Transformational Analysis and the Representation of Genius in Film Music

Abstract

Neo-Riemannian theory offers an auspicious toolkit for analyzing film music—a repertoire in which dramatic exigency takes precedence over functional tonal logic. The ability of neo-Riemannian theory to model harmonic progressions as dynamic and contextually determined, particularly with association-laden chromatic motions, suits it eminently to Hollywood scoring practice. This transformational approach is tested on James Horner’s music for the film. A Beautiful Mind. In this score, Horner illustrates the mental life of the mathematician John Nash with wildly chromatic but firmly triadic music. A group generated by the operators L, R, and S provides the transformational fount for a “Genius complex” that represents intense intellection. Three cues from A Beautiful Mind are analyzed. Collectively, their tonal spaces reveal a distinctly transformational contribution to narrative and characterization. These readings further evince a tension between the logical teleology of sequential patterning with the radically contingent, even game-like quality of Horner’s triadic manipulations.