents. There is freedom in this melody, and is far from lonely while Ofelia still has her mother’s and unborn brother’s full attention, but it becomes more melancholy when it reappears later. The bright little girl of the violin’s melody is being slowly torn asunder by her new father’s relative disinterest in her and the frequent outbursts of his temper. However, as the violin’s happy melody dissolves, Ofelia becomes more and more spellbound by the hope of escape to her kingdom below, and in this hope grows strength. It is this strength that allows her violin to stay afloat of the sometimes chaotic deep strings and brass combination as they toil below her, representing the cruelty of Captain Vidal and his world.
Captain Vidal’s troops, however, are conveyed through the brass fanfare and drums. Their military band style is an obvious sign of assumed authority and arrogance. Though the troops do not always seem to trust their captain’s judgment, in siding with him they are instilled with his arrogance, rage, and power – unmistakably, if stereotypically, masculine traits. This is reflected in the war-like, military music: the driving march of the drum beat shows them as unstoppable in their quest for power and control; the building tensions, the need to fight and prove their worth and manliness, to both themselves and to their captain. In the piece Guerrilleros, their theme is countered by that of the guerrilla forces camping out in the woods around the Captain’s mill, showing the different sides of the masculine gender. While the guerrilla’s theme is similarly masculine, it conveys strength and determination through the string section, and is in no way military. There is none of the troops’ arrogance and self-assuredness, rather, a sense of purpose and courage; they fight because they must, for their honour and freedom and basic rights as humans, not because they crave victory or control. The use of the string section to portray the guerrilla force is significant in showing the different type of masculinity at work here, the different sides of men’s politics – it is a masculinity aligned with heroes, with justice and freedom, with bravery and goodness. And it works so well because every other essentially good person has been aligned with the string section – namely Ofelia, Carmen, and the fairies. It should be noted, too, that Captain Vidal does not actually have his own theme. But why is that? Does his lack of musical representation suggest a lack of substance? Of heart? Of soul? Or is he simply too manly for his own theme? Today, music is often seen as fundamentally feminine, especially orchestral music, so it is possible that music in general is too specifically gendered towards the feminine for the harsh captain. With this in mind, his dialogue with Mercedes after her capture should be noted:
Captain Vidal: For God’s sake, she’s just a woman.
Mercedes: That’s what you’ve always thought. That’s how I got away with it. I was
invisible to you.
From this it seems likely that Captain Vidal would not allow something so fundamentally feminine as music to sully his masculinity.
This may seem like a pretty dorky reason to post, but shhhhh! I've been shouted down in class several times, being the only one there to think a certain way about some of the topics and arguments (even once today, but I stood my ground as always), so being comended for my input was pretty damn good. Especially seeing as we've got our first assessment due tomorrow. It's a CD/DVD/Concert/Film review, looking at the (de)construction/performance of gender through music, and I'm doing mine on Pan's Labyrinth. It's supposed to be pretty informal, I've just realised, but I can go through and dumb it down a bit once I've finished. I just felt like posting some of it here... ok, all of it so far. It's about 1000 words of the required 1350/1500, and I've still got some things I want to add about the main theme, but it's nearly there.
Just before I post it, though, I noticed Amy's "Readability Tester" post and thought I'd run my review through it. Apparently, you need to have been formally schooled for about 15.52 years to easily understand it the first time through.
I guess that's about right, though, seeing as I've had 13 years of school and 2 years of university...
Oh, and there are a couple of spoilerish bits, so... you know, beware. I really suggest watching this movie if you can. It is just... wow. Seriously.
Pan’s Labyrinth; A Heroine’s Journey Home
Guillermo Del Toro’s masterpiece, Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto Del Fauno), winner of three Academy Awards, is likely the most simultaneously heart-warming and heart-wrenching tale of our time. It is the story of a young girl’s coming of age in fascist Spain, her loss of innocence to a cruel world, and her journey through mortality to her rightful place in the Underground Realm. After the death of her father and her mother's remarrying, our female lead, the young Ofelia, is whisked away to her new home with her new “father”, Captain Vidal, along with her mother Carmen and unborn brother. But her journey does not end with her arrival, as there she finds a faun, his three fairies, and a labyrinth whose heart can return her to her true home. While this is most certainly a fairytale, it is not, however, for children; Captain Vidal, in his portrayal of the overtly masculine “wolf” archetype, brings so much death and pain into the film that one almost forgets it is a tale of fantasy. The entire film can therefore be seen as a struggle between childlike feminine innocence, the need to find typically-male strength in feminine form, and masculine paternal cruelty.
The music in Pan’s Labyrinth is used to stunning effect. The central theme, the melody of Mercedes’ Lullaby, runs throughout the tale, springing up in almost every piece on the soundtrack in some form or another. This melody ties the entire film together, bringing every action and interaction, every triumph and sorrow, back to the tale of the labyrinth and to Ofelia’s journey. The few pieces in which the theme does not seem to appear are mostly related to Ofelia or the labyrinth in obvious ways anyway, such as in conveying and reinforcing the various environments of her three trials.
Not only does the music help convey story, but throughout the film it helps convey character as well. Some individuals and groups have certain instruments or ensembles attached to them, lending specific qualities to the characters. Ofelia, for example, is often represented by a lone violin, while the Captain’s forces are portrayed through the macho brass fanfare and strong marching drum beat.
Ofelia is represented musically through a lone violin, often set against deeper strings and the brass section playing dark harmonies and darker dissonances. Musically, we are being told that Ofelia is a lonely girl in a man's world. The sole violin, playing its lonely melody, segregated further by its higher pitch from the rest of the instruments, tells of Ofelia’s own loneliness in life. Its first appearance is ornamented with light and fluttery flutes portraying a carefree little girl with her head in the clouds, furthered through the melody’s ascending runs and slowly looping descents. There is freedom in this melody, and is far from lonely while Ofelia still has her mother’s and unborn brother’s full attention, but it becomes more melancholy when it reappears later. The bright little girl of the violin’s melody is being slowly torn asunder by her new father’s relative disinterest in her and the frequent outbursts of his temper. However, as the violin’s happy melody dissolves, Ofelia becomes more and more spellbound by the hope of escape to her kingdom below, and in this hope grows strength. It is this strength that allows her violin to stay afloat of the sometimes chaotic deep strings and brass combination as they toil below her, representing the cruelty of Captain Vidal and his world.
Captain Vidal’s troops, however, are conveyed through the brass fanfare and drums. Their military band style is an obvious sign of assumed authority and arrogance. Though the troops do not always seem to trust their captain’s judgment, in siding with him they are instilled with his arrogance, rage, and power – unmistakably, if stereotypically, masculine traits. This is reflected in the war-like, military music: the driving march of the drum beat shows them as unstoppable in their quest for power and control; the building tensions, the need to fight and prove their worth and manliness, to both themselves and to their captain. In the piece Guerrilleros, their theme is countered by that of the guerrilla forces camping out in the woods around the Captain’s mill, showing the different sides of the masculine gender. While the guerrilla’s theme is similarly masculine, it conveys strength and determination through the string section, and is in no way military. There is none of the troops’ arrogance and self-assuredness, rather, a sense of purpose and courage; they fight because they must, for their honour and freedom and basic rights as humans, not because they crave victory or control. The use of the string section to portray the guerrilla force is significant in showing the different type of masculinity at work here, the different sides of men’s politics – it is a masculinity aligned with heroes, with justice and freedom, with bravery and goodness. And it works so well because every other essentially good person has been aligned with the string section – namely Ofelia, Carmen, and the fairies. It should be noted, too, that Captain Vidal does not actually have his own theme. But why is that? Does his lack of musical representation suggest a lack of substance? Of heart? Of soul? Or is he simply too manly for his own theme? Today, music is often seen as fundamentally feminine, especially orchestral music, so it is possible that music in general is too specifically gendered towards the feminine for the harsh captain. With this in mind, his dialogue with Mercedes after her capture should be noted:
Mercedes: That’s what you’ve always thought. That’s how I got away with it. I was
invisible to you.
From this it seems likely that Captain Vidal would not allow something so fundamentally feminine as music to sully his masculinity.
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music & gender- run by music, or gender studies?
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run by music
on a sidenote: have you noticed the Recent Publications window in Woolley in the sitting area? Have you noticed that all the "recent publications" are about Old English, and Medieval religion "in the long-term", and other such historically inclined (and therefore not so recent, topically speaking) topics?
I did.
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