How is Beethoven's 9th Symphony Used to Drive the Narrative in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange - Research Proposal Example

Proposal How is Beethoven’s 9th symphony used to drive the narrative in Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’? (2) Research Question(s) 1. To what extent does the music in the film challenge notions of taste and High-culture vs. low art? 2. To identify the key moments in the film where horror of violence is increased or lessened. (3) Area of Research This research study primarily focuses on addressing a combination of music and visual. The ninth symphony music is mostly used in this film at the scenes when Alex plans and commits violent acts. The music is also used against Alex to prevent him from committing violent acts. The use of music and sound effects in a film are significant in the production of films because it helps producers enhance moods that are presented in different scenes. Music also adds to the appealing effects of a film thus making it enjoyable and easy to understand. Additionally, it is necessary to note that emotion usually characterizes an integral part of a film, and does the experience of music. However, a number of disciplines of both music psychology and musicology have neglected to investigate the role of music in a film. I am interested in investing this particular area of study because it highlights the importance of music and the inter-textual nature of the two, in a film. Additionally, the research will encounter this neglect and takes a psychological perspective on the remarkable and sublime emotional phenomena produced by ninth symphony music, in the film in question. (4) Concepts, Theories & Debates The main concepts and theories employed in this research will include High art v low culture, cultural debate, quality and taste, and psychological impact. This research will also use David Bordwell’s ideas posed by Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies (1996) to investigate the research questions. Additionally, it is necessary to consider the work and idea of visual and sound effects like those presented by David Bordwell’s to analyze this film in a scholarly way. The use of David Bordwells Narration in a fictitious film helps in locating “A Clockwork Orange” within the discourses of the art cinema. Bordwell, in a chapter on narration, in the art film, assembled the following list to define the art cinema: a goal-bereft protagonist” as in the case of Alex, an ‘episodic format, a central boundary situation, and spatiotemporal expressive effects as well as self-preferentiality (p.209). (5) Research Design (Methods & Procedure) The proposed research will adopt case study design to investigate research question. This design provides in-depth study of the research problem other than sweeping through statistical survey. This design is also useful for investigating whether the concepts, theories and debates listed above actually apply in real world phenomena. Case study design can add strength or extend experience to what has already been researched. This implies that the proposed research method will also rely on secondary data to investigate the research topic. Through this design, it will also be possible to rely on a variety of sources and methodologies to investigate the research problem. Finally, this design method will be useful in providing detailed description of rare and specific cases. However, case study design method can sometimes create an intense exposure to the research problem, which may bias a researcher’s evaluation of research findings. In addition, this design often omits some vital information, which can make the case difficult to interpret. It does not also facilitate assessment of effect and cause relationships. The primary aim of the research will be to investigate how much the music influences different scenes, in this film. It will also examine key moments, in the film, to establish the argument on the impact of the music. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony follows the course of the film through Alex’s narration. Alex, in this film, likes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony more than any other music, something that is ironical because this music is meant to praise human goodness, but not depravity. The first symphony begins by illustrating the plight of offenders, in the lowest rung of hell (p.209). The second symphony depicts how human beings find pleasure in everyday pleasures. In the third s movement, humans turn to religion, and in the fourth movement, the symphony is focused to express a vision of humanity, which had travelled spiritually from the lowest point of despair to the highest point of glory and fulfillment (p.209). Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony challenges the notion of both taste and high-culture versus low-art, in this film, when it is used to drive Alex to the lowest point, especially when he jumps from the window trying to evade the sickness of Ludovico’s Technique, which has made him feel sick whenever he hears the music. Additionally, Alex decided to change his codes of behavior when he listened to the music play over images of Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler (p.209). This not only drain him of violence, but also of passion to classical music. (6) Data Analysis& Presentation The proposed research will adopt qualitative data analysis method to analyze the data. Data analysis will primarily focus on answering the research question of how Beethoven’s ninth symphony is used to drive the narrative in Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange”. Additionally, analysis will also focus on how the participants responded to each question for a given scene. The questions used in this case are open-ended questions. Analysis will also explore the relationships and connections between questions or reactions to different scenes. This research analysis will consider input and feedback from other researchers. These researchers will identify the data independently to identify categories and themes. Then the information collected will be compared with my findings to resolve any discrepancies in understanding the research topic. The analyzed data will be presented histograms. This is because it is most appropriate in representing grouped continuous variables. It depicts the frequency versus a nearly continuous variable. (7) Self Assessment This key strength of this research is the use of David Bordwells Narration and the identified concepts to investigate how Beethoven’s ninth symphony is used to drive the narrative in Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange”. Music is a vital aspect of a film as it is used to control moods depicted in different scenes. Beethoven’s symphony is primarily used in “A Clock Orange”. High art v low culture, cultural debate, quality and taste, psychological impact and Bordwell’s narration help in understanding how the different moods depicted by Alex, the protagonist of the film, in different scenes. For instance, this music is used when Alex plans and commits violent acts, and used to prevent him from committing violent acts. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is also used to link scenes where horror of violence is increased with the film. This music is what drives Alex to move around with his gang hurting and raping innocent people just for the sake of fun. Majority of sex scenes, in this film, are violent. This is evident in the scenes where the gang attempted to rape “weepy Devotchka”, and when Alex raped Mrs. Alexander. Additionally, this music is also used when violence is lessened, for example, when Alex listens to the music play over the image of Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler, and decides to leave violent acts. (8) Bibliography Books Benedetti, R. L. Creative postproduction: editing, sounds, visual effects, and music for film and video. Boston, Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2004. Bordwell, D., & Thompson, K. Film art: an introduction. New York, McGraw-Hill, 2013. Buckland W. Film Theory and Contemporary Hollywood Movies. New York: Routledge, 2009. Burgess, A., & Biswell, A. A clockwork orange: the restored edition. New York, W.W. Norton & Co, 2012. Butler J. G. Television: Critical Methods And Applications. New York: Routledge, 2007. Falsetto, M. Stanley Kubrick: a narrative and stylistic analysis. Westport, Conn. [u.a.], Greenwood Press, 2001. Fichner-Rathus L. Understanding Art (with Art Coursemate with EBook Printed Access Card). New York: Cengage Learning, 2012. Mcdougal, S. Y. Stanley Kubricks A clockwork orange. Cambridge u.a, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003 Pramaggiore, M., & Wallis, T. Film: a critical introduction. London, Laurence King, 2005. Journals Bordwell D. Poetics of Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2008, 78. Buch, E. Beethovens Ninth: a political history, 2004, 12-24 Dellantonio, A. Beyond structural listening?: Postmodern modes of hearing. Berkeley, Calif. [u.a.], Univ. of California Press, 2004, 75. Levy, D. B. Beethoven the Ninth symphony. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2003, 54 Ruggieri V. Beethovens 9th Symphony. The Joy Between Psychophysiology and Anthropology. A Celebration of Bacchus. New York: Valore Italiano, 2012, 164-76 Notes & Questions Vincent Canby, "A Clockwork Orange Dazzles the Senses and Mind," New York Times, 20 December 1971,44; Cocks, "Seasons Greetings," 80; Alpert, "Milk-Plus and illtraViolence," 40; "Kubricks A Clockwork Orange," Playboy 19, no. 1 (January 1972): 200. Susan Rice, "Stanley Klockworks Cubrick Orange," Media and Methods 8, no. 7 (March 1972): 39-43. Burgess, "A Clockwork Orange," 35; Kauffmann, "A Clockwork Orange," 32; Kael, "Stanley Strangelove," 50. Janet Staiger, "The Politics of Film Canons," Cinema Journal 24, no. 3 (Spring 1985): 4-23; David Bordwell, Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989); Janet Staiger, "With the Compliments of the Auteur: Art Cinema and the Complexities of Its Reading Strategies," in Interpreting Films: Studies in the Historical Reception of American Cinema (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 178-95. Visual Memory – Stanley Kubrick (http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/) Self Evaluation Report Give a summary of the project’s main strengths What aspects of the project do you think could be improved? Read More