My name is Brad Hennessy. I'm 22 years old, I am from The Liberties, Dublin 8, and I've just finished my final year of Creative Music Production at IADT! Throughout this course, I've been given the opportunity to work on many different projects and develop lots of beneficial skills, some completely new to me. For my final year, I decided to concentrate on advancing my compositional skills, which is the area of music I enjoy most and am most interested in. My final project reflects this interest and attempts to improve my knowledge of composing for emotion.
This paper explores how melodic structure influences emotional response in recent movie scores. The research explores the intricate connection between music and emotions within film by combining quantitative data and theoretical analysis. It starts by examining survey results that show how specific melodic features affect responses among participants.
The research then goes on to analyse selected film scores in detail. This analysis explains how composers use techniques strategically to evoke emotions and enhance the storyline of films. For example, composers use repetition and variation to deepen connections over time, orchestration and instrumentation to create emotional atmospheres, and contrast and certain melodic contours to convey many different emotional experiences.
By combining insights from both quantitative data and theoretical analysis, compared against the previous literature, this research offers a thorough understanding of how melodic structure impacts emotional response in film scores.