Howard Ashman, Musical theatre and Emotional Transitioning
Howard Ashman joined Disney in 1986 as a creative director and lyricist, his first big project was ‘The little Mermaid’ (1989). Ashman’s work on this project begun what is now referred to Disney’s golden age. His unique influence on the animated film genre was derived from his musical theatre background. Firstly, he reworked the traditional methodology for writing the films. He identified emotional states the characters needed to experience, wrote incredibly strong songs based on these emotions, then wrote the story to connect the songs.
The most important thing ashman brought to Disney’s animated films however, in my opinion, is an appreciation for diegetic music and emotional intensities. Howard ashman identifies this problem in a lecture he gave to the staff at Disney:
‘songs on the soundtrack, (are) as if the narrator is saying something, as if the narrator is going oooo oooo oooo staying alive staying alive. Who is singing that right ? (crowd laughs) But if you take it seriously and look at the structure, who is singing that is God out there, who is singing that is the narrator’s voice. Who is singing that is the film maker making a comment.’
(Howard Ashman from video by Sideways, 2019)
Ashman recognised the contextual and emotional distance between soundtrack and character, by making the music diegetic and placed within the narrative he allows the audience to better connect with the characters and empathise.
The last musical theatre inspired influence Ashman brought to the little mermaid was seamless transitions of emotional intensity. A common adage in musical theatre is if the emotion is too strong for speech then you sing, if its too strong for song then you dance. A valuable aspect of this is that it allows for a gradual rise of emotional intensity, keeping the audience on the journey. Much like a frog in a pot of gradually heating up water, the audience don’t notice the change until it’s too late. Morbid analogy i know but i feel it illustrates the point exactly.
It also seems that the seamlessness of the transition is directly linked to the level of intensity, like a damn that has to burst. The breaking of the damn if not forced by the film maker, but the emotional pressure, making it feel more natural.
‘The single most important key to making it work is, of course, rooted in the emotion of the moment. The more honest, earned, and believable the emotion of the character, and the more that emotion carries with it the need to expand in some way, the more the transition to singing will seem not merely necessary, but theatrically exciting’
(Haagensen , 2019)
It’s this concept of seamless transitioning of emotional intensity that draws my attention, i would like to find a way to achieve this outside of a musical theatre context. I would like to create a diegetic score, but diegetically link the music through means of material rather than a character’s voice.
Bibliography:
Haagensen , E. (no date) Moving emotionally from speech to song – backstage. Available at: https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/moving-emotionally-speech-song-32284/ (Accessed: September 15, 2022).
The problem with Tarzan (2019) YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/rMJ8FyQiM4Y (Accessed: September 14, 2022).