Post on 16-Oct-2021
“Missed Connections:” Music in Narrative Continuity of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe (2008 –2016)
by
Bryce N. Biffle, B.M.
A Thesis
In
Musicology
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF MUSIC
Approved
Dr. Thomas Cimarusti
Chair of Committee
Dr. Angela Mariani
Dr. Peter Martens
Dr. Robert Peaslee
Mr. Robert Weiner
Mark Sheridan
Dean of the Graduate School
August 2016
© 2016, Bryce N. Biffle
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This document would not have been made possible without the support and
guidance of my Masters thesis committee. The dedication of Dr. Thomas Cimarusti,
Dr. Angela Mariani, Dr. Peter Martens, Dr. Rob Peaslee, and Mr. Rob Weiner to
affirming my enthusiasm in this project.
Eternal gratitude to my friends and colleagues in the film scoring industry for
taking time out of their incredibly busy schedules to “talk shop.”
Thanks abound to my friends and colleagues who bring out my best as a
musician and scholar; not to mention tolerating the countless evenings of film scores /
movie soundtracks projected at full volume from the confines of my room.
Thanks Mom and Dad for everything. The trips to the symphony hall, the
various instrument lessons, all those movies you to which you ever took me, the travel
that broadened my sense of the World; thanks for all of it. This document would not
be possible without the past 25 years of fostering my interests and supporting my
musical development.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF MUSICAL EXCERPTS ....................................................................... v
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................. vi
I. INTRODUCTION TO THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE
AND TOPICS IN FILM MUSIC (INTRODUCTION) ..................................... 1
Introduction to the MCU ................................................................................... 1
Film music topics and scholarship .................................................................... 7
Literature review ............................................................................................. 14
Topic overview / Methodology ....................................................................... 22
II. MELODIC LEITMOTIFS OF THE AVENGERS .................................... 24
The Music of Iron Man/Tony Stark ................................................................ 24
Iron Man (2008) ........................................................................................ 25
Iron Man 2 (2010) ..................................................................................... 29
Iron Man in The Avengers (2012) ............................................................. 30
Iron Man 3 (2010) ..................................................................................... 29
Leveling the playing field: Iron Man 3 (2013) and in Avengers: Age of
Ultron (2015) ........................................................................................... 30
The Music of Captain America/Steve Rogers ................................................. 35
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) ............................................ 36
Captain America in The Avengers............................................................. 41
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and beyond ....................... 42
Post-Avengers thematic unity .......................................................................... 47
III. SOURCE MUSIC IN THE MCU ................................................................ 58
“I am Iron Man” .............................................................................................. 60
“The Star Spangled Man With A Plan” .......................................................... 65
IV. HEROIC HARMONIES .............................................................................. 68
V. CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................ 84
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 87
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Abstract
The official tagline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is “Everything is
connected.” Films recounting the heroic exploits of Iron Man, Captain America, and
their fellow Avengers are all set in the same shared universe taken from the pages of
Marvel Comics. While the film series’ visual aesthetic, recurring characters, shared
locations, and interweaving plot points (sometimes spanning both the film and
television incarnations of the MCU) exhibit explicit visual and narrative continuities,
the orchestral-based original film scores for the series lacks cohesive musical
identities, leitmotifs, as heard in other blockbuster franchises such as Star Wars,
Jurassic Park, or The Lord of the Rings. Iron Man’s musical identity was conceived
by five different composers over the course of the films from Iron Man (2008) leading
up to Captain America: Civil War (2016). The same issue pervades the Captain
America series in which Alan Silvestri’s ideas for the character as heard in Captain
America: The First Avenger (2011) and The Avengers (2012) went largely unutilized
in the subsequent films Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers:
Age of Ultron (2015).
Upon a more concise musical examination, however, patterns in melodic
contour, orchestration, harmonic content, and the functionality of popular (source)
music in the series exhibit a sense of musical unity despite lack of concrete leitmotivic
lexicon. Primarily focusing on the films featuring Captain America, Iron Man, Ant-
Man, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Avengers, this in-depth study into the
music of the Marvel Cinematic Universe seeks to present ways in which music
establishes narrative continuity outside of the norms established by Wagner and later
John Williams. Many of the musical examples therein offer the first musical analysis
of the music of the most financially successful film franchise of all time.
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LIST OF MUSICAL EXCERPTS
Ex. 1 Williams: "The Force Theme" from the Star Wars saga ............................ 2
Ex. 2 Wagner: Das Rheingold, Act I, scene 2, “Entry of the Gods into
Valhalla”.. ................................................................................................... 3
Ex. 3 Djawadi: “Themes” from Iron Man (2008) .............................................. 25
Ex. 4 Beethoveen, Wagner, and Williams: “Heroism in music” ........................ 27
Ex. 5 Debney: “Iron Man heroism” from Iron Man 2 (2010) ............................ 29
Ex. 6. Silvestri: “Iron Man theme” from The Avengers (2012)…………………30
Ex. 7 Tyler: “Theme” from Iron Man 3 (2013) ………………………………..33
Ex. 8 Djawadi, Debney, Silvestri, and Tyler: Iron Man melodic
comparisons .............................................................................................. 34
Ex. 9 Silvestri: Themes from Captain America: The First Avenger
(2011) ........................................................................................................ 38
Ex. 10 Copland and Silvestri melodic comparisons ............................................. 40
Ex. 11 Copland: Excerpt from from Appalaichan Spring .................................... 40
Ex. 12 Jackman: “Taking a Stand” from Captain America: The Winter
Soldier (2014) .......................................................................................... 45
Ex. 13 Silvestri and Jackman: Captain America melodic comparison ................ 47
Ex. 14 Silvestri: “Theme” from The Avengers (2012) ......................................... 49
Ex. 15 Elfman: "Heroes” from Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) ......................... 50
Ex. 16 Bates: “Guardians Theme” from Guardians of the Galaxy
(2014) ....................................................................................................... 51
Ex. 17 Beck: “Theme from Ant-Man” (2015) ...................................................... 52
Ex. 18 Silvestri's Avengers motif in Guardians (Bates), Ant-Man
(Beck), and Iron Man 2 (Debney) ............................................................. 54
Ex. 19 Melodic comparisons between Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” and
Ramin Djawadi’s Iron Man (2008) “heroism” theme............................... 62
Ex. 20 Silvestri: Avengers motif and chord progression ...................................... 69
Ex. 21 Tyler: “Theme” from Iron Man 3 (2013) .................................................. 70
Ex. 22 Elfman: “Heroes” from Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) ......................... 72
Ex. 23 Beck: “Theme from Ant-Man” (2015) ...................................................... 72
Ex. 24 Bates: “Guardians Theme” from Guardians of the Galaxy
(2014) ....................................................................................................... 74
Ex. 25 Djawadi: “Iron Man heroism” from Iron Man (2008) .............................. 75
Ex. 26 Silvestri: Captain America: The First Avenger (overview of
quartal and quintal harmonies) .................................................................. 77
Ex. 27 Jackman: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (overview of
quartal and quintal harmonies) ................................................................. 78
Ex. 28 Doyle: Thor (2011) and Tyler: Thor: The Dark World (2013) ................. 80
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LIST OF FIGURES
3.1 Lyrical analysis of AC/DC’s “Back in Black” as heard in Iron
Man (2008). ................................................................................... 62
3.3 Lyrics from “Star Spangled Man With A Plan” from Captain
America: The First Avenger .......................................................... 66
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE
AND TOPICS IN FILM MUSIC
I’d love to be able to have audiences see a film with the music. Then see it a
second time with the music turned off. And then see it a third time with the music
turned on again. Then they’d get a much more specific idea of what the music does for
a film. – Aaron Copland, American composer (1900-1990)1
This study into the musical fabric of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2008 –
current) will explore ways in which music – at both the diegetic and non-diegetic
level(s) – underscores and contributes to the film universe’s implied onscreen
narrative continuity despite the series’ non-adherence to systematic leitmotivic unity.
Through thorough musical analysis in conjunction with adherence to established
theoretical models in film/film music studies, one can contend that recurrent musical
phenomena such as melodic contour, harmonic content, and narrative applications of
diegetic/source music in the MCU form their own unified musical aesthetic(s) apart
from leitmotif-oriented approaches evident Star Wars or the live-action Tolkien
Middle-earth cinematic properties.2
Leitmotifs are musical gestures which aurally represent (or embody) characters,
places, objects, and ideas. The Wagnerian leitmotif – once synonymous with the lofty
operatic exploits of tragic heroes and mythical forces – is now an applicable model
used by film composers as musical signifiers within modern cinematic myths
recounting the adventures of (but not limited to) Jedi knights, hobbits, boy wizards,
1 Rodger Hall, “An Interview with Aaron Copland,” Film Music Magazine, vol.19, no. 25, 13 April.
2000. 2 The six feature films split between The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003) and The Hobbit trilogy
(2012-2014); all directed by Peter Jackson.
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and comic book superheroes; contemporary popular culture’s own pantheon of gods
and goddesses. Leitmotifs are musical gestures which aurally represent (or embody)
characters, places, objects, and ideas In film, especially in episodic film series
featuring multiple recurrent characters and locations, these musical “light motives” aid
the implied visual narrative’s continuity by building a musically congruent
connectivity.
Many of the most culturally popular and financially successful film franchises
use these leitmotifs including Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Star
Trek, and James Bond. For Star Wars, Williams’ leitmotif for the Force (see Example
1) undergoes numerous variations in order to accentuate the films’ particular narrative
demands ranging from the pensive intimacy underscoring Jedi Master Yoda’s death in
Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) to tragic, operatic grandeur as heard
under the destiny-changing lightsaber battle between former friends Obi-Wan Kenobi
and Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) at the climax of Star Wars - Episode III:
Revenge of the Sith (2005).
Example 1. Williams: "The Force Theme" from the Star Wars saga.5
5 Author’s personal transcription
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The idea of a melodic idea undergoing thematic transformations in order to
address narrative development is also observable in Wagner’s numerous leitmotivic
ideas in Ring cycle. For instance, the melody representing the Gods’ dwelling of
Valhalla (see Example 2) as presented in Act 1 of Das Rheingold reappears to
underscore that particular locale’s destruction in the final immolation scene of
Götterdämmerung. The same theme also appears intermittently throughout the course
of the four-opera cycle, such as in Die Walküre when Wotan (“King” of the Gods)
appears disguised in a mortal human form. Even though the audience does not see the
grandeur of Valhalla they infer (somewhat unwittingly) a component of that location
in the conveyed onstage narrative.
Example 2. Wagner: Das Rheingold, Act I, scene 2, "Entry of the gods into Valhalla"6
These musical ideas, for either George Lucas’ mystical Force or Wagner’s Valhalla,
are unwavering over the course of their respective epic sagas. Regardless of where or
when in the narrative, the leitmotif acts as a narrative anchor enabling the audience to
identify (often subconsciously) a particular recurring idea in the films’ overarching
plots. The MCU, beginning with Iron Man in 2008, has largely disregarded recurring
leitmotifs for the central heroic figures of that particular cinematic universe. Ramin
6 Author’s personal transcription
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Djawadi’s thematic material for Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) as devised
for Iron Man does not reappear in any capacity in John Debney’s score for Iron Man 2
(2010). Debney’s material for the character in Iron Man 2 was completely disregarded
by Alan Silvestri’s Iron Man-related material devised for The Avengers (2012) and
Brian Tyler’s subsequent contributions for the character as heard in Iron Man 3 (2013)
and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Though Tony Stark/Iron Man are recurrent
characters within the narrative connectivity of the MCU (appearing in six of the series’
films), there is no singular melodic idea associated with the character. The same can
be said for Iron Man’s fellow Avengers: Alan Silvestri’s material for Captain America
as featured in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and reused in The Avengers
goes largely ignored in Henry Jackman’s scores for the Captain America sequels (The
Winter Soldier [2014] and Civil War [2016]). None of Craig Armstrong’s musical
material written for The Incredible Hulk (2008) underscores the Hulk/Dr. Bruce
Banner story arcs explored in The Avengers (scored by Alan Silvestri) or it’s “Age of
Ultron” sequel (scored by Danny Elfman and Brian Tyler) nor do Patrick Doyle’s
Thor (2011) themes reappear in the titular character’s role in The Avengers or Thor:
The Dark World (2013) sequel. Unlike the thematically unifying dramatic works of
Wagner or Williams, the musical continuity within the orchestral underscores of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, and superhero films overall, has been far less concrete.
Musical inconsistencies are prevalent in many of the top box office franchises.
In the superhero genre, Hans Zimmer completely disregarded thematic material
previously established by James Horner for The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) in favor
of a new musical ideas as heard in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). Both films also
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forego any musical references to the preceding Spider-Man films directed by Sam
Raimi as scored by Danny Elfman and Christopher Young. Similarly, despite
occupying the same timeline, the X-Men film franchise, which began in 2000, failed
to carry musical ideas between seven feature films until John Ottman reused his “X-
Men theme” as originally written for X2: X-Men United (2002) twelve years later in X-
Men: Days of Future Past (2014).7
John Williams’ leitmotifs established for Voldemort in the first three Harry
Potter feature films were completely replaced by subsequent composers’ material over
the course of the series’ five subsequent films. Steve Jablonsky’s scores for the live
action Transformers series fail to reuse numerous themes from the first film in the
franchise (Transformers [2007]) despite the repeated returns of numerous characters
over three subsequent films in 2009, 2011, and 2014. In The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
Howard Shore replaced Enya’s love song for Arwen and Aragorn from The
Fellowship of the Ring (2001) with his own harmonically similar counterpart for The
Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003); the same fate befell the “Song
of the Lonely Mountain” penned by folk singer Neil Flynn for The Hobbit: An
Unexpected Journey (2012) to be replaced by a melodically similar idea by Shore for
the two subsequent Hobbit films. As it was written for Star Wars’ 1980 sequel The
Empire Strikes Back, Williams’ “Imperial March” (Darth Vader’s Theme) is absent
from Episode IV (A New Hope) in 1977, but present in Episodes I-III (“prequels”
7 X-Men (2000) - music by Michael Kamen, X2 (2002) - John Ottman, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) –
John Powell, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) – Harry Gregson-Williams, X-Men: First Class (2011)
– Henry Jackman, The Wolverine (2013) – Marco Beltrami, and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) –
Ottman.
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released in 1999, 2002, and 2005), Episodes V-VI (the “Original [Star Wars]
Trilogy”), and most recently in Episode VII (The Force Awakens).
It should be noted, however, that certain parameters certainly justify a composer’s
choice to deviate from leitmotivic material previously established by a franchise’s
preceding composer(s). This phenomenon is prevalent amongst the film series
associated with DC Comics’ Superman and Batman, whereas the familiar narrative
material differs stylistically between preceding film adaptations. The orchestral
Gothicism utilized by Danny Elfman for Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992),
as well as Elliot Goldenthal’s similar (yet melodically different) material for Batman
Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1998) was supplanted by the modern,
electronically-driven sounds of Hans Zimmer for the revitalized version of Batman in
Batman Begins (2005) and its two Dark Knight sequels. Apart from characters’
established comic book names, Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” movies have no
direct narrative connections to 1990s Batman films. Aesthetically, the two Batman
series’ differ in the latter’s depiction of a believable, contemporary world in favor of
the earlier Tim Burton pictures’ embrace of comic book kitsch. The Wagnerian
bravura of Elfman effectively accentuates a romanticized film-world emulating (and
acknowledging) the campy absurdity of the original Batman comics’ tropes (i.e.
saving a damsels in distress, cartoonish villains talking in puns, the ridiculous amount
of gear within Batman’s gaudy utility belt, etc.), but how would the same John
Williams variety fantasy / action-adventure function in a feasible, realistically
presented universe exploring philosophical and cultural parallels of the real world and
its evils therein? The brooding suspense and industrial driving nature of Hans
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Zimmer’s music (in collaboration with James Newton Howard on Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight, 2008) for the Nolan-directed trilogy accentuates that series’
portrayal of a realistic Batman modern day issues such as domestic terrorism, political
and economic corruption, the abuse of power, and the implications of what truly
differentiates “good” from “evil.” The same instance can be observed with Superman
in Man of Steel (2013), in which Hans Zimmer again chose to not directly reference
any previous music associated with the hero.
Film Music:Topics and Scholarship
In film scholarship, sound is broken down into two (2) categories: diegetic and
non-diegetic. Diegetic sounds in film are those heard within a scene experienced by
characters such as birds chirping, honking traffic, or music heard through a radio.
Non-diegetic sounds such as character narration are heard by the audience, yet not
experienced by individuals in the narrative itself. Diegetic music in a film would
consist of a character singing a song or playing an instrument on screen, while non-
diegetic music is the background musical score. Sound can also shift between diegetic
and non-degetic labels, such as when a popular song is introduced underscoring a shot
which cuts to a scene in which that particular song is playing from an on-screen
source. Such ideas are highlighted in in great detail by Aaron Copland’s 1940 essay on
film music as well as in Claudia Gorbman’s Unheard Melodies.
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Copland contends that music’s role in film is defined by the following:8
1. Creating a more convincing atmosphere of time and place.
2. Underlining psychological refinements—the unspoken thoughts of a
character or the unseen implications of a situation. Music can play upon
the emotions of the spectator, sometimes counterpointing the thing seen
with an aural image that implies the contrary of the thing seen.
3. Serving as a kind of neutral background filler.
4. Building a sense of continuity.
5. Underpinning the theatrical build-up of a scene, and rounding it off with a
sense of finality.
Claudia Gorbman draws from Copland’s criteria in her own work on the subject.
Gorbman’s own approach is far more thorough, featuring more criteria by which
music can function in a film’s narrative. Whereas Copland, as a composer, placed
emphasis on the inherent musical factors in film scoring, Gorbman’s seven “rules” for
“music’s narrative functions in film” are thus as recounted by David Neumeyer in his
essay “Tonal Design and Narrative in Film Music:”9
1. Invisibility: Instruments, performers, for background music must not be
seen.
2. "Inaudibility:” Music should not put itself forward in the viewer/listener's
attention
3. Emotion: Music signifies emotion (polarities are established on this basis:
reason/emotion, reality/fantasy, male/female, etc.).
4. Narrative cueing: Characterization of time, place, groups; illustration
(mickey-mousing); subjectivity (point-of-view); establishment of mood,
("overall" scoring).
5. Formal and rhythmic: Defines or supports shape and time continuity
articulation by frame (main-, end-title cues), or by sounding coincident
with a scene, or by bridging over gaps between scenes.
6. Unity: Music supports narrative unity, especially through thematic
relationships.
8 Tony Thomas and Aaron Copland, Film Score: The Art & Craft of Movie Music. (Burbank, California:
Riverwood Press, 1991), 3. 9 David Neumeyer, "Tonal Design and Narrative In Film Music: Bernard Herrmann's A Portrait Of
Hitch and The Trouble With Harry." Indiana Theory Review 19 (1998): 99.
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7. "Breaking the rules:" Any of the previous rules may be broken in the
service of one of the others.
Though the film industry and film scoring practices have drastically changed
since Copland’s career in Hollywood, the composer’s prose is still pertinent in modern
film music studies10. Modern film scores still follow these conventions to some extent.
“Creating a more convincing atmosphere” refers to music, both diegetic and non-
diegetic, establishing an appropriate atmosphere. Amadeus (1984) establishes its
respective Eighteenth century Viennese locale through the copious usage of period
music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his contemporaries. Composers will often
incorporate world instruments or non-western scales to compliment a film’s locale as
James Horner did with bagpipes for Scotland in Braveheart (1995) or as Ennio
Morricone accented the parched, unforgiving West with the sound of a harmonica in
Once Upon a Time in the West (1969). Furthermore, film composers may give
fictional worlds their own musical vocabulary as John Williams did with the Cantina
Band music in Star Wars (1977) or Jerry Goldsmith’s music sung and performed by
mythical creatures in his rejected score to Legend (1985).
Many, but not all, musical choices in film are intended to reflect, complement,
or juxtapose ideas suggested on the screen yet not directly addressed as Copland states
in his second point in which “Music can play upon the emotions of the spectator,
sometimes counterpointing the thing seen with an aural image that implies the
contrary of the thing seen.” Stanley Kubrick’s films contain many anachronistic uses
of music that conflict with presented imagery or ideas such as in A Clockwork Orange
10 Copland wrote seven film scores between 1939-1949 including Of Mice and Men (1939), The Red
Pony (1949), and The Heiress (1949). The later won Copland an Academy Award.
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(1972) where on a non-diegetic level - Classical repertoire by Beethoven and Rossini -
refined lofty art music of the Western canon -underscores disturbingly violent or
sexual acts. Diegetic musical juxtapositiong can be encountered in one of the film’s
pivoltal scenes in which the central character gleafully sings “Singing in the Rain”
(from the eponymous musical film) before gang raping a woman as her disabled
husband looks on helplessly.
Of utmost pertinence to film series with multiple entrees featuring numerous
characters and places is music’s ability to “build a sense of continuity” as Copland’s
fourth point reads to scoring films. Film series have traditionally maintained musical
continuity across individual chapters through observing conventions of the Wagnerian
leitmotif. As Richard Wagner (1813-1883) utilized melodies representing narrative
components in order to establish a unifying aesthetic across his four-part Ring cycle,
film composers throughout the late twentieth century and into the modern age use
reoccurring musical ideas to forge a sense of episodic connectivity.
The film scores of the Marvel Cinematic Universe draw predominantly from
two separate methodologies in film scoring codified as the traditionalist school
spawned of Western classical music and the progressive, modernist “school” spawned
from connections in electronic and contemporary new age genres. The traditionalist
approach is anchored by the lineage of such influential film music figureheads as Max
Steiner (1888-1971), Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975), and John Williams (b. 1932),
whose memorable, leitmotif-driven scores for such films as Gone with the Wind
(1939; Steiner), Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958; Herrmann), and E.T. (1982;
Williams) serve as notable examples of the style. The (often) Neo-romantic
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approaches of these composers and their contemporaries were a product of their
respective conservatory level educations in the Western classical tradition, often under
tutelage of esteemed composers of the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Younger or currently active proponents who gained prominence in post-Star Wars
“New Hollywood” include Basil Poledouris (1946-2004), Howard Shore (b. 1946),
Alan Silvestri (b. 1950), James Newton Howard (b. 1951), Danny Elfman (b. 1953),
Thomas Newman (b. 1955), Michael Giacchino (b. 1967), and the late James Horner
(1953-2015) of Titanic and Avatar fame. Many credit Williams’ scores for Jaws and
Star Wars, attached to the most popular, highest grossing films at the time, for
reinvigorating an interest in the Neoromantic orchestral film score in a period when
Hollywood showed heightened interest in marketable soundtrack albums of popular
music in order to appeal to younger audiences.
The newer progressive and “eclectic” style is widely associated with Hans
Zimmer (b. 1957) and his contemporaries, many of which were his protégés at his own
studio, Remote Control Productions based in Santa Monica, CA. 11 Zimmer’s
computer-reliant style has aesthetic roots in the pioneering electronic film music of
Giorgio Moroder (b. 1940) and Vangelis (b. 1943), whose harmonically
“unadventurous,” yet revolutionary “melodic use of synthesizers” for such Oscar-
winning scores as Midnight Express (1978; Moroder) and Chariots of Fire (1981;
Vangelis) effectively showcased the growing technology’s ability to render dynamic,
self-generated tones capable of functioning in place of a traditional orchestral
11 Emilio Audissino. John Williams's Film Music: Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the
Return of the Classical Hollywood Music Style. (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press,
2014).
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Hollywood score.12 Since the 1980s, synthesizers have enabled novice musicians to
singlehandedly write, perform, produce, mix, and record film scores despite their lack
of classical training in orchestral writing. Drawing upon harmonic simplicity taken
from pop and new age music, the minimalistic rhythmic repetitions heard in electronic
dance music (EDM13, synthpop, techno, house, etc.), as well as heavy Metal,
progressive rock, Hip-Hop, and now dubstep, Zimmer and his co-collaborators have
“cultivated a hybrid electronic-orchestral aesthetic that uses a range of analog and
digital oscillators, filters, and amplifiers to twist and augment solo instrument samples
into a synthesized whole.”14
In the early 1990s, Zimmer and company set the precedent for action film
scoring in such scores as Backdraft (1991), Crimson Tide (1995), and The Rock (1996)
with their extensive utilization of synthesizers and drum machines, minimalistic
ostinati, and electronically augmented acoustic, orchestral forces which continue to
permeate his “personal” style, albeit less melodically motivated, as evident in his
scores to The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), and Interstellar (2014). This
style is often imitated by countless other composers in the scoring of action films as
heard in the Transformers series scored by Steve Jablonsky (b. 1970), four of the
seven Fast and the Furious scores by Bryan Tyler (b. 1972), Tron: Legacy (2010)
scored by French EDM duo Daft Punk, and recently Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
12 Cooke. A History of Film Music. 467-477. 13 Acronym for Electronic Dance Music. 14 Benjamin Wright, Danijela Kulezic-Wilson, and Randolph Jordan, "Sculptural Dissonance: Hans
Zimmer and the Composer as Engineer," Sounding Out, July 10, 2014, section goes here, accessed July
09, 2016, https://soundstudies.wordpress.com/2014/07/10/sculptural-dissonance-hans-zimmer-and-the-
composer-as-engineer/?iframe=true&preview=true.
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scored by Tom Holkenborg (b. 1967) often referred to by his stage name of Junkie
XL. This aesthetic has been met with a great deal of criticism by critics and industry
professionals. Some question the artistic integrity of such scores, many of which are a
product of multiple ghostwriters, orchestrators, and arrangers “who really [write] the
score” anonymously under a particular composer’s moniker as pointed out by Oscar-
winning (traditionalist) composer David Raksin (1912-2004) in David Morgan’s
Knowing the Score. 15 Others have criticized Zimmer and company’s apparent “self-
plagiarism16,” to the point where “most [action] movie scores sound the same.”17All
the original scores of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, draw from both schools of
thought. There is an explicit use of leitmotifs for various characters, even if some of
these melodic ideas themselves are not reused consistently throughout the franchise.
These ideas can be manipulated in order to address the narrative demands of a
particular scene, such as a minor-keyed somber variation to convey a character’s
hopelessness or defeat, a fragmented incarnation capturing a character’s movements
within a frenetic action of a chase sequence or fight scene, or a purposefully kitsch
rendition of an otherwise sonorous, lofty theme meant to elicit a humorous, perhaps
tongue-in-cheek, mood.
While the topic of musical functionality amongst comic book movies may
seem to be an incredibly broad topic considering the breadth of such properties in the
15 David Raksin, "End Titles," in Knowing the Score: Film Composers Talk about the Art, Craft, Blood,
Sweat, and Tears of Writing Music for Cinema, comp. David Morgan, 1st ed. (New York: Harper
Entertainment, 2000). 93. 16J. Bryan Lowder, "Is Hans Zimmer, Movie Composer Extraordinaire, Repeating Himself?," Slate
Magazine, November 05, 2013, section goes here, accessed July 09, 2016,
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/11/05/hans_zimmer_scores_the_same_does_movie_compo
ser_repeat_himself_audio.html. 17 Raksin, "End Titles," in Knowing the Score. 96.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
14
superhero film genre, this study will only concern itself music associated with and
appearing in the twelve films taking place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as
produced by Walt Disney Studios under the Marvel Studios moniker. These
productions are limited to the following list of films:
1. Iron Man (2008) – Music by Ramin Djawadi
2. The Incredible Hulk (2008) – Music by Craig Armstrong
3. Iron Man 2 (2010) – Music by John Debney
4. Thor (2011) – Music by Patrick Doyle
5. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – Music by Alan Silvestri
6. The Avengers (2012) – Music by Alan Silvestri
7. Iron Man 3 (2013) – Music by Brian Tyler
8. Thor: The Dark World (2013) – Music by Brian Tyler
9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – Music by Henry Jackman
10. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) – Music by Tyler Bates
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Music by Danny Elfman & Brian Tyler
12. Ant-Man (2015) – Music by Christophe Beck
13. Captain America: Civil War (2016) – Music by Henry Jackman
Literature review
If one was to take interest in film music fifty years ago they would be
challenged to find print sources pertaining to criticism, analysis, or history of the art
form. Unlike academia’s wide embrace of Western art music or world musics, film
music was (and still is to some extent) viewed as somewhat of a bastardized art. Igor
Stravinsky’s sentiments on writing music for films are made quite clear in a 1946
essay on the subject in which he voices his discontent with “film people” [filmmakers]
and their “mistaken notion that music, in ‘helping’ and ‘explaining’ the cinematic
shadow-play, could be regarded under artistic considerations. It cannot be.”18 Though
numerous prominent twentieth-century composers in the Western canon including
18 Igor Stravinsky, “Part I: Igor Stravinsky on Film Music." The Film Music Society. October 10, 2003.
Accessed October 15, 2014.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
15
Sergei Prokofiev, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Aaron Copland embraced the
medium, critics and academics outside of the industry19 were less inclined to consider
film scoring as an art unto itself with its own conventions and functions separate from
Eduard Hanslick’s notions of absolute music.20 “Hollywood composers,” as Emilio
Audissino writes in John Williams’ Film Music: Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost
Ark and the Return of the Classical Hollywood Musical Style, “[are] often attacked
and blamed for their lack of originality and for over-popularizing art music in their
compositions.”21 The entire eighth chapter of Audissino’s book is dedicated to the
criticisms held against John Williams’ lucrative career as a film composer and the
nature of his music, yet such sentiments shed light into prejudices held against “movie
music.” Though film scoring incorporates various practical ideas taken from the
Western canon, music’s function in film differs from the conventions of academic
music written for the concert hall.
In order to greater understand musical functionality within films, one must
familiarize themself with seminal works of film music scholarship. Such works offer
not only the history, theory, and criticism of music written for Hollywood, but also
introduce topics pertaining to the motion picture industry over all. Royal S. Brown’s
Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music (1994) provides a thorough
introduction to film music theory. The author Brown, taking lead from Claudia
Gorbman, contends that music in film is “dramatically motivated” in order to
19 The film scoring industry often colloquially referred to as “The Business” by industry professionals. 20 Absolute music – “Music for the sake of music.” 21 Audissino. John Williams's Film Music. 134.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
16
“heighten the significant moments” – to impact the audiences’ emotional investment.22
These “significant moments,” writes Brown “often reveal themselves within a
narrative structure,” ergo, the type of music associated with these narrative phenomena
are coined by the author as “narrative film music.”23 The first chapter functions as a
literature review in its own right, drawing from previously established theoretical
models established in film music scholarship as well as literary theory. Apart from his
efforts to examine film music’s functional conventions, Brown makes a point to
explicitly recount “the musical properties of the films score and its relation to so-
called classical music” and the “nature and significance of diegetic source or source
music in the cinema.”24 The book’s only shortcoming is the author’s apparent bias for
Classical Hollywood era films from the late 1930s through the 1960s, whereas this
into the Marvel Cinematic Universe of the twenty-first century draws from filmic
conventions introduced in the post-Vietnam War “New Hollywood” era exemplified
by the popular cinematic spectacles of Steven Spielberg (Jaws) and George Lucas
(Star Wars). 25
Though Brown places emphasis on Hollywood classicism, other authors have
(thankfully) successfully covered film music theory and criticism in contemporary
contexts. Three such publications include Mervyn Cooke’s A History of Film Music
(2012),26 Richard Davis’ Complete Guide to Film Scoring (1999),27 and Hearing the
22 Royal S Brown, Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music. (Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 1994). 15. 23Ibid. 24 Ibid. 37 25 Cooke. A History of Film Music. 455. 26 Ibid 27 Richard Davis. Complete Guide to Film Scoring: The Art and Business of Writing Music for Movies
and TV. (1st ed. Boston, MA: Berklee Press, 1999).
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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Movies: Music and Sound in Film History (2010) co-authored by James Buhler, David
Neumeyer, and Rob Deemer.28 All three texts offer historical insight into film music
as well as concise overviews concerning the business of film scoring, commonly
practiced conventions, the function and methodology behind using source music, and
copious anecdotes from prestigious composers and filmmakers. Whereas Brown’s
“Overtones…” is saturated with philosophical approaches focusing predominantly on
theory, these aforementioned sources forsake academic jargon, and present clearly
formulated methodological ideas while still familiarizing the reader with practices in
film making and function of musical underscore. Davis’ book is the least lengthy;
often opting to solidify his assertions with quotes from film composers, and the later
portion of the book includes interviews with numerous film composers some of whom
(including Alan Silvestri and Danny Elfman) have penned music for comic book-
oriented films covered in this study. Cooke’s “History” book focuses primarily on the
topic’s history, linearly tracing film music’s emergence in silent cinema through
conventions associated with the modern era. Of particular importance to this thesis’
topic are the book’s final three chapters covering “Popular music in the cinema”
(Chapter 10), “Classical music in the cinema” (Ch. 11), and “State of the art: film
music since the New Hollywood” (Ch. 12), the latter of which places emphasis on
practices and methodology of music associated with Hollywood blockbuster
franchises and the globalization of popular culture. The Buhler text is particularly
useful in its proposed methodologies for analyzing the relationships between drama
28 James Buhler and David Neumeyer. Hearing the Movies: Music and Sound in Film History. (New
York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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and sound. Hearing the Movies provides multiple approaches in how to present film
music analysis including copious diagrams, musical examples, and incredibly
thorough shot-by-shot analysis whilst tying in narratology and film aesthetics in order
to demonstrate the how/why/when such examples “work” within the confines of the
cinema.
As music theorists by profession, Buhler and Neumeyer are able to present
ideas of harmony and musical form correlating to narrative devices and visual
elements. Both individuals’ efforts in film music scholarship have a profound impact
on the way I listen to film scores and watch films, and their numerous essays on the
subject introduce pertinent ancillary ideas from which one can draw from to present
their own analyses. Such essays include “Diegetic/Non-Diegetic: A Theoretical
Model”29 and “Tonal Design and Narrative In Film Music: Bernard Herrmann's A
Portrait Of Hitch and The Trouble With Harry”30 both by David Neumeyer, as well as
“The non-diegetic fallacy: film, music, and narrative space” by Ben Winters31. These
essays devise ideas in which music’s function in a film’s narrative can transcend its
diegetic and non-diegetic classifications. In film, diegetic sounds are perceived by
characters on screen while non-diegetic sounds are perceived only by the audience.
The “Diegetic/Non-Diegetic” article is particularly useful in its efforts to relate
musical diegesis to narratology. Neumeyer, quoting Claudia Gorbman, notes: "Once
29 David Neumeyer, “Diegetic/nondiegetic: A Theoretical Model,” Music and the Moving Image 2
(2009): 26–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/musimoviimag.2.1.0026. 30 Neumeyer, "Tonal Design and Narrative In Film Music: Bernard Herrmann's A Portrait Of Hitch and
The Trouble With Harry.” 87-123.
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/3563/NeumeyerTonalDesignV19.pdf?sequen
ce=1&isAllowed=y 31 Ben Winters, “The non-diegetic fallacy: film, music, and narrative space,” Music & Letters 91
(2010): 224–244. Accessed November 2, 2015. http://oro.open.ac.uk/29647/2/15A73DFF.pdf
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
19
we understand the flexibility that music enjoys with respect to the film's diegesis, we
begin to recognize how many different kinds of functions it can have: temporal,
spatial, dramatic, structural, denotative, connotative - both in the diachronic flow of a
film and at various interpretive levels simultaneously."32 Neumeyer correlates
Gorban’s ideas to the proposed “fantastical gap,”33 or "the border region [that] is a
transformative space, a superposition, a transition between stable states.…
[M]ovement through the gap between diegetic and non-diegetic … takes on great
narrative and experiential import. These moments do not take place randomly; they are
important moments of revelation, of symbolism, and of emotional engagement within
the film and without.”34 Ways in which I will apply these assertions will be further
covered in the methodology section below.
At the time of this writing there are relatively few score-specific publications
(studies into individual film scores); however, the ones that do exist are incredibly
useful. Such print sources as Doug Adams’ comprehensive guide to The Music of The
Lord of the Rings Films (2010)35 and Janet K. Halfyard’s Danny Elfman’s Batman: A
Film Score Guide (2004).36 Adams’ work is a catalogue of the numerous leitmotifs
Howard Shore composed for The Lord of the Rings trilogy covering the orchestration,
narrative functions, and presentation within the films. Much like in Neumeyer’s
Hearing the Movies, Adams discusses ways in which instrumental timbres in film
32 David Neumeyer, “Diegetic/nondiegetic: A Theoretical Model,” 30. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid 35 Doug Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard
Shore's Scores, (Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Music, 2010). 36 Janet K Halfyard, Danny Elfman's Batman: A Film Score Guide. 1st ed. (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press, 2004).
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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scores can convey narrative devises via the instrumental “connotations inherited from
opera, operetta, melodrama, program music, and so forth.”37 For example, the musical
identity for the hobbits and their pastoral, rustic Shire home is often played on the
penny whistle which carries connotations to the folk musics associated with Gaelic
and Celtic traditions. Halfyard’s Danny Elfman’s Batman: A Film Score Guide
provides a thorough analysis into Danny Elfman’s score for Tim Burton’s Batman
(1989) including a biographical overview of the composer (up until 2004), his
compositional approach, aesthetic quality of the music, recounts of the score’s
production and an in-depth case study into the score relative to the film. Though
Batman is a property of Warner Bros’ DC Comics rather than Marvel, this guide (and
other books in the series) presents unprecedented commentary on an individual film
score and, when considering that Elfman has “scored more comic book films scores
than any other Hollywood composer,”38 the material is essential in approaching any
study into superhero/comic book film music. This author’s inquiry for academic
research papers, theses, and dissertations relating specifically to superhero film music
yielded few reputable (let alone competent) results. The sole doctoral dissertation
bearing any usable information relative to the topic is Matthew David Young’s
Musical Topics in the Comic Book Superhero Film Genre submitted at the University
of Texas at Austin in 2013. 39 Young covers music featured in the first slate of MCU
37 Buhler and Neumeyer, Hearing the Movies: Music and Sound in Film History. 66. 38 Halfyard, Danny Elfman's Batman: A Film Score Guide, 23. 39 Matthew Young, “Musical Topics in the Comic Book Superhero Genre,” (PhD diss., University of
Texas at Austin, 2013).
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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films ranging from Iron Man to the first Avengers, yet largely ignores the narrative
applications of source music as discussed in this study.
As mentioned before, the majority of these scholarly and critical sources make
a point to introduce/utilize film studies terminology. Due to this, an extensive
bibliography of film studies books would be superfluous and the recent nature of the
MCU films covered (2008 – 2015) leaves the franchise absent from a majority of the
existing literature. Furthermore, a considerable number of the journal compilations
covering superhero films focus on sociological, philosophical, and political topics are
inapplicable to this predominantly music-oriented thesis. Some understanding was
needed of the superhero / comic book genre, as the musical analysis herein correlates
to observable trends in the genre and iconic characters taken from the pages of Marvel
Comics. The two sources of such included Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold
Story (2012)40 and Liam Burke’s The Comic Book Film Adaptation: Exploring
Modern Hollywood’s Leading Genre (2015).41 Neither publication features any
musical commentary, yet these texts do offer valuable insights into the genre on both
page and screen. Howe’s book recounts the founding of the Marvel Comics brand as
well as a history of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s42 most prominent superhero characters.
Burke’s books serves as a historical overview of the genre and the “state of the art” as
it currently stands in regards to aesthetics and adaptation. Current news sources such
40 Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. 1st ed. (New York: Harper, 2012). 41 Liam Burke, The Comic Book Film Adaptation: Exploring Modern Hollywood's Leading Genre, 1st
ed. (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2015). 42 Stan Lee (b. 1922) and Jack Kirby (1917-1994) are the credited creators of such popular Marvel
characters as Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible
Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, and others. As an “in-joke” every MCU film features a Stan Lee cameo.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
22
as Variety, Time, and Rolling Stone provide current updates and critical responses to
films while The Wall Street Journal and Forbes cover the finance / marketing of the
film business. Official statements from Marvel Studios concerning films are often
delivered via the company’s website. Some of these sources cover music related topics
including composer interviews and album reviews. Film reviews themselves often
mention the execution of the music as well.
Topic Overview / Methodology
This survey intends to address musical factors such as harmony, melody, and
orchestration with piano reductions taken from aural transcriptions from the original
soundtrack albums. Orchestration examples will be indicated by notes in the score.
Harmonic attributes will be presented in lead-sheet letter names rather than Roman
numerals as a majority of the musical ideas covered lack traditional harmonic motion
and progressions as observed in the Common Practice period. Though initially devoid
of explicit melodic references between films, the MCU does maintain a sense
connective musical fabric. Upon further examination, patterns eventually emerged
upon further listening of the scores separated from their respective films; all of which
received multiple, thorough viewings. This in-depth study into the musical fabric of
the Marvel Cinematic Universe will explore the ways in which this particular film
franchise exhibits musical continuity despite lacking strict adherence to the historical
practice of utilizing leitmotifs as a connective narrative component.
Through a combination of film theory/film music theory, and thorough musical
analysis, one can contend that while the concept of maintaining musical continuity in
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
23
film series via shared leitmotifs has narrative (and extra-narrative) pertinence,
particular narrative devices and musical phenomena can justify a film franchise’s
inexplicit cohesive musical thread(s) as evident in the films featuring Iron Man,
Captain America, and the Avengers. Such musical components include melodic
contour, harmonic content, intervallic content, and extra-narratively addressed musical
phenomena. It is the goal of the following study to disclose ways in which, despite a
non-unified reutilization of outright note-for-note thematic restatements of preceding
leitmotivic ideas, comparative melodic contours some heroes’ or heroic groups’
unifying musical facets begin to emerge. This study concerns itself with the major
recurring heroes, Iron Man, Captain America, as well as melodic ideas associated with
the Avengers. Melodic ideas for Thor and the Hulk will be discussed briefly, yet are
not the focus of this particular study.
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CHAPTER 2
MELODIC LEITMOTIFS OF THE AVENGERS
The music of Iron Man / Tony Stark
As in the Marvel comic books, Tony Stark is portrayed in the MCU as a, self-
described, “Genius-Billionaire-Playboy-Philanthropist;”43 undeniably intelligent and
tech savvy, yet at times arrogant and self-absorbed by his own fame. While Stark has
no inherent superhuman abilities, his self-made Iron Man suit grants enhanced
strength, the ability to fly at supersonic speeds, as well as protection from the harshest
elements (environments and foes). His strong personality and reckless behavior,
conveyed with sardonic wit by Robert Downey Jr. in all three Iron Man films and both
Avengers features (and in Captain America: Civil War), often leads to ideological
conflicts with his fellow Avengers, especially the more humble, idealistic Captain
America/Steve Rogers (as discussed later in this chapter). Despite his many flaws,
including but not limited to bouts of alcoholism as seen in Iron Man 2 and PTSD
following events in The Avengers, Stark’s feeling of self-obligation to protect the
innocent as an atonement for his former “sins” as a technological arms dealer are truly
noble. In multiple instances in the Avengers films, Iron Man values his teammates’
lives and humanity’s greater good above his own life.
Iron Man (2008) – Music by Ramin Djawadi
For the first Iron Man film, Ramin Djawadi wrote two musical ideas for Iron
Man/Tony Stark. The first is a jagged, sixteenth note riff often accompanying bouts of
43 Iron Man. Dir. Jon Favreau. 2012.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
25
action and sequences of heightened tension. This syncopated rhythm played by guitars
and lower strings is often deployed over a typical rock beat in common (4/4) time (see
Example 3.2a). The other, more melodic idea, represents the inner heroism of Iron
Man which, in the first film, Tony does not realize himself until the film’s conclusion.
This theme (see Example 3.2b) goes through multiple incarnations along Stark’s
personal journey in becoming Iron Man, ranging from its initial bold statement in
lower brass accompanying Stark’s building of the first iteration of his Iron Man suit,
and later receives soaring statements in the film’s flying sequences. Iron Man marked
Djawadi’s first major film credit as primary composer. Some aesthetic ideas explored
by the German-born composer of German/Iranian heritage in the first score in the
MCU were revisited by Djawadi in later projects as evident in the orchestral rock
accompanying the (literal) heavy metal of gigantic monster-fighting robots in the
special effects extravaganza Pacific Rim (2013) as well as the restrained heroism in
the face of turmoil as heard in the HBO television series Game of Thrones.
Example 3. Djawadi: “Themes” from Iron Man (2008)44
44 Author’s personal transcription
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26
Both of Djawadi’s central thematic ideas for Iron Man occupy the intervallic
range of a perfect fourth (P4th). In doing so, the composer draws direct connections to
other pre-existing musical ideas associated with heroism and aspects of rock music,
both associated with Iron Man/Tony Stark’s persona. Composers throughout history
have used “leaps” of perfect fourths, perfect fifths (P5s), and octaves to convey
heroism. The primary theme initially presented in the cellos and basses in the first
movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E♭ major, the “Eroica”45 contains an
upward leap of a P4th between its fourth and fifth notes from B♭ to E♭(see Example
4.3a) The “horn call” leitmotif associated with Siegfried, the central hero of Wagner’s
last two operas in his four-part Ring cycle begins with an ascending perfect fifth (see
Example 4.3b). Williams’ opening titles from both Star Wars and Superman feature a
primary melodic leap of a P5th initially approached by leap of a 4th from a triplet
anacrusis on the dominant (V) scale degree to tonic (I) (see Examples 4.3c & 4.3d).
Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man (taken from the fourth movement of the
composer’s Symphony No. 3) is saturated with P4ths and P5ths; however the influences
of such and other Copland compositions will be further discussed in the following
section focused on Captain America’s associative musical vernacular.
45 Heroic Symphony
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Example 4. Heroism in music (Beethoven, Wagner, and Williams)
46
Iron Man 2 (2010) – Music by John Debney
For Iron Man 2, neither Djawadi nor his thematic material returned. Instead,
the scoring duties fell on John Debney, long-time collaborator of Jon Favreau, director
of the first Iron Man who also returned to direct the 2010 sequel. Whereas Djawadi is
a disciple of Zimmer, which shows in his work, Debney’s work is closer to that of
Williams, Goldsmith, and Elfman. The composer’s versatility is exemplified in the
swashbuckling grandeur of the box office failure Cutthroat Island (1996), the holiday
whimsy of Elf (2004), the religious somber of The Passion of the Christ (2005), and
46 Author’s personal transcription
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
28
his highly melodic score for the recent live-action adaptation of Disney’s The Jungle
Book (2016; also directed by Iron Man director Jon Favreau). Debney saw the sequel’s
darker story and continuing character development as a means to device a new
melodic idea for Tony Stark/Iron Man. The composer stated in an interview with
Metal Insider:
The score to this film is quite different in many ways from the last score. This
score while employing much guitar and more contemporary elements, it is also much
bigger and darker in tone and scope. This film has a much deeper story arc to it than
the first, and I think fans will be quite pleased by both the film and the score.47
While the first Iron Man serves as an origin story for the character, the sequel
sees Tony Stark coming to terms with the obligatory responsibilities that come with
being a “superhero,” namely learning to forego his extravagant, self-described playboy
lifestyle. As Stark’s and Iron Man’s personal journey grows in scope, so does his
representative musical leitmotif. Whereas Djawadi’s musical ideas occupy a smaller
intervallic range of a perfect fourth, Debney’s own Iron Man 2 “theme” spans the
range of an entire octave and features larger melodic leaps within the confines of its
eight-bar structure. The theme (see Example 5) receives its first full statement in the
film’s first large-scale action sequence in Monaco, Italy where Stark, driving
competitively in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, is forced to spring into action after
being ambushed mid-race by the film’s central villain Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke).
In terms of melodic structure, it bears a great deal of resemblance to the octave
47 Zach Shaw. "Iron Man 2 Composer John Debney Talks Film Scoring, Working With Tom Morello."
Metal Insider. Metal Insider. March 18, 2010. Accessed March 11, 2016.
http://www.metalinsider.net/interviews/iron-man-2-composer-john-debney-talks-film-scoring-working-
with-tom-morello.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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spanning opening bars of Williams’ Superman march. Again, observe the usage of
perfect intervallic leaps characteristic in musical heroism.
Example 5. Debney: “Iron Man heroism” theme from Iron Man 2 (2010)
As with Djawadi’s “heroic” theme, Debney’s counterpart receives sparse
renditions over the course of the film, mirroring the restrained heroic nature of the
film’s titular character. In the first film, Stark develops the small electromagnetic
power source which both powers the Iron Man armor and prevents shrapnel received
in Tony’s kidnapping (as seen in the opening to the first film) from piercing his heart.
This miniature (atomic) fusion generator saved Stark’s life twice and gave him a new
one as Iron Man; however, in the sequel Stark discovers that the radioactive nature of
the device is slowly poisoning his blood which will ultimately kill him unless replaced
by a safer, more advanced fuel source. Fearing others will discover his weakness,
Stark fully delves into his celebrity public image as the “invincible” Iron Man, in order
to distract both the world and himself from his inner battle with mortality. Even when
not in the Iron Man suit, Stark wears his own self-imposed “mask” of what he truly is:
hopeless, weak, and ultimately afraid; he’s forgotten what it means to be a hero. This
bout of pseudo-heroism is addressed in the absence of Debney’s “heroic” identity for
Iron Man throughout plot’s middle act amid Stark’s journey of self-(re)discovery.
Debney also wrote material for other characters who have since made multiple
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30
appearances in the MCU such as Black Widow and War Machine. None of the
musical ideas are reused in their subsequent film appearances.
Iron Man/Tony Stark in The Avengers (2012) – Music by Alan Silvestri
Following suit with the preceding Iron Man films, Alan Silvestri opted to not
reuse any previous music associated with Iron Man in terms of melodic content nor
was any of Debeny’s Black Widow material reutilized for the character’s more
prominent role. In an interview with Film Music Magazine, the composer claims that
The Avengers sees Tony Stark finally grasping the “bigger picture” to understand his
role as not only a hero, but as a component of a team serving a purpose greater than
themselves. Silvestri’s theme for Iron Man/Tony Stark is associated with the
character’s moments of accomplishment in the film. It first accompanies Iron Man’s
flight as the new Stark Tower illuminates the New York City skyline for the first time
(see Example 6).
Example 6. Silvestri: "Iron Man theme" from The Avengers (2012)48
It reappears in motive fragments in tandem with Silvestri’s Captain America theme
(discussed later in the chapter) as the two heroes save the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier
flying fortress. Before it plummets to earth it receives a full statement following
48 Author’s personal
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Stark’s inspiring speech which rallies the heroes to battle to avenge the death of
recurring character, Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg). Like Debney’s Iron Man 2
theme, Silvestri’s Iron Man idea spans the octave and features intervallic leaps of
ascending P4th and P5ths. In the grand musical scheme of the MCU, Silvestri’s
thematic material for the Avengers – that is, the whole team itself – proved far more
enduring in its influence on subsequent film scores in the series along with his
material for Captain America (discussed later in this chapter).
Leveling the playing field: Iron Man 3 (2013) and Iron Man / Tony Stark in
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Music by Brian Tyler
Iron Man 3 is the first film of the MCU’s “Phase Two,” which as previously
mentioned in Chapter 1, recounts the events between the two (currently released)
Avengers films. In his selfless act(s) of saving the world at the end of the previous
film, Stark finally becomes a “true hero who now seeks to protect the world out of a
sense of moral duty to a world now looking to Iron Man as beacon of hope. Apart
from staying true to his “billionaire, inventor, playboy, wise cracking” persona, in a
sense he no longer views the world as revolving around him. Stark realizes that the
world needs what Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers represent in order to continue
revolving.
No other composers’ previous melodic material associated with the character is
revitalized, as Stark is no longer the same person he was at the beginning of his
“journey.” Brian Tyler crafts the first outwardly heroic identity for the character
which, in the composer’s own words, “[speaks] to the superhero nature of what Iron
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32
Man is as opposed to merely the attitude of Tony Stark49” as was the case in the
previous films’ scores. Because “the character is in such a different place than he was
in those first two movies,” Tyler approached the score from a “more epic thematic
angle” at the behest of the filmmakers in order to address the “sense that now there’s
so much more at stake in this post-Avengers world.” Furthermore, the composer notes
that Marvel specifically asked for a “very thematic, melodic score that was somewhat
of a throwback to earlier scores” such as Williams’ Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost
Ark; archetypical models of the “hum-able,” (memorable) “classic type of film music
sound” fit for a “legitimate,” yet still somewhat “reluctant” hero50. While not as
diverse in leitmotivic content, nor as technically demanding as Williams’ late 1970’s
to mid-1980’s era action-adventure/fantasy scores, as Williams did for Indiana Jones
in Raiders, Tyler gives Iron Man two distinct, yet complimentary heroic eight-bar
melodic ideas, both of which get multiple full statements throughout the score.
The first idea, like Debney and Silvestri’s “Iron Man” ideas, spans an entire
octave; however, unlike those other ideas primarily based on alternating perfect
intervals, the newer theme utilizes increased intervallic variety to give it a melodic
“hook.” With the idea’s melodic contour, the composer is able to musically convey
Iron Man “reaching” for a goal (first five notes) only to fall in the fray (landing on the
subdominant scale degree), before another heroic “push” (repetition of first four notes)
to soar victoriously over adversity at the octave above the initial starting pitch (see
49 Allison Bigelow, "Interview: Composer Brian Tyler Ushers in Epic New Sound for 'Iron Man 3'"
Medium, May 02, 2013, section goes here, accessed July 09, 2016,
https://filmschoolrejects.com/interview-composer-brian-tyler-ushers-in-epic-new-sound-for-iron-man-
3-f0e3ea7d73b1#.2j1kw3kot. 50 Ibid
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Example 7a). The second idea (see Example 7b) begins with the same ascending
motive, yet quickly deviates into a new melody suggesting Iron Man rising amongst
the chaos in attempt to regain his footing or composure (deviating from the first idea’s
harmonic repetition) before “revving up” to charge headlong into the conflict upon a
restatement of the first melodic idea.
Example 7. Tyler: “Theme” from Iron Man 3 (2013)
When Tyler initially returned to score Avengers: Age of Ultron, he made a point to
quote his own Iron Man 3 theme where appropriate, although in fragmented versions
dispersed amongst the action material as Djawadi and Silvestri chose to do for the
character. The theme does receive one full statement by Danny Elfman who was
brought onto help complete the film’s score on the former composer’s behalf for
undisclosed reasons. The sparse re-use of said theme addresses Stark, yet again, falling
short of his heroic ideals as he is forced to answer for the creation of a sentient
worldwide protection system, Ultron, which in the fashion of Frankenstein’s monster,
turns against its, or rather “his” creators in malice. Iron Man’s musical relationships to
the Avengers’ leitmotivic ideas will later be discussed in Chapter 4.
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At first glance and listen, none of the presented Iron Man “themes” share any
direct resemblance. All themes lack a consistent range, pitch class, and rhythm. When
comparing them side-by-side, however, patterns begin to emerge in melodic contour
and intervallic content. All of the Iron Man leitmotifs feature numerous minor thirds
(m3rds) either descending or ascending and all of them contain alternating perfect
fourths (P4ths). The melodic contour(s), though inconsistent in interval exchange, do
feature an up down up down (repeat) motion (see Example 8 below).
Example 8. Iron Man melodic comparisons in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, and Iron Man 3.51
51 Author’s personal transcription(s)
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The respective composers in question most likely did not intend this; however,
the phenomenon is still observable as evidenced by the chart above. As Iron Man’s
role in the MCU grows, so does the range of the successive leitmotifs as well as pitch
content. Brian Tyler’s copious usage of his Iron Man 3 theme and re-usage in
Avengers: Age of Ultron, in comparison to the sparse usage of other composers’
material, does yield the most intra-narrative connections.
The Music of Captain America/Steve Rogers
Unlike the reluctantly heroic, narcissistic Iron Man/Tony Stark, Captain
America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). In both the comics and MCU, Rogers begins as
“just a kid from Brooklyn” who wants nothing more than to join the US armed
services in WWII. Yet, despite his genuinely good spirit, he is denied service due to
his weak health. Desperate to fight for his country, Rogers willingly submits himself
scientific experimentation in a top-secret super-soldier program at the hands of Prof.
Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who successfully transforms the “scrawny”
weakling into the very image of “maximum human efficiency:” Captain America.
Endowed with “agility, strength, speed, endurance, and reaction time superior to any
Olympic athlete,” Captain America dawns “the red, white and blue,” writes the official
Marvel encyclopedia, to become the “living, breathing symbol of freedom and
liberty.52” Unlike Tony Stark, who initially avoids the responsibilities granted by his
52 Marvel. "Captain America." Marvel: Official Website. Accessed April 1, 2016.
http://marvel.com/characters/8/captain_america.
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(self-made) powers, Rogers’ humble idealism and yearning for justice make him a
natural-born leader.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Over the course of the events depicted in Captain America: The First Avenger,
Cap learns of the trials and sacrifices that come with leadership, namely after he
witnesses the death of his childhood friend, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who dies
trying to protect Rogers. Much like Stark over the course of the MCU films, Rogers is
forced to accept that there are ultimately events beyond his control despite all his good
intentions and powers. As opposed to other films in the MCU’s “Phase One” which
are largely straight-forward action films characterized by the first two Iron Man films
and The Incredible Hulk (2008), and the action-adventure/fantasy of Thor (2011), the
first Captain America film is an ode to period action-adventure films of yesteryear;
especially Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Both Raiders and Captain America center
around unlikely heroes who unsuspectingly have the fate of the world thrust into their
hands on their quests to prevent Nazi forces from harnessing uncontainable, divine
power. For Indiana Jones this power is the “wrath of God” contained in the biblical
lost Ark of the Covenant53, while for Captain America, the Tesseract is an object of
otherworldly power, later revealed in The Avengers to be an artifact of Asgard, Thor’s
home in both the MCU and Norse mythology.
53 As a possible “nod” to plot elements seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Red Skull mentions “the
Führer [digging] for trinkets in the desert." Joe Johnston, director of Captain America: The First
Avenger, worked on Raiders as a special effects artist. Coincidentally, Disney, who own Marvel, now
also holds the rights to Indiana Jones as a result of their purchase of George Lucas’ LucasFilm in 2012.
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Also like Raiders, the first Captain America movie features a straight-forward
“high adventure” score with a bold, heroic theme often presented as a march. Alan
Silvestri aptly provides a score with the necessary orchestral breadth to drive the tense
action sequences as well as address the film’s more character-driven scenes prior to
Rogers’ transformation into the titular hero. Silvestri’s penchant for scoring films
about ordinary people overcoming incredible odds can also be heard in his harrowing,
suspense-filled action scores for such films as the entire Back to the Future trilogy
(1985, 1989, 1990), both Predator films (1987 & 1990), and the swashbuckling The
Mummy Returns (2002), as well as in less fantastical, humanistic works such as
Forrest Gump (1994) and Cast Away (2000). Though Captain America grows into his
role as a fearless, heroic leader, at his core, Steve Rogers remains the kind-hearted
“kid from Brooklyn.” Silvestri crafts a flexible leitmotif capable of capturing both the
unfaltering, inner ideals of Steve Rogers as well as musically embodying the
unrestrained patriotic heroism of Captain America. For the first Captain America, the
composer devised two primary thematic identities for the character. One, the main
“Captain America theme,” is the primary thematic identity for the character first heard
in a brief, restrained quote at the opening of the movie as the camera cuts to a shot of
Captain America’s iconic shield frozen in ice and appears in a fragmented alteration as
Rogers learns that Bucky, his best friend, is shipping off to the European front the
following day. “I should be going,” says Rogers in response to his friend’s surprise
news, upon which the theme plays to address his inert sense of duty and foreshadow
his eventual involvement in the war. Before Rogers becomes Captain America, the
fragmented theme serves as a signifier for his greatness to come as Rogers uses his
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intellect to overcome the physical and mental tests in candidacy (boot camp) for the
super-soldier program. The theme receives its first full rendition upon the unveiling of
Captain America following his transformation as the chamber opens up to reveal Steve
Roger’s new muscular form (bars 1-8 of Example 9 on the following page). The other
theme, which Silvestri uses as the bridge in the “Captain America March” over the
film’s end title accompanies the militaristic aspects of the plot and character (bars 9-16
of ex. 9).
Example 9. Silvestri: Themes from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
As the film progresses, both themes are used congruently as Silvestri wields
them to the action sequences on the screen. The secondary theme has all the
characteristics of secondary thematic ideas John Williams uses in his film-related
marches for both Superman and Raiders of the Lost Ark (references abound), whereas
the melody features the same rhythm of the primary heroic theme with new melodic
content that often draws on chromatic medians (discussed in a later chapter).
Like many other film composers seeking to musically address unrestrained
American patriotism, Silvestri turned to Aaron Copland as a model, citing Fanfare for
the Common Man (1942) as an archetypical model of a “heroic [musical] statement”
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with “the brass sounding the [bugle] call54” now so associated with patriotic or solemn
events. In comparing Copland’s original fanfare to Silvestri’s own for Captain
America, one can find numerous similarities including intervallic content with copious
P4ths and P5ths, quartal figures spanning minor sevenths (m7ths), and similar melodic
contours of up by leap, down by step, down again as seem in Example 10.
In the words of New York Times music critic Bernard Holland, Copland’s
“Americana” sound is classified by “the intense brightness, the clean spaces of the
melodies hinting of modal folk tunes,” the music of “the common man.” The broadly
spanning melodies heard in Fanfare for the Common Man, the ballets Billy the Kid
(1938), Rodeo (1942), Appalachian Spring (1944), and Copland’s film scores such as
Of Mice and Men (1939), The Red Pony (1949), and The Heiress (1949) are said to
“evoke the openness of the American landscape.55” Silvestri had earlier explored this
musical language in Forrest Gump, however Captain America required Copland’s
tonal language to address the inner spirit of the central character abroad. Example 11
serves as a classic instance of Copland’s triumphant style in the same musical
vernacular as heard in the Orchestral Suite from Appalachian Spring. Though the
ballet recounts a fictional Shaker wedding in Appalachia, the harmonic language
therein has become the Hollywood standard for depicting noble, American heroism.
54 Alan Silvestri, "Interview With Composer Alan Silvestri." Compiled by Daniel Schweiger. Film
Music Magazine, July 14, 2011. Accessed March 15, 2013. http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=8199. 55 Rex Levang. "What Makes Copland's Music so "American"?" MPR Music Feature: Copland 10 X 10.
November 2000. Accessed May 07, 2016.
http://music.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/0011_copland/minnmo.shtml.
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Example 10. Copland (a.) and Silvestri (b.) melodic comparisons56
Example 11. Copland: excerpt from Orchestral Suite from Appalachian Spring (1944) 57
56 Author’s personal transcription 57 Aaron Copland, Appalaichian Spring
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Captain America in The Avengers (2012) – Silvestri crafts consistency
The Avengers saw the first time a composer for a previous MCU film returned
to the property. Alan Silvestri devised a more modern action score for the 2012 film as
opposed to the period adventure of Captain America: The First Avenger the year prior;
however, the composer made the conscious choice to bring his Captain America theme
into the fold. For The Avengers, Silvestri wanted to craft “music that would put all of
these characters together58” rather than focusing on individual heroes. As the film
mostly focuses on entirety of the Avengers team, the leitmotif for Captain America
only receives sparse statements in harmonically altered fragments over shots of
heroism featuring solely that character. Such musical quotes occur when Captain
America engages the film’s main villain, Loki (Thor’s brother assumed dead after the
events in Thor), and as the hero leaps across a chasm in order to help Iron Man restart
a stalled propeller on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. The “militaristic” secondary theme
from the film is not reused, likely due to the lack of any military presence in the film.
“We’re not soldiers,” says Tony Stark at one point.
Regardless of the mitigated usage of the Captain America material in The
Avengers, both themes were reused in subsequent post-Avengers films as musical
cameos rather than supportive material. In Thor: The Dark World (2013), a particular
scene in which Thor frees his brother, Loki, from the dungeons of Asgard (where The
Avengers’ primary villain is punished for his actions in Battle of New York), Loki
taunts Thor by taking the visual forms of various people the now-Avenger knows. One
58 Alan Silvestri and Daniel Schweiger. "Interview with Alan Silvestri." Film Music Magazine, March
1, 2012. Accessed May 07, 2016. http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=9475.
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of the forms Loki assumes is that of Captain America (with Chris Evans reprising the
role) complete with exaggerated overly patriotic mannerisms. The composer for the
film, Brian Tyler, underscores the scene with a light march rendition of Silvestri’s
“Captain America” theme, further forging a sense of thematic continuity begun by the
former Captain America/Avengers composer.
Captain America in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Beyond…
Henry Jackman, like Ramin Djawadi, began his career working in Hans
Zimmer’s studio. As opposed to Alan Silvestri’s romanticized, period romanticism,
Jackman’s musical language addresses the genre shift unseen in other MCU films
focused around one titular character. Such language can also be heard in other comic
book-related film adaptations such as X-Men: First Class (2011), Big Hero 659 (2014),
and Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015). Jackman’s musical vernacular in Captain
America: The Winter Soldier (2014) compliments the film’s aesthetic shift from the
Spielberg/Lucas-inspired period action of the first Captain America is suspense filled,
political / espionage thriller in the vein of the Mission: Impossible films, the Jason
Bourne series, or the rebooted James Bond series headlined by Daniel Craig
(beginning with 2005’s Casino Royale). “It’s a realistic, contemporary film that avoids
a lot of fantasy,” said the composer in an interview with Collider, “there’s very little
59 Big Hero 6 is an animated film from Walt Disney Animation Studios adapted from the Marvel comic
book of the same name. The futuristic animated world of San FranTokyo
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nostalgia.60” The lack of “nostalgia” is musically addressed in the sparse references to
the original Silvestri march.
Silvestri’s secondary “military” theme from the first Captain America
reappears under the film’s opening scene as Steve Rogers is seen racing past iconic
Washington D.C. landmarks on a morning run (amidst servicemen dismayed at Cap’s
super-soldier speed). While the musical material serves to address the patriotic essence
of a loyal (super) soldier as he runs through the regional bastion of democracy, such
instance was not at the hand of Henry Jackman. Rather than Jackman arranging a new
iteration of Silvestri’s material, the filmmakers opted to score the scene with a pre-
existing recording taken from Captain America: The First Avenger. The track, titled
“Captain America ‘We Did It’” on the original motion picture soundtrack recording,
corresponds to the titular hero’s muscular reveal--the same scene in which Silvestri’s
main leitmotif receives its first full statement. In film scoring, the process of taking
other film score recordings and placing them into a new film is called tracking. Other
films that have “tracked in” scores from other films such as in Die Hard (1988) where
the ending scene is underscored by material lifted from James Horner’s score to Aliens
(1986). The cue (film scoring vernacular for “track”) does contain a brief statement of
the main “Captain America” theme’s first two bars. Captain America thematic
material is there, albeit serving as brief musical reminder rather than directly
addressing any narrative constructs as Tyler did with the material in Thor: The Dark
World a year prior.
60 Sheila Roberts, "Composer Henry Jackman Talks CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER,
His Influences, WRECK-IT RALPH 2, THE INTERVIEW, and More." Collider. April 01, 2014.
Accessed May 07, 2016. http://collider.com/henry-jackman-captain-america-winter-soldier-interview/.
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The film sees a post-Avengers Captain America/Steve Rogers still adjusting to
life in the modern era after the events in the Battle of New York. While a majority of
the Avengers went their separate ways, Steve Rogers decided to stay with S.H.I.E.L.D.
as a commanding officer now leading secret missions on the organizations behalf to
neutralize international threats. Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson)
also returns as a leader of these black-ops operations under Captain America’s
command. While the film sees Rogers (humorously) attempting to familiarize himself
with the seventy-plus years of pop culture and history he missed whilst frozen in ice
(chronologically between The First Avenger and The Avengers), “Cap” (as he is now
nicknamed by his colleagues) also struggles to maintain his idealist moral compass in
the modern age of international conflicts, where soldiers now fight ideologies as
opposed to countries marked by borders. Of all the MCU films, “The Winter Soldier”
is the most politically aware of current issues drawing plot elements from modern
headlines including the ramifications of unmanned technological warfare and
government initiated covert data collection as divulged by NSA whistleblower Edward
Snowden.
Over the course of the film, Captain America, Black Widow, and new ally Sam
Wilson/the Falcon, are forced to go underground, after an assassination attempt on
Nick Fury. In a twist of fate, the Winter Soldier, Fury’s would-be assassin, is revealed
to be Steve Roger’s former friend Bucky Barnes thought to have fallen to his death in
Captain America: The First Avenger. Amidst their effort to solve the mysteries
surrounding the Winter Soldier, the heroes come to find that S.H.I.E.L.D had been
secretly infiltrated by Hydra (the “Nazi rogue science division” led by the Red Skull in
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The First Avenger) whose “Project Insight,” is actually a program developed to
remotely annihilate threats (the Avengers) to Hydra’s ambitions of world domination
under the guise of a peacekeeping, data-mining defense system.
As Captain America is forced to unwillingly forsake his convictions regarding
good versus evil (right and wrong), Jackman forsakes the explicitly “heroic” music of
Alan Silvestri’s Captain America material for a less definitive theme as seen in
Example 12. The ambiguous nature of the melody, not heard in full until Captain
America escapes S.H.I.E.L.D’s facility (in “Taking a Stand” on the album), addresses
a superhero who is forced to question his moral absolutes grounded in bygone notions
of “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.” In an organization manipulated by lies
there is no “truth”. When the corrupt hold and abuse power at the expense of the
innocent there is no “justice.” There is no “American Way,” in a world where a
country ambivalently relinquishes its ideals of truth and justice in the name of fear.
Example 12. Jackman: "new Captain America" theme (Taking a Stand) from Captain America: The
Winter Soldier61
While not the most “hummable” theme in the MCU leitmotivic catalogue, Jackman’s
“new Captain America” edifies the morally ambiguous society that is the modern day
United States, where as Alan Silvestri’s Captain America material harkens back to the
country’s bygone ideals. Like Ramin Djawadi’s Iron Man “heroic theme,” it is music
61 Author’s personal transcription
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for a hero who does not know who he is any more, however in the case of Captain
America, a hero whose foundations are as shattered as those of the country he sought
to serve and protect, a country that was not there waiting for him when he came out of
the ice before The Avengers.
After not re-appearing over the course of “The Winter Soldier” besides in that
film’s opening, Silvestri’s main “Captain America theme” makes a brief appearance at
the end of “Age of Ultron.” In a scene following the Avengers’ victory over Ultron,
Tony Stark and Steve Rogers share a tender moment as the two reminisce on “the
simple life” both of them are missing as a result of their hero work. “You’ll get there
someday.” says Stark, in a rare non-sarcastic moment for the character. “I don’t
know,” says Rogers who proceeds to name of desires like “family” and “stability,” all
notions of which “went in the ice 75 years ago,” referring to the only “love of his life”
from the first film, Agent Peggy Carter (Haley Attwell), now suffering from
Alzheimer’s in her late-80’s as previously seen in Captain America: The Winter
Soldier. The moment is underscored by a plaintive, restrained rendition of the Silvestri
“Captain America theme,” addressing the nostalgia Rogers feels to the life he left
behind in WWII. Though Brian Tyler’s Thor: The Dark World and Iron Man 3
material briefly reappeared in the score’s context, none of Henry Jackman’s material
for Captain America returned.
The melodic similarities between Silvestri’s and Jackman’s respective Captain
America leitmotifs will be but briefly discussed as, frankly there are no direct melodic
connections of any sort beyond the intervallic presence of minor sevenths (m7ths) and
minor sixths (m6ths) in the musical vocabulary of both composers (see Example 13).
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There are some loose similarities in melodic contour between the second phrase of
Silvestri’s secondary “military” idea (Example 13a) and that of Jackman’s melodic
ascent, “drop,” and re-ascent (Example 13b). Without considering the films’
narrative factors, however, few similarities exist in a purely musical context.
Example 13. Captain America melodic content comparisons62
While some similar melodic phenomena can be observed amongst the successive
music for Iron Man and Captain America, such occurrences can only be deduced if
taking into the narrative and extra-narrative factors of the two superheroes. The
following section, however, highlights less convoluted direct connections all of which
are much easier inferred without as in-depth narrative analysis.
62 Author’s personal transcription
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Post-Avengers Thematic Unity
For Iron Man/Tony Stark, this personal journey involves him finally accepting
his heroic role out of duty as seen in Iron Man 3. For Captain America/Steve Rogers,
the WWII hero is forced to come to terms with a country and a world that forsook the
ideals he set out to defend in the first Captain America. Whereas the thematic
identities for Iron Man and Captain America require scrupulous musical analysis and
intimate understanding of said heroes’ story arcs to decipher their relations, the
MCU’s post-Avengers scores (released after 2012) feature far more apparent,
perceivable leitmotivic unity. As a film, The Avengers serves as the unifying initial
zenith of the MCU in which the pivotal characters (at that particular point in the
series’ chronology) find themselves bound by association or perhaps destiny. Alan
Silvestri’s primary musical idea for The Avengers also serves as its own narrative focal
point of the MCU. The brass-driven theme, which the composer describes as “a
[musical] celebration” of “larger than life heroism63,” initially appears in truncated
iterations as heard over the film’s opening title card and later in restrained passages
amidst the action of the Helicarrier sequence. It is not until the film’s third act in
which the central heroes join forces does Silvestri employ the melody in its eight-bar
entirety. Said sequence frames Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Black
Widow and Hawkeye in a single shot in which Silvestri’s theme musically signifies
“chemicals kind of swirling together, to become something greater than the individual
elements.64”
63 Alan Silvestri and Daniel Schweiger. "Interview with Alan Silvestri." Film Music Magazine, March
1, 2012. Accessed May 07, 2016. http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=9475. 64 Ibid
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As the initial Avengers lineup consists of six individual superheroes,
Silvestri’s theme is comprised of six pitches as seen below; said tones in order of
melodic succession being E– B – A – G – F# - C# (see Example 14). The intervallic
content of the melodic idea itself exhibits the hallmarks of heroic film music writing in
the composer’s utilization of the perfect fifth rising from inferred tonic to the
corresponding dominant (E – B in the case below) in the second and sixth measures.
Example 14. Silvestri: Theme from The Avengers (2012)65
Following Silvestri’s lead, subsequent composers in the MCU began to devise
similar melodic ideas drawn from the first three notes of the original Avengers theme.
For Avengers: Age of Ultron, composers Danny Elfman and Brian Tyler made copious
usage of Silvestri’s motif which appears in multiple variations over the course of the
film. The film, like Winter Soldier, also utilizes “tracked-in” selections from
Silvestri’s first Avengers score as heard over the film’s opening sequence featuring the
group of heroes’ siege on a Hydra base and at the film’s conclusion in which the “New
Avengers” are revealed in costume for the first time (see Example 15). Danny Elfman
wrote a new theme for the film, which initially bears little resemblance to Silvestri’s
material, however the later composer uses the first three notes of the original
(Silvestri) Avengers motif in its bridge (as seen in Example 18).
65 Author’s personal transcription
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50
Example 15. Elfman:"Heroes / New Avengers" from Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)66
For Guardians of the Galaxy, composer Tyler Bates devised a melodically
similar idea for another ragtag team of conflicting personalities brought together out of
necessity to save a world from evil as set amongst the cosmic regions of the MCU
depicted in both Thor films (and to a lesser extent in The Avengers). Described as a
group by Guardians director James Gunn as the MCU’s “Rolling Stones” as opposed
to the Avengers being “The Beatles,67” the group’s individual members begin as
outlaws only to become (anti)heroes over the course of the film.
For the orchestral score, Bates was instructed by the director to craft
“something epic with bold memorable themes,” with some material written before
principle photography even began68. As the Avengers theme contains six notes for six
heroes, Bate’s own theme for the five member team of galactic anti-Avengers
(pictured above from left to right, Groot, Rocket Raccoon, Peter Quill/Starlord,
Gamora, and Drax the Destroyer) contains five its first three measures : D – G – B♭–
C – A (see Example 16).
66 Author’s personal transcription 67 Ali Plumb, “James Gunn On Guardians Of The Galaxy's Scope." Empire. January 14, 2014. Accessed
May 07, 2016. http://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/james-gunn-guardians-galaxy-scope/. 68 Melinda Newman, "Interview: Tyler Bates on the Guardians of the Galaxy Score." HitFix. August 01,
2014. Accessed May 1, 2016. http://www.hitfix.com/news/interview-tyler-bates-on-the-relief-of-
finishing-the-guardians-of-the-galaxy-score.
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Example 16. Bates: “Guardians Theme” from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)69
Unlike most other leitmotifs in the MCU which occupy eight-measure phrases,
the main Guardians thematic idea is only six. Like other themes in the post-Avengers
MCU, however, the melodic contour exhibits the same accent by perfect fifth (P5th)
resolved down by whole step (M2nd) observable in the motif’s ascending figure its first
measure. Bates slightly deviates from Silvestri’s model by adding a note between
appoggiatura (approached by leap, resolved by step) creating an arpeggiated minor
triad from tonic (^1), to submediant (^♭3), to dominant (^5) resolving, like the
Avengers theme, by major second (M2nd) to the subdominant (^4). The exact same
figure can be heard in Christophe Beck’s “Theme from Ant-Man” written for the 2015
film of the same name.
Much like the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is a
former convict turned reluctant hero unwittingly thrust into a potentially world-ending
conflict. Powered by advanced atomic technology, the Ant-Man suit as developed by
Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), grants its wearer with superhuman speed and strength
upon shrinking down to the size of an insect. Akin to The Winter Soldier deviating
from the aesthetic tone of its nostalgic predecessor, Ant-Man is a heist film in which
the titular character is tasked to infiltrate a corrupt tech conglomerate before the Ant-
69 Author’s personal transcription
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Man suit technology is exploited for nefarious purposes. Christophe Beck’s primary
heroic musical idea for the film is characterized by its septuple meter (7/8 in which
eight notes are grouped in successive 2+2+3 beat divisions). Beck builds his theme
around both major and minor third (M3rd/m3rd) relationships whereas the opening
minor third imitates the vocalizations school children use to taunt their pears
(phonetically: “NaNa-NaNa-Boo-Boo”), perhaps musically proclaiming “you can’t
catch me;” an apt philosophy for an ex-con turned superhero attempting to elude
capture in a grand heist. The composer cited the film’s adherence to the heist genre’s
tropes (i.e. “elaborate planning sequences,” narrow escapes, and training sequences)
allowed Beck to write a “funky and jazzy and groovy70” score uncommon for a
superhero film; an idea previously explored in Michael Giacchino’s score to
Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles (2005). Ant-Man’s heroics come to the musical
forefront in the thematic idea’s final seven measures in which the melody expands to
its highest range before Beck alludes to Alan Silvestri’s Avenger theme (again, guised
by the triadic arppegiation resolving to the [implied] subdominant (IV) scale degree
(^2) as observed below (see Example 16).
Example 17. Beck: "Theme from Ant-Man"71
70 Sheila Roberts. "Composer Christophe Beck Talks ANT-MAN, SISTERS and THE PEANUTS
MOVIE." Collider. July 18, 2015. Accessed April 15, 2016. http://collider.com/composer-christophe-
beck-on-ant-man-sisters-and-peanuts-movie/. 71 Author’s personal transcription
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To the uninitiated viewer, the stark aesthetic contrasts between Guardians of
the Galaxy and Ant-Man bear little narrative similarities, however, upon delving
further into the Marvel comics’ mythos, one can draw discernible connections
between the two heroic entities separated by the cosmic void. In the MCU (and to an
extent in the comic sources), the fates of Ant-Man and the Guardians are unknowingly
tethered to that of the Avengers. Following his initial introduction at the end of the
first Avengers, Thanos appears in Guardians as, yet again, a master manipulator
entrusting a megalomaniacal villain to accrue one of the Infinity Stones necessary to
wage the enslavement of all reality (see Chapter 1). With the possession of said stones
split between Earth and far-flung regions of the MCU’s cosmic universe, Thanos’
quest ensures the inevitable meeting between the Guardians of the Galaxy and
“Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” Ant-Man, as further expounded upon in chapter four,
serves as a founding member of the first Avengers team in the original source
material72. Furthermore, the end of Ant-Man sees Sam Wilson/the Falcon, now an
Avenger as revealed at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), seeking out Scott
Lang’s aid in an undisclosed mission.73
The chart below highlights the direct musical connections between various
superheroes’ leitmotivic content. Red boxes indicate the presence of Alan Silvestri’s
Avengers theme or allusions thereof. Also included, as a theoretical curio, is John
Debney’s Iron Man 2 theme previously discussed in this chapter in which a retrograde
iteration of Silvestri’s musical idea. The instance is purely coincidental as Alan
72 Marvel. "Ant-Man." Marvel. Accessed March 25, 2016. http://marvel.com/comics/discover/209/ant-
man. 73 Revealed in Captain America: Civil War
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Silvestri admitted that “there was never a conversation” in the scoring process
concerning the reutilization of preceding composers’ thematic ideas74 apart from a
conscious decision on behalf of Silvestri to reuse his own Captain America material.
Another retrograde variation of the Avengers appears in the third and fourth measures
of Tyler Bate’s Guardians of the Galaxy theme.
Example 18. Silvestri's Avengers motif in Guardians (Bates), Ant-Man (Beck), and Iron Man 2
(Debney)75
While “Phase One” of the MCU received little direct thematic unity beyond
the scant re-incorporation of Captain America’s material into The Avengers by both
74 Alan Silvestri and Daniel Schweiger. "Interview with Alan Silvestri." Film Music Magazine, March
1, 2012. Accessed May 07, 2016. http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=9475. 75 Author’s personal transcription(s)
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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entities’ composer, Alan Silvestri, the post-Avengers films began to take on a more
unified musical approach. Apart from Silvestri’s “Captain America theme,” the
composer’s thematic identity for the Avengers established a musical blueprint for
subsequent melodic and harmonic ideas devised later in the franchise as evidenced by
tonal allusions in the music of Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Avengers’
2015 sequel, Age of Ultron. Comparative studies between individual themes in the
MCU musical lexicon can demonstrate methods from which one could infer and
observe different yet similar musical elements in the cross-examination of intervallic
content, melodic contour and narrative connotations.
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CHAPTER 3
SOURCE MUSIC IN THE MCU
Once we understand the flexibility that music enjoys with respect to the film's
diegesis, we begin to recognize how many different kinds of functions it can have:
temporal, spatial, dramatic, structural, denotative, connotative--both in the diachronic
flow of a film and at various interpretive levels simultaneously.76 – Claudia Gorbman
in Unheard Melodies
Prior to the orchestral film score renaissance in the wake of John Williams’
Star Wars, filmmakers and film studios capitalized on audiences’ tastes in popular
music of the time in order to bolster interest in films as well as ensure further revenue /
exposure via soundtrack album sales. Such films as The Graduate (1967), prominently
featuring the music of (Paul) Simon and (Art) Garfunkel; Saturday Night Fever
(1977), spawning a string of disco hits for the Bee-Gees; or the late Prince’s Purple
Rain (1984), exemplify such trends still observable in such modern instances as the
hip-hop driven soundtrack to Straight Outta Compton (2015) and Elton John’s songs
for The Lion King (1994) or Phil Collins’ contributions to Tarzan (1999). Michael
Greene, president of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, mentions in Richard
Davis’ Complete Guide to Film Scoring that such endeavors exhibit ways in which
film studios (many of which also maintain record labels) can “cross-promotionalize
the music and films77” to their (monetary) advantage. Apart from the commercial
inclinations of popular music in film, source music can also, as Davis further recounts,
“establish a time or place;78” echoing Copland’s own notions that music serves
76 Neumeyer, “Diegetic/nondiegetic: A Theoretical Model.” 30 77 Davis. Complete Guide to Film Scoring. 91. 78 Ibid
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moving pictures as discussed in chapter one of this document. Whereas the film series’
real world settings (rendered on a sound stage or shot on location) aid in establishing
the MCU’s perceived tangibility, filmmakers (and their music supervisors) have also
utilized pre-existing music drawn from multiple genres in order to further ground
Marvel’s fictional cinematic world into that of contemporary film audiences.
As previously introduced in chapter one, recorded sound and music in film
functions on two levels; those being the diegetic level heard by characters in the film
and the non-diegetic level perceived by the audience as separated from yet supportive
of the onscreen visual narrative. Such labels enable scholars and cinephiles codify
music’s (or sound’s) underlying role in the narrative diegesis of a particular film or
film, however, it is not uncommon for music to alternate between diegetic and non-
diegetic levels. David Neumeyer, summarizes narrative film diegesis in his essay
“Diegetic/Non-Diegetic: A Theoretical Model,” quoting semiologist Christian Metz:
[Diegesis] designates the film's represented instance … that is to say, the sum
of a film's denotation: the narration itself, but also the fictional space and time
dimensions implied in and by the narrative, and consequently the characters, the
landscapes, the events, and other narrative elements, in so far as they are considered in
their denoted aspect.79
Thus, one can infer that musical concepts in and of themselves can function as
recurring or connective narrative elements as observed in the Marvel Cinematic
Universe. Diegetic source music throughout the MCU narratively addresses the
“underlining psychological refinements—the unspoken thoughts of a character or the
unseen implications of a situation.80” The precise functionality of such musical
79 Neumeyer, “Diegetic/nondiegetic: A Theoretical Model.” 26 80 Tony Thomas. Film Score. 11
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signifiers varies amongst the films’ portrayed superheroes and villains, however, the
cross examination of source music’s extra-narrative connotations can enable the
viewer/listener to understand (or surmise) “the music's relation(ship) to [both the]
narrative space [and] the film narration's self-consciousness and
communicativeness.81” The phenomena in which source music creates narrative-
motivated musical continuity are to be examined via source music as a narrative
signifier of characters’ inner personalities further demonstrated by aural-visual
complementation or juxtaposition.
“I am Iron Man”
As discussed in the preceding chapter, the non-diegetic musical voice of Iron
Man/Tony Stark supplied by composers Djawadi, Debney, Silvestri, and Tyler share
similar aesthetic properties amidst individual scores albeit devoid of explicit
leitmotivic unity. Stark’s rebellious, yet refined persona is complimented by multiple
MCU films’ usage of metal and punk rock in scenes featuring the character – namely,
music by Australian rock super-group, AC/DC. The first Iron Man opens with a shot
of military Humvees traversing a Middle-eastern desert to the strains of “Back in
Black,” from AC/DC’s 1980 album of the same name. While initially the song is
inferred by the viewer at the non-diegetic level due to its dynamic prominence in the
sound mix (drowning out the diegetic sound effects), the camera cuts to the interior of
one of the vehicles to reveal the song playing from a stereo next to Tony Stark. Upon
81 Jeff Smith. "Bridging the Gap: Reconsidering the Border between Diegetic and Nondiegetic Music."
Music and the Moving Image 2, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 1-25. Accessed April 13, 2016.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/musimoviimag.2.1.0001.
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the cut, the music shifts from the non-diegetic foreground to the diegetic background
under the film’s opening dialogue. Such instances in which a song (or its meaning)
transfers from diegetic level to the non-diegetic – through the “fantastical gap;”
liminally between the binary diegetic and non-diegetic codifiers82 – are, as Robynn J.
Stillwell proposes in “The Fantastical Gap between Diegetic and Nondiegetic,” “are
important moments of revelation, of symbolism, and of emotional engagement within
the film and without.83”
In the context of the first Iron Man film, the inclusion of the AC/DC “Back in
Black” tune serves three important narrative functions. On the diegetic spectrum, it
establishes the musical vernacular of the rebellious Tony Stark as heard onscreen as
subsequent films following Iron Man (Iron Man 2 and later The Avengers). On the
non-diegetic, or rather metadiegetic level, the utilization of “Back in Black,” serves as
a subliminal prelude to events forthcoming in the narrative. Following the death of
AC/DC’s lead singer, Bon Scott, in 1980, “Black in Black” (as both a song and album)
was used by the band as means to both honor their fallen band-mate and as a musical
proclamation of the band “cheating death” (AC/DC’s future was uncertain at the time)
to emerge stronger than before. Tony Stark is thought dead following the terrorist
ambush at the opening of the film, only to return to the real world stronger with his
alternative Iron Man identity in tow. Such sentiments are captured in the song’s
opening verse and subsequent chorus (see figure 3.1)
82 Neumeyer, “Diegetic/nondiegetic: A Theoretical Model. 22. 83 Robynn J. Stilwell. "The fantastical gap between diegetic and non-diegetic." Beyond the Soundtrack.
Ed. Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer, and Richard Leppert. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA:
University of California Press, 2007: 184-202
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Table 3.1. Lyrical analysis of AC/DC’s “Back in Black” as heard in Iron Man (2008).
“Back in Black” lyrics (Verse 1): Narrative Commentary in Iron Man
(2008)
Back in black
I hit the sack
I've been too long I'm glad to be back
In the film, Tony Stark escapes captivity
to return to the world which thought him
dead. Stark escapes via a crude Iron Man
suit prototype built under the guise of a
ballistic weapon which his captors intend
to use in a terrorist plot.
Yes, I'm let loose
From the noose
That's kept me hanging about
I've been looking at the sky
'Cause it's gettin' me high
Forget the hearse 'cause I never die
As a hostage/prisoner, Stark’s learns to
“answer for his sins” as an arms dealer.
In his atonement, Stark realizes that his
money and power can be used for the
greater good as Iron Man. The Iron Man
armor grants Stark the ability to fly from
which he enjoys the adrenaline and
bolsters his (already inflated) ego.
I got nine lives
Cat's eyes
Abusin' every one of them and running
wild
Stark defies death at multiple points in
the film (and in the MCU at-large).
Though he relishes the notion of being a
superhero, it is not until The Avengers
does Stark come to terms with his
reckless antics spawning from his Iron
Man ego trip.
In both Iron Man 2 and The Avengers, the role of “Back in Black” is
supplanted by AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill,” which is coincidentally the second
chronological song on the Back in Black album (track 2 on the 1980 album release.
Much like the earlier song, the lyrics “Shoot to Thrill,” offers narrative commentary in
the diegesis. In The Avengers, the song is heard on the diegetic level in a scene where
Iron Man intervenes in a fight between the film’s main villain Loki (Thor’s brother)
and Captain America. Stark “hijacks” S.H.I.E.L.D.’s communication lines in order to
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blast “Shoot to Thrill” as Iron Man shoots Loki point blank in the chest with an energy
blast from his suit immobilizing his now outmatched foe (with the chorus playing as
Stark, literally, “shoots to thrill”). The inclusion is likely a tongue-in-cheek effort on
behalf of the filmmakers as an aural counterpoint in which the rambunctious nature of
AC/DC’s rock is juxtaposed against the gravity of a scene in which two mortal
superheroes are fighting a god (Loki taken from Norse mythology and the comics).
Another notable instance of original underscore addressing narrative, or extra-
narrative devices in this instance, is the initial melodic similarity between Djawadi’s
Iron Man “heroism” and British heavy metal group Black Sabbath’s own “Iron Man”
(see Example 19.4a) from their 1970 album, Paranoid. Besides the obvious
connections between the song’s title and the name of the superhero, the first three
notes of the song’s guitar riff are identical to the first three notes of Djawadi’s musical
signifier of heroism (see Example 19.4b).The two ideas also, though most likely in
coincidence, share the same opening notes as Lolo Schifrin’s “Mission: Impossible
theme” originally written for the TV show of the same name and reused in the Tom
Cruise-led film franchise. The two separate musical ideas also contain a leap of a
minor third (m3rd) in their continuations. Black Sabbath “Iron Man” hook has a larger
melodic range of a minor sixth (m6th) as opposed to the P4 range of Djawadi’s
comparative material. Iron Man’s “action riff” also occupies the same intervallic range
as the first three notes of Black Sabbath’s idea.
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Example 19. Melodic comparisons between Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” (4a.) and Ramin Djawadi’s
Iron Man (2008) “heroism” theme.84
Is this coincidence or a deliberate decision of the composer? In this instance,
one could easily infer both. Though the song has no connection to the Marvel
character, as made clear by Black Sabbath front-man Ozzy Osbourne stating the
song’s title originated from his impression of the main guitar riff initially evoking
images of “a big iron bloke walking about,85” an instrumental arrangement of the song
appears over the end credits of the first Iron Man. Just prior to the credits, Tony Stark
gives : “I am Iron Man.86” The film then cuts to the instrumental version of Black
Sabbath’s song, which in its original incarnation contains the same lyric “I am Iron
Man.” In The Avengers, as deliberate visual gag, Stark can be seen wearing a Black
Sabbath t-shirt under his Iron Man armor in the final battle for New York City.
84 Author’s personal transcription 85 Hal Leonard. 25 Top Metal Songs - Tab. Tone. Technique. Google Books. January 1, 2013. Accessed
May 06, 2016.
https://books.google.com/books?id=7yoLWIrCZI8C&pg=PR5&lpg=PR5&dq=Ozzy%2BOsbourne%2
Bbig%2Biron%2Bbloke&source=bl&ots=LFrbQEN_IA&sig=L8LhWMujEPm5v4gMRr0mXxIgEv0&
hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4v66WnMbMAhWBdCYKHQ_sBDgQ6AEIbjAT#v=onepage&q=Ozzy
%20Osbourne%20big%20iron%20bloke&f=false. 86 Iron Man. Directed by Joe Johnson. Paramount, 2008. DVD.
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“The Star Spangled Man With A Plan”
The diegetic music of Captain America far less pronounced in the narrative
compared to that of Iron Man. In order to establish the WWII-era setting of Captain
America: The First Avenger, the filmmakers made a point to include onscreen musical
sounds emblematic of the time period such as big band staples by Woody Herman and
Benny Goodman as well as marches by John Philip Sousa87. Unlike other films thus
far in the MCU, the film features an original musical number written specifically for
the film written in the vein of a 1940s war propaganda song. “The Star Spangled Man
With A Plan” penned by Alan Menken88 with lyrics by David Zippel contains all the
hallmarks of a WWII-era propaganda song; including lyrics:
Table 3.3. Lyrics from “Star Spangled Man With A Plan” from Captain America: The First Avenger
Verse 2
We can’t ignore there’s a threat and a war we must win!
Who’ll hang the noose on the goose-stepping goons from
Berlin?
Chorus
Who will indeed lead the call for America, who’ll rise
or fall, give his all for America?
Who's here to prove that "we can"!
The Star-Spangled Man, with a plan!
The entire song accompanies a full musical number as a part of a USO shows
in which Captain America himself appears to not only rally patriotism but to also, at
the behest of the US Government unwilling to deploy Steve Rogers in battle,
87 IMDb. "Soundtracks - Captain America: The First Avenger." IMDb.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/soundtrack?ref_=tt_trv_snd. 88 Menken is predominantly known for his contributions to numerous Disney animated musicals such as
The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and Aladdin (1992) all of which won
Academy Awards for “Best Original Song” their respective years.
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encourage citizens to buy war bonds. The montage of performances on screen
chronicle Captain America’s rise to fame, albeit, as a puppet of politicians off which
they can monetarily gain (again, drawing from modern day real world issues) using his
iconic image.
Much like Alan Silvestri’s underscore to the film, the diegetic music within the
film is used in subsequent MCU films as a connective narrative element to Captain
America’s past. In Captain America: The Winter Solider, Sammy Cahn and Jule
Styne’s “It's Been A Long, Long Time” as performed by Harry James and his
Orchestra89 is heard when Captain America enters his apartment to find a wounded
Nick Fury in the aftermath of the Winter Soldier (secretly Cap’s friend thought
deceased in the first film). In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Cap receives a vision of an
alternate reality presented as a “flashback” in which he attends a victory party with his
flame (Peggy Carter) accompanied to the strains of the Gershwins’ (George and Ira) “I
Can’t Get Started90.” Though occupying different genres, the diegetic musical
vernaculars of Iron Man and Steve Rogers establish their respective times periods and
offer introspective look in their personalities.
89 IMDb. "Soundtracks - Captain America: The First Avenger." IMDb.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/soundtrack?ref_=tt_trv_snd. 90 90 IMDb. "Soundtracks – Avengers: Age of Ultron." IMDb.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/soundtrack?ref_=tt_trv_snd.
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CHAPTER 4
HEROIC HARMONIES
Though not as easily perceived in the mind of the average movie-goer as
melody, harmony plays an important role in a film score’s effect on an audience.
Happiness or joy can be emphasized by a major tonality. Somber scenes or evil
characters can be underscored with minor-keyed melodies to address the gravity of a
particular scene’s narrative demands. Augmented and diminished harmonies can
suggest suspense, fear, or surprise. In music, one would classify the (formal)
organization of these sonorities into chord progressions categorized by their functions
relative to schematic models drawing from antiquity. Musical repertoires such as the
sonata, symphony, fugue, and concerto are codified as such by their adherence to the
tonally normative, hierarchal organization of melodic, harmonic, and developmental
components. Such models are not only occur in Western classical music, but also in
other genres such as jazz or rock in structural models such as twelve-bar blues or the
multitude of labels applicable to a song’s verse/chorus ratio. In film music, however,
many Common Practice models are inapplicable to music whose primary function is
to address the on-screen narrative rather than serve as an objective work of art as one
would listen to a symphony or chamber music work.
Music theorist, Frank Lehman, succinctly highlights the pitfalls of attempting
to “shoehorn” Classical theoretical and formal structures in his essay “Hollywood
Cadences: Music and the Structure of Cinematic Expectation” in which he discusses
the narrative functions of post-Romantic/post-Tonal cadential figures as observed in
numerous film scores. “Cinema scores comprise a repertoire of profoundly greater
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tonal and formal eclecticism than that of the Classical style.” writes Lehman. As a
“stylistically heterogeneous and intrinsically programmatic repertoire,” film scores
overall “rarely rely on a set of architectural paradigms like sonata form to regulate
phrases, tonal design, essential structural closure, and so on.” To be succinct: the
expressive qualities of film music are reliant on “[musical/narrative] rhetoric, not
[theoretical/formal musical] syntax.91” Knowledge of Common Practice period
musical structures and their function can be valuable to any composer seeking self-
utility, especially in writing for period films, but most modern films render such
abilities superfluous. “The man who insists on self-expression” writes Copland, “had
better stay home and write symphonies. He will never be happy in Hollywood.92” This
is not to say that some composers have not found ways to incorporate (or imitate)
historical models into their film-works. In Jaws (1975), John Williams utilizes a
fughetta (“short fugue”) entitled “The Shark Cage Fugue” for when the crew of the
Orca is assembling the shark cage prior to Hooper’s (Richard Dreyfuss) encounter
with the Spielberg film’s shark “antagonist.93” Nonetheless, relatively isolated
examples such as this are, as stated previously, employed out of narrative pertinence,
not because a composer feels artistically-inclined to do so.
The overall layout of a film score will undoubtedly ignore the organizational
aesthetic constructs of classical repertoires in breaking conventions in counterpoint,
91 Frank Lehman. "Hollywood Cadences: Music and the Structure of Cinematic Expectation." Society
for Music Theory 19, no. 4 (December 2013): 1-29. Accessed May 1, 2015.
http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.13.19.4/mto.13.19.4.lehman.php. 92 Copland and Kostelanetz. "Second Thoughts on Hollywood (1940)." In Aaron Copland: A Reader ;
Selected Writings 1923-1972, 111. 93 Antagonists have a motive. A great white shark, in the words of Dreyfuss’ character in the film, just
wants to “swim and eat and make little sharks.”
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voice-leading, and an over-arching form, but the leitmotivic content like any melody,
regardless of genre or historical period, can exhibit underlying harmonic content
calculable via Common Practice theoretical parameters. Thematic statements of a
characters theme, as mentioned in Chapter 1, will often undergo harmonic alterations
in order to compliment a particular character’s actions or situational drama. Harmonic
deviations from pre-existing material can render precise identification of said
leitmotifs tedious, especially if said leitmotifs are reincorporated from a previous
chapter in a film franchise. For instance, in The Avengers, Silvestri reuses his Captain
America theme; however, it only appears in harmonically altered iterations of the
theme’s first two measures to address the peril and action on the screen. The same can
be said of Silvestri’s main idea for the Avengers themselves as it appears in a
melodically truncated quote in Christophe Beck’s Ant-Man score. The melodies may
retain the exact pitch inventory; however, the harmonic deviations from the theme’s
initial presentation affect the way in which one aurally interprets the musical content
through what Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner and their (at the time) progressive
contemporaries explored via thematic transformation. The sporadic, leitmotivic
content within the first five films of the MCU have already been discussed, as has the
semi-cohesive, albeit lose, connections amongst the post-Avengers scores. Upon
further examination of numerous leitmotifs’ harmonic content, however, one can
observe recurrent harmonic phenomena that can function as unifying musical factors
for characters now bound by personal associations or, in some instances, fate or
destiny.
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Many of the featured heroic leitmotifs for the post-Avengers MCU films
feature the exact or similar harmonic content as observed in the first three measures of
Silvestri’s main Avengers theme as exhibited below (see Example 20):
Example 20. Silvestri: Avengers chord progression94
Though the theme itself is presented in an E Dorian mode as explained earlier, the
harmonic content of the motif’s first three bars features a route position minor tonic (i)
which descends downward by a major third to a flat-major mediant (♭VI) borrowed
from E minor’s relative major key of G major, which then lands on a major
subdominant (IV) characteristic of the Dorian mode with its raised ^6th scale degree
(presented in first inversion).
Following The Avengers, subsequent composers in the MCU began, utilizing
the exact same chord progression or variations thereof. The narrative reasoning behind
these composers’ choices, whether explicit or accidental, draws connection to
narrative elements drawn from the pre-existing film universe and references to the
original comic book source material.
94 Author’s personal transcription
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In Iron Man 3, Brian Tyler utilized Silvestri’s chord progression, however
instead of landing on the A-major chord in first inversion, the bass line lands on the
chord in root position as seen in the brackets in the example below.
Example 21. Tyler: Theme from Iron Man 3 (2013) 95
The composer mentions in an interview that he was entrusted to write a “theme
for Iron Man that now related to him and the Avengers” that could musically “kind of
tie it all together.96” As Iron Man/Tony Stark finally embraces his superhero role in
the first Avengers film, this would be a logical musical choice to use the (literal) basis
(bass line) of that team as a connective musical signifier. The Avengers are now an
irreplaceable part of who Iron Man is whether by association with his superhero
colleagues or, as seen in Iron Man 3, the psychological effects of Battle of NYC on
Tony Stark. The same mental breakdowns Stark suffers in the third Iron Man film play
out in the second Avengers film, where one of the initial “villains” Wanda
Maximoff/Scarlet Witch implants a nightmarish vision with her psychokinetic powers
that initiate Stark’s desire to create the Ultron program.
95 Author’s personal transcription 96 Allison Doe. "Interview: Composer Brian Tyler Ushers in Epic New Sound for ‘Iron Man 3’." Film
School Rejects. May 2, 2013. Accessed April 30, 2016. http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/interview-
composer-brian-tyler-ushers-in-epic-new-sound-for-iron-man-3.php.
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When Danny Elfman was brought on to provide additional musical material
alongside Brian Tyler for Avengers: Age of Ultron, the most well-versed composer in
the symphonic superhero sound opted to honor Silvestri’s original theme in order to
address the “New Avengers” seen at the end of the film as previously stated in chapter
one. Elfman not only quotes the Avengers’ motif in the new theme’s bridge, but also
utilizes the same chord progression (in brackets) and same harmonic language
throughout (as seen below in Example 21).
Example 22. Elfman: "Heroes" theme from Avengers: Age of Ultron97
Elfman sought take “part of Alan Silvestri’s theme on the original [movie],”
and “pulled it into a new [hybrid] theme.98” While Elfman’s theme uses the same bass
line as Silvestri’s, it deviates from the original’s harmonic language in the third bar,
whereas instead landing on the major subdominant of the Dorian mode it lands on a
minor subdominant (iv) of B natural minor. The major IV of the original gives it a
more “optimistic” pull as opposed to Elfman’s minor tonality which addresses the
97 Author’s personal transcription 98 891 ABC Adelaide. "891+ABC+Adelaide+Danny+Elfman Search Results on SoundCloud - Listen to
Music." SoundCloud. March 14, 2015. Accessed April 25, 2016.
https://soundcloud.com/search?q=891+ABC+Adelaide+Danny+Elfman.
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heightened threat the Avengers face in the second film. The later composer does
employ a modal mixture at the “New Avengers” theme’s cadence where, like
Silvestri’s original, harkens back to the Dorian major subdominant (IV)/minor tonic
(i). Elfman utilizes the original Silvestri chord progression in the same way Tyler did
in order to address the connections of the Avengers’ central figure heads, Iron Man,
Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye to the new heroes who
join the team at the end of Age of Ultron. The theme acts as a sort of musical “passing
of the torch,” as Falcon (introduced in “Winter Soldier”), War Machine (introduced in
Iron Man 2), Scarlet Witch, and Vision take over for roles left vacant at the end of the
film in Tony Stark’s voluntary “leave of absence,” Thor returning to Asgard, and the
Hulk, yet again, going missing “off the grid.”
Ant-Man, which takes place soon after the events of the second Avengers, also
contains some harmonic musical references to Silvestri’s work, albeit, in more
ingenuitive ways than Elfman’s or Tyler’s outright re-adaptation. Composer
Christophe Beck went further to subtly incorporate the Avengers harmonic progression
as a way to keep the general musical aesthetic of the overall film series and address
extra-narrative ideas of the Ant-Man character. Unlike all of the other thematic ideas
in the MCU which are built-off tertian harmonies (triads and their inversions), Beck’s
Ant-Man theme contains quintal harmonies in its first four bars and a (passing)
chromatic mediant (♭vi). The opening four bars contain the minor tonic to major ♭VI
progression heard in many superhero scores including Zimmer’s Dark Knight material
(see Chapter 2) and Silvestri’s Avengers (See Example 4.1), however both successive
instances of this chord are an open P5th from E♭ to B♭ over an A♭ approached by half
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step from a root-position G minor chord in the previous measure (mm. 1 – 4 in
Example 22) under the melody which arrives on the third of a root position E♭ chord
achieving a dissonant major seventh M7th between the bass and melody. Quintal
sonorities can also be heard in both Silvestri and Jackman’s Captain America material
as will be briefly discussed later in this chapter, the quartal inversion of which forms
the basis of the first Captain America march’s melody. The A♭ quintal chord “masks”
the Avengers’ chord progression ( i – ♭VI – IV) by altering the aurally perceived root
of the submediant, however, upon further musical analysis Silvestri’s progression is
there (in brackets below in Example 22), though in the middle of phrases as opposed
to functioning as a progressive cadence point as in Tyler in Iron Man 3 or as in
Elfman’s minor variation for Age of Ultron.
Example 23. Beck: "Theme from Ant-Man"99
The musical reasoning behind employing this progression, just as with the melodic
99 Author’s personal transcription (by ear)
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73
variation on the Avengers’ motif, is likely a musical foreshadowing to Ant-Man/Scott
Lang’s (Paul Rudd) involvement with the Avengers as briefly referenced at the end of
Ant-Man as Sam Wilson/Falcon is seen looking to recruit the film’s titular hero as a
member of the group. Whether or not Ant-Man will join the Avengers remains to be
seen, however, in the most recent theatrical trailer for Captain America: Civil War
(2016) Ant-Man, in a newly upgraded suit, is seen fighting alongside heroes allied
with Captain America/Steve Rogers as they battle against Iron Man/Tony Stark’s
team.
In Guardians of the Galaxy, Tyler Bates calls upon Silvestri’s harmonic
material and devises it in a way that, like Beck’s Ant-Man, hides any direct musical
correlations to “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” yet still addresses their connection to the
Avengers by indirect associations. As previously mentioned in Chapter 1, the function
and purpose of the powerful Infinity Stones, which in the MCU’s timeline have but
recently began to reappear at the doings of Thanos, are fully explained in “Guardians”
by the Collector (Benicio del Toro). In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the connection of the
Avengers on Earth to the Infinity stones is explained as well in a vision that appears to
Thor. Though the Avengers are unaware of Thanos’ cruel intentions or the “Mad
Titan’s” very existence in their universe, the Guardians are fully aware of the MCU’s
emerging main villain and his capabilities as “the most powerful being in the
universe.” Be it chance or destiny, the fates of the two alliances are now entwined
across the vast expanse of the cosmos. Unlike the Avengers, whose members embrace
their heroic roles, the self-entitled Guardians’ roles are ambiguously addressed at the
end of their feature film debut. In a sense, they may “guard” the galaxy, but they also
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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embrace their roles as misfit outlaws, who, like members of their Earth-bound heroic
counterparts, found their respective “humanity” (or equivalent for a group including
two humanoid aliens, a [mutant] raccoon, and a talking tree) in their effort to save
their world . They are the “anti-Avengers,” and composer Tyler Bates addresses this,
whether intentionally or by chance (again, a running narrative in the MCU) by giving
the Guardians the same harmonic language as that of the Avengers.
Whereas the Avengers’ motif is the established i – ♭VI – IV, Bate’s Guardians
theme exchanges the last two chords to present a i – IV – ♭VI, allowing the last chord
to function as a sort of deceptive cadence in order for the music to transition to other
musical ideas. In doing so, Bates’ presents a harmonic retrograde of Silvestri’s
Avengers theme (see Example 23 below) complete with the downward major third
(M3rd) precedes (in this case recedes?) an ascending half-step (m2nd) to the major
predominant presented in first inversion as opposed to Tyler’s and Elfman’s decent by
chordal root.
Example 24. Bates: "Guardians Theme" from Guardians of the Galaxy100
Bates’ six-bar Guardians leitmotif is unusual in the MCU’s musical catalogue
in that it lacks a definitive dominant anywhere it its harmonic language and it is also
the only thematic idea that only uses three chords, apart from the Avengers’ cellular
100 Author’s personal transcription
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
75
motif which leads to different tonal arrival points. The lack of a dominant chord or
any chord that could function as one enables Bates to address the continuously
progressing drama by avoiding a sense of resolution found at the end of Silvestri’s
Avengers theme or Brian Tyler’s Iron Man 3 idea in their implementation of a major
dominant (V) taken from the relative harmonic minor of their Dorian melodies at their
cadence points. In a way, Bate’s usage of the same harmonic language presented
indiscreetly mid-phrase is similar to what Christophe Beck did with the material’s
less-pronounced, yet still present, statement in his Ant-Man theme. The presence of
Silvestri’s harmonic vocabulary is rhetorically logical given the narrative implications
of the MCU’s ever-connecting saga, however, the same progression appears under
Ramin Djawadi’s heroic idea for Iron Man/Tony Stark in the first Iron Man film. This
is absolutely coincidental, or at least so when taking into consideration the words of
the MCU composers themselves explicitly stating their choices not to reutilize prior
leitmotivic content. Djawadi’s progression as it appears under Tony Stark building the
prototype Iron Man armor features the bass line descending by thirds (root M3rd
m3rd) in a i – ♭VI – IV progression (see Example 24).
Example 25. Djawadi: “Iron Man heroism” theme from Iron Man (2008)101
101Author’s personal transcription
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76
Like the melodic similarities, by intention or mere chance, to Black Sabbath’s
“Iron Man” as discussed in Chapter 1, the content is still there. In the context of Iron
Man, the progression could serve a musical signifier for things to come with Iron Man
become one of The Avengers’ core components and co-leader alongside Captain
America. The progression could also be another musical amalgamation of Tony
Stark’s affinity for punk rock as Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” from their 1993
album In Utero features the same i – ♭VI – IV chord progression. In logical fairness,
however, the connection is as “coincidental” as one pop song using the same chord
progression as another such as the often noted utilization of the I – V – vi – IV
formula, as humorously covered by Axis of Awesome, which forms the harmonic
basis for such songs as Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s
“Under the Bridge,” the chorus of Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”
from Disney’s The Lion King (1994), or Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel”
recently covered by Darius Rucker. Considering such ideas as directly connected,
whether as Djawadi’s material “influencing” Silvestri’s or Nirvana influencing
Djawadi, commits a textbook “Texas Sharpshooter” logical fallacy in negating the
contextual differences between the two in favor of the data that points to a (more than
likely) non-existent connection.
As for the other major heroes involved with the Avengers, Thor and Captain
America, their intra-narrative harmonic connections amongst films are less concrete as
those observed for their super-colleagues on either side of the galaxies. Henry
Jackman’s score for Captain America: The Winter Soldier forgoes the period, Indiana
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Jones-esque musical take on Steve Roger’s super-soldier hero provided by Alan
Silvestri for Captain America: The First Avenger in favor of a straight-forward action
thriller score. Both composers themes, though stylistically different do, at times,
utilize similar approaches in the utilization of quartal and quintal harmonies for the
“Star Spangled Man with a Plan.102” Silvestri’s musical language for Captain America
is melodically quartal and harmonically quintal as evidenced below [in Example 25],
with open 5th chords omitting the third of the chord throughout. As mentioned in
Chapter 1, these instances are a likely homage to the same harmonic vocabulary used
by Aaron Copland in his populist “Americana” pieces. Below, “open” chords without
a third are squared in blue, the quartal melodic features of the first phrase are squared
in green, and the quintal harmonies are in red. The quartal and quintal content also
includes the notes that make up those sonorities.
Example 26: Silvestri: Captain America: The First Avenger (overview of quartal and quintal
harmonies)103
Henry Jackman’s counterpart does not utilize any quartal chords as the constant root
position of the bass line prevents such harmonies from occurring. The theme does
102 Captain America: The First Avenger. Directed by Joe Johnson. Paramount, 2011. DVD. 103 Author’s personal transcription
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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contain multiple quintal chords and open 5th chords omitting the third as seen in
Example 26 on the next page.
The harmonic language of Jackman’s new Captain America theme, as heard in
its full statement over the end credits in a rendition titled “Taking a Stand” on the
original soundtrack album, is strikingly close to the same chord inventory of Alan
Silvestri’s Avengers’ motif. Whereas Silvestri’s inventory of the theme’s first full
phrase is i ♭VI VI♭VI -VII, Jackman uses the same content in a different
succession of (assuming a modal mixture in D harmonic minor) ♭VI – IV – i – VII.
Example 27. Jackman: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (overview of quintal and open
harmonies)104
104 Author’s personal transcription
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79
For the sake of analysis, the propulsive eighth-note ostinato’s interaction with the
quintal chords is unrelated to the harmonic motion, however, if one were to take a
complete pitch inventory taking into account the passing tones some quintal or quartal
figures do emerge, some of which span over three octaves above the bass note if
stacked in consecutive perfect fifths (P5ths) as could be the case in the chords in the
first two bars of the last system of Example 26.
In the interest of time and as to address the focus on Iron Man, Captain
America, and the various associations with the Avengers / Guardians of the Galaxy,
the harmonic vocabulary of Thor will be expounded upon in later research. It is
worthy of mention, however, that though Patrick Doyle and Brian Tyler employ
completely different melodic approaches in terms of melodic contour and intervallic
content, both composers heroic material for Thor occupy a strictly diatonic realms.
Unlike the musical associations with Iron Man, Ant-Man, the Avengers and Guardians
which feature modal mixtures and borrowed chords or Captain America’s neo-
Coplandesque inclinations at the hands of Silvestri and Jackman, both the main
thematic identities from Thor (2011) composed by Patrick Doyle and its post-
Avengers sequel Thor: The Dark World (2013) utilize strict usage of simplistic I, IV,
V, and vi chords found in pop music (see Example 27).
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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Example 28. Patrick Doyle's Thor and Brian Tyler's Thor: The Dark World harmonic comparisons 105
While melodic unity through franchise-shared leitmotifs a la Star Wars or The Lord of
the Rings may instill more immediate recognition, chord progressions and harmonic
language can also serve as a unifying musical construct.
105 Author’s personal transcription
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81
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS
As evidenced in this study, certain musical elements can form a sense of
musical continuity despite lacking leitmotivic unity as established through the
aesthetic precedents established by Wagner in opera and later Korngold, Williams,
Shore, and others in film scoring. Melodic contour and intervallic content can reappear
in melodies with different pitch inventory as with the melodically disjoint Phase One
of the MCU, however the prevalent influence of Alan Silvestri’s Avengers motif on
the series has forged some similar melodic ideas amongst separate characters. The
precise prevalence and application of this theme varies from film to film at the
discretion of the film series’ relative composer(s). The usage and role of source music
in the MCU has remained the most consistent musical construct for the characters it
applies to, namely Iron Man and Captain America. The tropes addressed through the
usage of classical music to correlate to villains’ actions or personalities is another
unifying musical construct separate from leitmotivic utilization will be considered in a
further study on the MCU. Such topics were omitted here in the interest of time. The
harmonic language amongst the MCU’s Phase Two films after The Avengers (Iron
Man 3 through Ant-Man) show a sense of connectedness via shared chord
progressions and interchangeable harmonic vocabulary. Though many of these
concepts are connected through methodologies of this researcher’s own devising as
opposed to the words of filmmakers and composers, the study shows in depth
narrative and extra-narrative analyses can uncover and explain patterns not deducible
via listening to seemingly unrelated melodies alone. While concrete leitmotivic unity
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and direct thematic transformations in the Wagnerian tradition would have perhaps
granted the MCU film series a sense of musical sophistication on the level of Star
Wars or The Lord of the Rings, the seemingly constant changes in characterization by
central superheroes in the saga are represented by shifting musical ideas unified by
trace elements in both musical and narrative content.
The endearing popularity of the superhero film genre will ultimately require
me to revisit this thesis within the next few years. Though the comic book film genre’s
cultural prevalence is discussed in this study’s introduction, some industry
professionals question the longevity of any film genre in a business so reliant in
audiences’ interest and investment, both emotionally and monetarily, in brands and
trends. “We were around when the Western died,” says Steven Spielberg. “And there
will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western. 106” Such
remarks may sound disparaging from the figurehead of populist cinema – whose
seminal works include such franchise-based, action-adventure fare as Jurassic Park,
the Indiana Jones films, and Jaws, the film largely considered the “first summer
blockbuster” – however, the modern Hollywood studio model is trend-centric. Various
film genres have gone in and out of vogue such as the Hollywood musical, the biblical
epic, the disaster film, high fantasy, and the western. This is not to say that studios do
not still make such films, but rather that audiences’ interest in such ventures change
over time. “It doesn't mean there won't be another occasion where the Western comes
106 Kelly Lawler. "Steven Spielberg: Superhero Movies Will Go 'the Way of the Western'" USA Today.
September 03, 2015. Accessed May 1, 2016.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2015/09/03/steven-spielberg-superhero-movies-will-
go-the-way-of-the-western/77540908/.
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back and the superhero movie someday returns,” continues Spielberg. “Of course,
right now the superhero movie is alive and thriving. I'm only saying that these cycles
have a finite time in popular culture.107” Though the observations of an industry-
respected artist such as Spielberg concerning the future of such currently viable brands
is welcomed and founded on observable trends, unlike westerns or disaster films,
superheroes have vitality both on and off-screen through lucrative merchandising of
bankable comic book properties.
Other factors affecting the nature of the study therein include the foreseen
future of the MCU; namely the ever expanding roster of films. In 2016 alone, three
major characters in the Marvel Comics lexicon are set to make their MCU debuts:
Black Panther/T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tom
Holland) in Captain America: Civil War (released in the US on May 6th, 2016) and
later Doctor Strange/Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbach) in Doctor Strange
(November 4th, 2016).
Whereas heroes such as Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor found new
popularity beyond the print medium awarded by the MCU’s financial successes,
Spider-Man – previously featured in five non-MCU films – is already a culturally and
financially prevalent property. In terms of merchandise sales, Spider-Man products
alone outsold those related to the Avengers, Batman, and Superman combined in
2013.108 Marvel Studios now has the most popular superhero of the twenty-first
107 Ibid 108 Alex Ben Block. "Which Superhero Earns $1.3 Billion a Year?" The Hollywood Reporter.
November 11, 2014. Accessed May 1, 2016. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/superhero-earns-
13-billion-a-748281.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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century in their ever-growing catalogue of cinematic heroes. From a narrative
perspective it adds a new dimension not yet explored in the films. All the other MCU
heroes in both the films and TV shows are adults or gain their powers as adults,
whereas Peter Parker acquires his powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider as a
high school-age boy. In a way he, like most other young people, does not even know
who he is as a still developing person when the “responsibility” that comes with his
“great power” is thrust upon him. Following the events in Captain America: Civil
War, Spider-Man is slated to re-appear in his own MCU chapter entitled Spider-Man:
Homecoming to be released in July 2017109. How Spider-Man will be musically
addressed in the series remains to be seen / heard with the hero already having musical
identities supplied by Danny Elfman for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy and James
Horner and Hans Zimmer for the two, respective Amazing Spider-Man films. With
Captain America: The Winter Soldier composer Henry Jackman returning to Captain
America: Civil War, how the composer’s musical choices for Spider-Man carryover
into the subsequent 2017 film featuring the titular character remain to be seen as no
composer is currently attached to the production. Doctor Strange’s inclusion is also
likely take the franchise into new directions both stylistically and narratively. Called
the “Sorcerer Supreme” in the comics, Doctor Strange deals in dark magic, spells, and
extra dimensions (briefly hinted at in Ant-Man). Rhetorically speaking, how does
magic factor into such a science-based universe as previously depicted? Promotional
materials for the film show the titular character casting what appear to be spells. The
109 IMDb. "Spider-Man: Homecoming." IMDb. Accessed April 29, 2016.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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film’s current synopsis reads: “After his career is destroyed, a brilliant but arrogant
and conceited surgeon gets a new lease on life when a sorcerer takes him under his
wing and trains him to defend the world against evil.”110 A Black Panther film is
currently slated for a 2018 release111. The MCU’s “Phase Three” currently has 10
films slated for release between 2016 and 2019.112 This study will have to be revisited
in five years in order to present an up-to-date presentation of how music functions in
the Marvel Cinematic Universe as various composers are sought out to provide
musical identities for new characters or revisit established heroes.
In wake of the MCU’s success in devising a shared universe, other film
franchises are adopting similar narrative approaches with their blockbuster properties.
Disney/LucasFilm will not only continue with the episodic Star Wars sequels (with
VIII and IX already in pre-production), but will also explore the potential of stand-
alone movies set in the same galactic universe. One such film, entitled Rogue One: A
Star Wars Story is slated for release in December 2016 and be scored by French film
composer Alexandre Desplat113. While Star Wars’ music is synonymous with John
Williams, Desplat’s involvement as composer of last two Harry Potter films showed
the composer apt to reuse pre-existing Williams thematic material albeit in harmonic
alterations. Paramount is developing a shared universe in the already established live
110 IMDb. "Doctor Strange (2016)." IMDb. Accessed May 06, 2016.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837/?ref_=ttmd_md_nm. 111 IMDb. "Black Panther (2018)." IMDb. Accessed May 3, 2016.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/?ref_=nv_sr_1. 112 Mark Strom, "Marvel Studios Phase 3 Update," Marvel [Official Company Website], October 3,
2015. Accessed October 24, 2015.
http://marvel.com/news/movies/25244/marvel_studios_phase_3_update?linkId=17794776. 113 Graeme McMillan. "Alexandre Desplat Says He'll Be Working on 'Star Wars' Stand-alone Movie."
The Hollywood Reporter. March 16, 2015. Accessed May 1, 2016.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/alexandre-desplat-says-hell-be-781698.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
86
action Transformers franchise. On March 18th, 2016, Warner Brothers released
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, as a sequel to the Man of Steel (2013)
Superman film. The film marks the first time Batman (Ben Affleck) and Superman
(Henry Cavill) met in a live action context, and will also introduced the first film
incarnation of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), in return laying the groundwork for DC
Comic’s Justice League–related properties. A Wonder Woman film is already in
production for a 2017 theatrical release. While Hans Zimmer’s music for Batman as
featured in the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight films was foregone in favor of new
material for the character in order to differentiate the two film series, Hans Zimmer
and Junkie XL’s Batman v. Superman score contains copious reuses of Zimmer’s
Superman music written for Man of Steel. The future of that particular series remains
to be seen as both Man of Steel and Batman v Superman failed to meet the critical
successes114 of the MCU (all films in the MCU have a “Fresh” [positive] rating on
online review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes)115.
Though some industry professionals and critics question the viability, let alone
the inherent value of such large-scale populist fare, audiences ultimately drive the
demand for these cinematic spectacles. The appeal of the MCU, however, transcends
the cynicism of ardent critics. The MCU is comprised of “human stories with a
superhero feel,” states actor Chris Evans (Captain America), rather than “superhero
114 Rotten Tomatoes. "DC Extended Universe." Rotten Tomatoes. March 18, 2016. Accessed April 21,
2076. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/franchise/dc-comics/. 115Jeff Giles. "Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer." Rotten Tomatoes. May 4, 2016.
Accessed May 04, 2016. http://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/marvel-cinematic-universe-movies-
by-tomatometer/. http://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/marvel-cinematic-universe-movies-by-
tomatometer/.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
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film(s)…with human touches.116” Though characters such as Iron Man, Captain
America, the Incredible Hulk, and others in the MCU canon form a modern day,
heroic pantheon of Greco-Roman mythical proportions, under those iconic outfits lay
highly-developed, (literally) multifaceted characters with relatable motivations. It is
this researcher’s hope that this study concerning the music of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe can aid in the research if music in not only comic book films, but also in
other financially successful and/or culturally pertinent film franchises. With so many
more heroic stories to recount, the sky is the limit not only for “Earth’s mightiest
heroes,” but also for whatever (film) composers can muster to send both on-screen
heroes themselves and their audiences’ soaring.
116 Marvel Studios. "Brothers in Arms - Marvel's Captain America: Civil War Featurette." YouTube.
April 7, 2016. Accessed May 06, 2016. https://youtu.be/8K5QY8X91vI?t=12s.
Texas Tech University, Bryce Biffle, August 2016
88
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FILMOGRAPHY
Iron Man. Directed by Jon Favreau. USA: Paramount Pictures, 2008. DVD.
The Incredible Hulk. Directed by Louis Leterrier. USA: Universal Pictures, 2008.
DVD.
Iron Man 2. Directed by Jon Favreau. Paramount Pictures, 2010. DVD.
Thor. Directed by Kenneth Branagh. USA: Paramount Pictures, 2011. DVD
Captain America: The First Avenger. Directed by Joe Johnston. USA: Paramount
Pictures, 2011. DVD.
Marvel's The Avengers. Directed by Josh Whedon. USA: Buena Vista Pictures, 2012.
Film.
Iron Man 3. Directed by Shane Black. Buena Vista Pictures, 2013. BluRay.
Thor: The Dark World. Directed by Alan Taylor. USA: Buena Vista Pictures, 2013.
DVD.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo.
USA: Buena Vista Pictures, 2014. DVD.
Guardians of the Galaxy. Directed by James Gunn. USA: Buena Vista Pictures, 2014.
DVD.
Avengers: Age of Ultron. Directed by Joss Whedon. USA: Buena Vista Pictures, 2015.
BluRay.
Ant-Man. Directed by Peyton Reed. USA: Buena Vista Pictures, 2015. DVD.