With sound design becoming more of an appreciated form of expression and as a form of art, this essay will focus on how sound has evolved within the last century.
From the age early silent movies of pre-1920, to the celebration of video game music as a form of entertainment in itself, sound has perhaps been one of the most overlooked forms of art until recent years. Sound is not something you can see like a film that it may accompany, nor is it a sculpture that you can touch. But, sound can touch people. Sound has the ability to transform comedy into drama and silence into a moment to savour. It acts as punctuation to the events on screen and gives the audience a more immersive experience that simply cannot be replicated with visuals alone.
A similar immersion is now becoming more important within video games. While 40 years ago, video games were only filled with bleeps and bloops for sound effects, in more modern games, sound takes on a much more important role. Once reserved exclusively for more high brow classical music, full orchestral symphonies are now being employed in games in a similar way to which they’re employed in movies. In a 2007 interview with Garry Schyman, composer of 2K’s Bioshock soundtrack, he states:
“I think I came up with something pretty unique for this score by combining various styles of composition. Styles like aleatoric (orchestral players asked to improvise very eerie and scary sounds on their instruments within very defined specs)…solo instruments such as violin and cello… [and] musique concrete, which use sounds from the real world mixed in as musical elements…We really were going for the early 20th century classical sound and that worked very well for the score…” (Music 4 Games, 2007)
Due to this eclectic method of music creation, Schyman won Best Original Score at Spike TV’s 2007 Video Game Awards (Music 4 Games, 2007). This use of movie-calibre quality music is becoming more prevalent as the games industry realises that by including a richer soundtrack with their game, it adds value to it in a way which improved visuals can’t.
Movies have included such soundtracks for many years, but, just like video games, sound also has another role other than music. Without sound design, there would be no roar of a spaceship passing by on screen and there would be no noises coming from the control panels on board. Shots fired from a gun would sound empty and explosions would sound much less exciting than films want their audience to experience. Just like music, sound effects have an important role in making the audience feel part of the action. It adds a sense of realism and an increased level of interaction between what’s happening on screen and what the audience expects to hear.
This essay will explore how aural entertainment is integral to visual entertainment and how without it, we would still be watching silent movies 90 years on from when they first began.
Bibliography
(12th August, 2007). "Bioshock wins Best Original Score at 2007 Spike TV Video Game Awards." Retrieved 19th December, 2007, 2007, from http://www.music4games.net/News_Display.aspx?id=787.
(10th December, 2007). "Silent Film." Retrieved 19th December, 2007, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_films.
(2007, 16th July, 2007). "Interview with Bioshock composer Garry Schyman." Retrieved 19th December, 2007, 2007, from http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=156.
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