Jennifer (Kaiyin) Yang 12/02/2013

Word Count: 799

Synopsis of UP
The movie up is about an old man trying to fulfill his

dream he had with his deceased wife that had been married to him for over 5 decades. Their dream was to tie tons of balloons to their house and relocate it to the top of paradise fall by cruising it as if it was a hot air balloon. However, on the way, he meets numerous obstacles some having him to be running intensely away from the antagonist of the story. On the way, he meets a boy scout and a talking dog which joins him on his journey. There are a lot of different ups and downs in the movie. Some sad parts were when his wife of many years died and when his house was set on fire. On the other hand, some of the joyful parts of the movie are when the old man accepted the dog as his pet and when they first land across Paradise Fall.

Guideline (Colors of Text)

Structural analysis
Contextual explanation Musical features

Use of specific instruments, scales and modes

How the music was used to convey emotion, character,

time, place and atmosphere

Introduction
The soundtracks of Up were composed by Michael

Gicchino in 2009. Throughout the whole movie, there appears to be a lot of repetitions and variations of the main theme of this movie (figure below). The catchy tune appears several times throughout the movie, each time with a scene of a different emotion, atmosphere, time and place. It is composed in the form of waltz with a time signature of 3/4. With the choices of different textures, dynamics, articulations, tempos, tonalities and instruments each time, a different feeling is being conveyed and they successfully depict the scenes. Some of the soundtracks that the repetitions and variations of the main theme appear in are: 'We're in the Club Now', 'Married Life', 'Carl Goes Up', 'Stuff We Did' and 'It's Just a House'.

Start from: 0:15

Were in the Club Now

In the soundtrack Were in the Club Now, the melody is made up

of many staccato notes (shown below). This is to depict Carls nervous but excited emotions of having the idea of establishing a new friendship with Ellie. The tempo of moderato expresses Carls cautiousness of taking every new step. As the focus of this movie is on Carl instead of Ellie, the shyness of Carl is conveyed through the dynamic of mezzo piano. This dynamic suggests that Carl is ambivalent of whether he should open up to Ellie or not. The polyphonic texture of this soundtrack suggests that there are two characters with very different personalities in this scene. The instruments used here are piano, muted trumpet and clarinet.

Carl Goes Up
Carl Goes Up functions as the music to support the scene of

which Carl sets off and starts to fly away from the city towards Paradise Fall. The thick texture of this piece expresses Carls ambitious and determined idea of reaching his final destination, Paradise Fall. The leading instrument throughout this piece is the cello, which is the instrument that gives it the thick texture, while supported by the violin. This is a variation modulated to C Major and possesses monophonic melodies made up of legato notes. The monophonic melody suggests that Carl is now only focused on one thing, which is to reach his goal.

Stuff We Did
One of the saddest scenes of the movie is being supported by the

soundtrack Stuff We Did. When Carl starts going through the old photos of him and Ellie, at first a sudden feeling of sadness floods in. However, as he sees photos of them laughing together and sharing the joy, he senses a soothing emotion and understands that Ellie will never and has never really left him. This message is conveyed through the texture of the piece. It progresses from a monophonic melody to a polyphonic melody. It resembles Carls loneliness and the comforting feeling he gets afterwards. The piece is played in adante and piano as those features carry out the peacefulness of this scene.

Incorporating These Ideas into My Composition

The same ideas mentioned above can also be incorporated into

my film music composition for Tangled Ever After. My composition will mostly be built up of polyphonic melodies, as a constant chaos is happening throughout the whole video. There would also be a lot of repetitions of the main theme appearing. This is to keep the consistency of the relationship between the film and the soundtrack. The tempo of the piece would be allegro as everything is occurring very fast in the video and that it also has a light, playful and naughty atmosphere and emotion. The instrument used to portray the chameleon would be the violin because it has a thin texture which depicts the liveliness quality of it. As for the horse, it will be portrayed by the clarinet because it has a higher pitch than other brass instruments which contributes to showing the energy of the horse. Also, the sound it makes sounds a bit like when horses are neighing.

Bibliography
Hal.Leonard. Up - Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack - Piano Solo Songbook. Victoria, Australia: Hal Leonard, 2009. Print.
Pixar. Up (2009). Digital image. Rants. Blogspot, 1 May 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. <http://rantsofadegenerate.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-up-sucks.html>. "Up (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture)." ITunes. Apple, 26 May 2009. Web.

17 Feb. 2013. <https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/up-soundtrack-frommotion/id316618105>.