The idea of the impact of music is obviously very important for the creation of an audience. it is, after all, a call to arms, a herald letting us know what is about to happen: the show is beginning.
Music is an important part of the overall mise-en-scene. Where would this scene [this film?] be without it?
We have a very deep understanding of what music is doing, and it's very physical.
There is a psychology / physiology in all of this. Thriller and horror films, which employ dissonant, screeching sounds we unconsciously associate with animals in distress are very good at this.
A 2010 study by the University of California found that human sensitivity to non-linear alarm sounds, such as ones made by groundhogs to warn about predators, is being employed by film composers to unsettle and unnerve.
In films like Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho, straining strings and overblowing brass are mimicking the noise of panic in nature.
For audiences who enjoy a lush romantic score, a 2011 experiment at Canada's McGill University studied the neural mechanics of why humans get goosebumps from great tunes.
Far from being a purely aural experience, scans suggested that the regions of the brain that light up with music are those linked to euphoric stimuli such as food, sex and drugs.
Blood flow in the brain is responding to areas associated with reward, emotion and arousal.
Science writer Philip Ball, author of The Music Instinct, says soundtracks can produce the same reaction in us whether the music is good or bad.
"Our response to certain kinds of noise is something so profound in us that we can't switch it off," he says.
"Film composers know that and use it to shortcut the logical part of our brain and get straight to the emotional centres."
Some filmmakers are now using infrasound to induce fear in audiences. These extreme bass waves or vibrations have a frequency below the range of the human ear.
While we may not be able to hear infrasound, it has been demonstrated to induce anxiety, extreme sorrow, heart palpitations and shivering.
Naturally-occurring infrasound has been associated with areas of 'supernatural activity', as well as being produced prior to natural disasters such as storms and earthquakes.
Producers of the 2002 French psychological thriller Irreversible admitted to using this technique.
Audience members reported feeling disorientated and physically ill after just half an hour of infrasound, leaving before the most shocking visual sequence on screen.
In the 2007 horror Paranormal Activity, audiences also reported toweringly high fear levels despite a lack of action onscreen. It is believed this was caused by the use of low frequency sound waves.
If we are in any doubts let's look at a classic sound / audience response sequence more famous even that Jaws and it's cellos. Hitchcock's violins.
To have a final thought - here is the same scene but each time with different emotional cues for the audience, However we 'see' it, the music does have a defining impact that overrides all other responses.
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