illegal immigrant found peddling posters in underground network

The Muse gig last night was awesome, phenomenal, momentous. All hackneyed superlatives used often enough, like in idiot tabloid frenzies, but this truly was something. Two encores containing 5 more songs (they only usually perform one) and the same huge balloons with the red/black confetti inside like on the Le Zenith DVD. Speaking of DVDs, I was speaking to some other fans from Bristol we came across in Starbucks before the gig, (they were going yesterday as well as the day before!!!) and it seemed they were filming loads of stuff, so I'm guessing another DVD is in the wings. It was annoying since they filmed lots of the guys in seats next to us but turned the camera off before they swung around to our little bit of the standing area, but I guess we got our dues when some cameraman wandered over to us just before they performed Plug In Baby in the first encore, so we might well end up on the DVD! Visuals and backdrops were exactly the same as at V Fest this summer - no surprises there, but who cares, since you don't go see a band for the video backdrops.

Strangely, not much moshing and loads of young & old ppl - it didn't really get going till the 2nd half of the gig. For a sold out gig, there was still plenty of space in which to move, and that's a great thing. I wanted to get a T-shirt at the end of the gig but had no money, so I had to settle for a £2 poster some guy sold me in the Tube station.

Nightmare journey home too! Lol. I took the Tube with Bob to Green Park, where he went his own way on the Jubilee Line, but the gates to the Victoria Line were shut, so I took the Circle Line to Westminster and onto Victoria that way. But when I got to Victoria there were no BR trains home so in the end I had to return to Earl's Court on the District Line, change to get a train on the Wimbledon strand, and get 'rescued' by my sister, on her way home herself from a party.

employee was sacked for over-estimating holiday leave

Picked up the application form for MMus Composition today. Otherwise it's been a bit of a boring day - went out to Drydock + Cockpit last night for last Slam Dunk this year; it was empty...very good, more space to move around. Was weird as we bumped into a couple of ppl from badminton club and friends of friends who just happened to be in the same place as us.

Managed to get 3 weeks off work instead of 2 thanks to my shift being on Xmas Day/New Year's Day. Immensely looking forward to the Xmas break although it will mean grafting on my composition & dissertation. Playing some Stereophonics loud and not giving a care in the world is the order of the day.

is the lead singer of the band 'my chemical romance' and said

Bit of a bender last night, starting at 5pm in Old Bar, culminating in a wobbly walk home at 11.30 with Dan and Bob. It was a night of waiting for Bob to order at the bar, Lambrini-swigging black guys, and getting knocked up. (That last bit refers to having a few games of pool.) Much video footage was taken, most of which is now presented for your delectation on the Imagestation portion of my website. (Follow the link in my profile.)

The sense of release from giving all your semester's work in is unparalleled. One less millstone removed from around my neck, and liberty for 4 weeks until I return to symphonic analysis for the very last time in my career, during a 3-day take away paper in the middle of January next year. I was also very pleased with my efforts on my Herrmann essay, which you can read below but has since been slightly altered.

Have been making enquiries about staying on next year to my Herrmann tutor, also the Head of School, who has pointed me to one Graham Barber, the PG tutor. There's some conflicting advice being given out - the HoS says you need a decent First UG degree to apply for a Masters when I've heard that it's either a First or 2:1 elsewhere. I am definitely on course for a 2:1 but a First is debatable ... time will tell. It's getting to the stage where I need to think about applying for it if I want to do it, since I also need to confirm if I will be staying on at this house next year ... the only thing stopping me from staying here at the moment is the entry requirements to that pesky MMus. But then I'd be Mr Jamie Gray, BA (Hons), MMus, Esq. ... haha. More letters added after my name than are in my name. Delightful.

Skived off work today because I had a headache from drinking last night, and consequently couldn't face the monotony of a 10 hr shift in a call centre today. Instead I slept in, had some cereal and went with Ben and Dan to get some things at the supermarket for Xmas lunch for tomorrow, and have since spent the rest of the day eating KFC and playing PS2. The life of a student indeed.

I feel torn between going home and staying in Leeds. A part of me wants to stay around the people I've known for three years, but another part acknowledges that those same people will want to see their families at Christmas too, and still another part of me wants to re-visit my home in Surrey. It sounds strange to consider your lifelong home a second home but that's what it's become, an extension of my life rather than the focal point.

I still have nothing to do for New Year's Day, although I may play along with Dan's house-party gate-crashing. (?) Lol.

Endnotes:
This is actually the funniest picture of Bob I have ever seen, and most probably ever will see.

on Thursday the pupil was summoned to the departmental authorities to explain himself

What, I ask myself, am I doing on here instead of working hard at symphonic analysis? The answer is a combination of tedium and a 'can't-be-arsed-with-it-anymore' attitude. Worryingly, this attitude has been prevalent for about a week now, just when I don't need it. It's not that I'm spending too much time online, or even making up distractions for myself. I feel as though any effort I make will be in vain because it's highly probable that it's wrong.

On Friday I will submit 4 analyses of 1st movements from well-known symphonies. Nothing wrong with that, except that we've had 10 classes with varying degrees of revelancy to the set coursework, and no individual tutor time whatsoever. In short, this submission is the first and only time I will get tutor feedback from Analysis this entire year, since the module is semester 1 only. That bugs me. It seems to me that I am paying £1150 a year for the services of my tutors which are constantly being denied me.

To add insult to injury, the Head of School asked me the other day what my plans are for the following year, implying he wanted me to stay on and study for a Masters. I think I wouldn't be able to accept his offer on this basis, not because I don't want to study music anymore, because I do - if anything, I want to enlighten myself even more about this subject that remains completely fascinating to me - but because I fear a lack of extrinsical interest in my welfare (and by extension my work) will jeopardise any chance of progress I have of making on the course. In addition, I have been in some sort of education since the age of 3, which makes ... 17 consecutive years. It's high time for a break before I burnout. Perhaps my chances of success in a Masters course will be significantly increased if I take some time out to relax rather than slog on thinking I can take it all on, when I most likely can't.

As it stands at the moment, I have completed my 4,000 word Herrmann essay, (written 4,400 words, the 10% upper limit, but I'm not satisfied with a few paragraphs in it after proof-reading so I may have to edit it, which will be laborious, but such is life) done 800/1000 words for my dissertation (tutorial with the Head of School tomorrow at 9am, gulp) and lastly, done 3 out of 4 analyses for Symphonic Analysis.

The Debussy was a very difficult nut to crack - it was the 1st movement of La Mer. It was half as short as the 1st mvmt. of Beethoven's Eroica symphony (8:37 to 18:56) but at least twice as hard, so it all pans out. I'm sure I've royally fucked it up somewhere along the line as well. (Claiming that the exposition coexisted with the development probably wasn't a smart move, but Impressionists rarely adhered to conventional classical practices, so I may get away with it...) Now all I have left to do is the 1st mvmt. from Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony, about 14 mins. I'm about 6 mins into it but I need to construct a motif sheet for it, along with a separate motif sheet for 1st mvmt. of Mahler's 1st symphony. Then I'm all done. I have about 34 hours left, plus I'm out in about an hour to go to the barber's.

The following is my Herrmann essay. How bored am I?!

---

Module: Texts & Contexts – The Music of Bernard Herrmann (MUSI3721)

Module Tutor: Prof. David Cooper

Are large-scale formal processes apparent in Herrmann’s film scores? Taking any Herrmann film score (other than The Ghost and Mrs Muir or Vertigo) as an example, examine how the music contributes to the film’s sense of integrity. Is it possible to detect patterns or structures which function in equivalent ways to the formal structures of art-music (such as those found in symphonies or operas) or is the score simply a collection of fragmentary cues? Try to connect the development of the narrative to the detailed and localised musical changes and discuss whether Herrmann was concerned with distinguishing statements and developments of themes.

Herrmann composed music for melodrams before he entered Hollywood in 1940, a task which is widely acknowledged, not least by the composer himself, to have had influences on future directions his compositional processes have taken. In a newspaper article in 1941, he explained how his previous work was instrumental in learning his craft.[1] This experience made him appreciate the versatility of various ensembles, and accordingly he was better at adapting to the needs of a storyline or narrative than most of his other contemporaries, who composed for standardised orchestra.[2]

It is entirely plausible that Herrmann shunned the conventional practices of Hollywood motion picture scoring techniques. His contemporaries, among them Korngold and Steiner, were practiced in writing in the style of the late Romantics. As such, these two set about scoring music for film with the lush, rich textures typical of this style. In order to develop his own innovative methods of writing for particular ensembles as the film narrative demanded, Herrmann set about shunning convention and drawing on his own experience from his earlier melodram days. His core ideas were then subsequently copied by others throughout his career. The following renders this point with great clarity:

“Herrmann […] pioneered the use of atonal music in film, [and] claimed that small musical fragments, so called "clusters," offered a higher degree of flexibility in the depiction of the irrational […] Goldsmith’s music to Alien is heavily inspired by this attitude.”[3]

This is of interest; these ‘clusters’ that Haga talks about may be perceived as being similar to the ‘cells’ which early 20^th century composers were beginning to use as a means of developing and generating thematic material. However, if this is true, then the implications are considerable, for it means that Herrmann did not completely abandon the symphonic style of Viennese opera;[4] (and by extension the kind of orchestration used extensively by the Romantics) it is fair to say that there are characteristics of the Wagnerian model of composition, such as the leitmotif system, which Herrmann adopted throughout his professional career; however, this is not really applicable to Psycho.

“Musical time is abstract time”.[5] The implications of this are that a necessary operating condition of the music accompanying the narrative – whatever its nature – is that the music is structured in its own individual way; in other words, the inherent logic of this abstract time propels and impels the music to conclude at a temporal point in filmic space not necessarily in accordance with the logic of ‘human time’ as expressed in the diegesis.[6] This process of propulsion is what induces psychological continuity in the audience’s subconscious.

The assumption outlined above can be seen in a consideration of the nature of musical phrases, which act and react according to intrinsic logic, contrasted against an infinite array of possibilities in human expression which follow their own laws of logic – perhaps it may even be argued that expression has no logic. Moreover, the key point of the above was that abstract musical time does not necessarily concur with filmic time. Psycho opens by giving us normalised time (an exact time and date) and ends with de-normalised time (a situation in which time has ceased to exist.[7]) This is further supported by the statement:

“Crucial to the […] centre of the failure of romance in […] Psycho is the confronting and overcoming of a voracious, enervating past. In ironic fictions time is linear […] romance and irony thus clash in their understanding of time’s regenerative or entropic powers.”[8]

In Psycho the prime enervation (that is, the force behind disruption of composure) is Norman’s illness. The entropic power (a measure of order and disorder in a system) which Norman possesses is also illustrated by the film score.

The next big issue is that of continuity. Any given narrative will impose restraints upon the resulting soundtrack – film, by nature, is discontinuous, and can symbolically represent events which ‘happen’ eras apart, countries apart, worlds apart, and so forth. Music, and by extension, film music, is logically continuous, and therefore attempts to make some kind of imposition of order upon a discontinuous medium. So there is a struggle between the narrative imposing demands upon the soundtrack, and the soundtrack imposing demands – that is, temporal continuities upon the narrative. This is why many soundtracks are perceived to be collections of fragmentary cues. Central to perceptions of continuity in a film score is the issue of integrity, and here, the score contributes an incredible amount.

With such seemingly never-ending atonality, more emphasis is invariably placed on rhythmic structures. Here, Herrmann excels by shaping motivic material through changing rhythms, for example in the opening cue the motif changes from quaver/quaver to dotted quaver/semiquaver. A sense of integrity is traditionally achieved within a motion picture by means of a score functioning as a cohesive entity; that is to say, cues are inherently discrete items coalesced to form a unified whole. Consequently, if the overriding perception is one of stylistic, motivic, or harmonic homogeneity, then an ‘integrated’ score results. Heterogeneity - harmonically, stylistically or otherwise - is a prime reason for a breakdown in unity. The cinema’s usual function is as a means of entertainment for the masses. A completely atonal soundtrack may well have confused some cinema-goers, who need clearer musical signposts than the subtleties of chord note relationships. It is probably for this reason that some sort of standardisation and consistency is introduced metrically rather than harmonically.

Further contributions to the film’s integrity can be seen in:

(a) The various levels on which the score operates. Psycho is by turns violently obtrusive (‘The Murder’) and unobtrusively ambiential (‘The Stairs’) in nature. A consideration of the statement: “Film music binds the spectator into the fictive reality through its promulgation of identificatory affect between audience and screen.”[9]

(b) The way cues are introduced – consider ‘Temptation’. This is not heard until [0:10:28] in the film, after the camera has zoomed in on the money in an envelope for a good few seconds. The viewer is allowed to analyse the situation before the ‘hesitation’ motif appears. This could not be classified as ‘overstating’ the visual material, since it merely functions as an affirmation. Subsequently, a visual event then acts as a secondary affirmation; the colour of Marion’s bra changes from white (implying connotations of the good, angelic, divine) to black. (connotations of the evil, devil or criminal-minded) Also consider the scene where Marion driving cross-country when it starts to rain, and she turns her windscreen wipers on; [0:24:38] the music is synchronised precisely to the fixed motion of the wipers.[10]

(c) The sense of complicity we share, courtesy of Hitchcock’s relentless exploitation of audience identification. By the time the audience has become a party to the voyeuristic excesses of Norman, as first Norman and then the audience watch Marion undress to take a shower, Herrmann’s deft scoring seems more like a commentary on this referentialism rather than a complimentary sequence of auditory events.[11]

Little touches like these show the depth of effort that has gone into the composition, and also force another contrast between normalised and de-normalised time. We can also now see that another function of the film score is to provide affirmation of diegetic events.

Comments by Herrmann himself, in an interview in Sight and Sound, disclose his opinions on the reasons for the existence of film music: “The real reason for music is that a piece of film, by its nature, lacks a certain ability to convey emotional overtones.”[12] This is certainly the case with the three-shot sequence where Marion flees across cross-country in her car; Herrmann himself said that, without music, she might as well have been going to the supermarket.[13] Coupled with this statement, “Many composers […] compose only in a solipsistic world […] Herrmann throve on the work of others […] he was a musician of immense learning and culture.”[14]

Bearing these viewpoints in mind, it is now clear for us to see how Herrmann’s mind worked; it is why, when the camera pans around Norman’s stuffed birds, the music is a sequence [rational] of half diminished 7^ths [irrational], portraying not only Marion’s twisted fascination with the parlour with the accompanying sinister undertones which coming to a peak when the camera rests on the paintings of women being raped but also the inherent filmic logic that the two main protagonists are both on the run from lethal events in their pasts; it is why the first stab in the shower scene isn’t a physical one but a pre-emptive auditory one.

The persistent denial of musical closure is also something of a Herrmann speciality – one expects a diminished or half diminished chord to close on a more diatonic chord, but this is denied for the great majority of the Psycho score, the only exception in ‘The Parlor’ is in bar 6, in which a G#m chord changes to an A7 chord.[15] The usual harmonic function of a dominant 7th is ignored here, Herrmann taking an almost Beethovenian approach to harmony and juxtaposing unusual chords purely for their colouristic effects.

The renowned scholar Adorno, along with his contemporary Eisler, wrote a treatise on composing for the films. Adorno was a complex figure, a Marxist (i.e. socialist) with elitist tendencies, who took a denigratory stance on motion picture scoring. It would have been easy for Herrmann to have created a ‘stereotypical’ (in Adorno’s eyes) soundtrack when writing for Psycho, with hackneyed clichés such as tremolo strings, sequential dissonances, and other oft-used devices. To some extent, he does indulge in this practice, perhaps because his momentous relationship with Hitchcock was drawing to a close (Psycho was released in 1960, Torn Curtain in 1966) or possibly because the screenplay lent itself well to the disorganisation of sound which non-standard chords produce:

“Herrmann’s breadth of musical culture was not of the superficial kind frequently affected by Americans in their anxiety to conform to their own conception of cultured Europeanism. He hated pretentiousness and exhibitionism.”[16]

We can therefore see an early strand of minimalist technique developing in Herrmann’s writing. In the film, there is also a piece of nondiegetic music, which is an excerpt from Beethoven’s Eroica symphony. This is heard when Lila Crane (played by Vera Miles) is looking around the Gothic house adjacent to Norman’s motel, when she explores Norman’s room on the third floor. Consider the historical background to the Eroica symphony and the reason for quoting it in the film becomes clear: the Eroica symphony was originally to be titled the ‘Bonaparte’ Symphony, in reference to Napoleon Bonaparte, a radical French consul in the process of reforming Europe after conducting sweeping military campaigns over the continent. When Napoleon eventually crowned himself emperor in 1804, Beethoven was reportedly so angry at this ‘tyrant’ that he tore up the first page of the autograph score and re-titled his work the Eroica symphony. Therefore it seems likely that the link of tyranny is the strongest reason why it would be quoted: it is also a reflection on the triumph of the kingdom of death.[17]

Rather than adhere to any strict conventions from the practices of Western art music, here Herrmann instead prefers to concentrate on creating a core set of motifs which are somehow interrelated, before putting these through a subtle process of variation. In terms of form, this is not dissimilar to the approach he used for Vertigo. This concurs with the statement: “Herrmann always drops the idea quickly and never develops it in any way.”[18]

However, whereas Vertigo’s motifs were “chained together to create much longer musical passages”[19], Psycho’s are fragmentary, mutually exclusive items serving as evocations of Norman’s psychosis, the next evolution of a certain motif being not identical to its precedent but subtly altered in some way or form, sometimes combined together, as in the ‘sigh’ and ‘hesitation’ motifs to form a driving ostinato. It is merely the shifting instrumental textures throughout the score which prevent automatic identification. In comparison to the processes found in Western art music, we can still see a parallel between the approach taken in Psycho and that of a ‘theme and variations’ form, with variations being understood in the most liberal sense. Key diegetic events are given new or developed thematic material. In Psycho these are the title scene, Marion stealing the money, the first time Marion meets Norman, the murder, the stairs (when Arbogast dies), and the end titles.

Track 1 (‘Prelude’) introduces the title theme; a dissonant, moderately-paced piece of music using a variety of chords including tritones and juxtaposition of a major 7^th with minor 7^th chord; see appendix A for further analysis of the main theme. There is evidence to suggest some localised changes already in the main theme: the staccato quavers found in bar 3 – 4 have been transformed into a dotted quaver/semiquaver rhythm later on in the same cue.

Track 2 (‘The City’) contains material from the previous track: in Appendix A, consider the two-bar extension to the two opening four-bar phrases. This is repeated here with a subtle metamorphosis. The very fact that Herrmann is using stable rhythmic cells is of great importance. Tracks 3 and 4 (‘Marion’, ‘Marion and Sam’) share a common structure ending on the same G min/maj 7^th. This serves to highlight the nuclear, unfulfilling relationship between Marion and Sam, heightened by min/maj juxtaposition as in the title track.

Track 5 (‘Temptation’) is a prelude to what happens next in the narrative – a piece of writing that makes perfect sense within the context; whilst pedal notes are performed on the upper strings, discordant quavers with deliberately interjected silences are heard underneath, giving the texture something of a dark, brooding nature. This perfectly complements the dilemma facing Marion.

Track 6 (‘Flight’) is little more than a slower rendition of the introductory thematic material. This is a good example of how Herrmann induces psychological tension. In the scene accompanying the cue, Marion is seen driving cross-country with the money, attempting to escape from her former boss and the wealthy oil tycoon. Subsequently, we, as the audience, are made to feel Marion’s tension as, for instance, she spies her boss on the street corner. This is all the result of an ingenious approach in which two chords, one a half-diminished 7^th, the other a minor 9^th with an added 4^th have been used with driving semiquavers in the middle of the texture[20]; it is these semiquavers, with deliberately interjected rests, which provide the propulsive force of the cue talked about earlier. Some self-borrowing is evident in this score; track 7 (‘Patrol Car’) is identical to track 6, for example. The argument that this film score shows parallels with a ‘theme and variations’ form is made stronger when one considers the motifs listed on the cue sheet in Appendix B: cues 5 – 11 inclusive provide an almost completely alternating pattern between the ‘hesitation’ and the ‘psycho’ motifs; furthermore, cues 9, 11, 13, 23, 24, and 37 are variations of earlier material.

Consider what these scenes would be like with nondiegetic silence; a different sensation entirely would result. Herrmann’s masterful control of the quietest film music affords him a wealth of opportunities; will a stinger result? Will the music shift from diminished tonalities and dissonance back into the realm of diatonicism, as in ‘The Parlor’?

So far, it seems, the only certainty about Psycho is uncertainty. Herrmann has used such barely discernable auditory events in a highly effective way. The slower rendering of the theme in cue 6 imparts a formidable sense of tension to the audience. There will be psychological reasons why our minds make such a link, but suffice it to say there is ample evidence of Freudian undercurrents in Psycho.[21]

The augmented chord is of great importance to the sound world of Psycho. In theory, it is a perfectly regular triad with the 5^th augmented, but split apart it is also two stacked major 3^rds, (e.g. F-A, A-C#) so not only do we have a topical reference from Herrmann on Norman’s perspective and his delusional state of mind, but we also have a chord whose function is to express ‘rational irrationality.’ Another musical cliché evident from appraising the score is that of the three-note descending ‘sigh’ motif involving a minor 9^th. This is reminiscent of Wagner’s Prelude to Tristan und Isolde.

The music from ‘Flight’, as discussed above, is a textbook example of how to complement on-screen tension, whilst the music accompanying the infamous murder scene (track 17, ‘The Murder’) in the shower is dutifully mimicked by unearthly sounds from the violins, using alternating techniques of arco, pizzicato, and glissando. In orchestration terms, this is autonometric compared to previous material, and for good reason: Hitchcock has provided the visual equivalent of Herrmann shunning convention when the heroine dies 45 minutes into the film; it defies categorisation, and that is what, taken with the murder, makes the viewer so uncomfortable: “Art in its widest aspect is a part of the instinct to order and interpret life, to isolate into some form of permanent and reliable experience the abominable flux of the universe.”[22]^,[23]

When Arbogast returns to the Bates motel after visiting the phone booth to speak to Lila, he searches around before walking to the adjacent mansion. Another local change in the score happens here: in ‘The Stairs’, (cue 29) the ‘madhouse’ motif has been reduced in range to a chromatic D-Eb-Db, (0:48 – 0:49) then Eb-Db-D, (0:53 – 0:54) and Db-Eb-D, (0:58 - 0:59) which repeats twice, the second repeat leaving out the third configuration. This is an astonishingly successful cue, even in reductive form, for it has many functions:

(a) the audience is provided with an auditory confirmation that Marion was indeed at the Bates motel, with a familiar encircling feminine characteristic now present in the new reduced motif (Marion was present during the first rendition of the ‘madhouse’ motif) (“music also plays the role of confirming the emotional response of the spectator”[24]) (b) it pre-empts Arbogast’s murder, (c) it uses 2 out of the 3 pitches found in the original motif; the only deviancies are the range and the 3^rd pitch.

The opening of ‘The Murder’ is re-stated later on, sped up, to open the next cue, ‘The Knife’. This is another great example of a cue with a dual function – at 30 seconds, less than half the length of ‘The Murder’, it not only serves to remind the audience of Marion’s murder in the shower, but it also compliments Arbogast’s murder because we remember the function that cue played earlier. What Herrmann has therefore managed to achieve in ‘The Knife’ is a track which takes, even recapitulates, the earlier material and metamorphoses it into something different, yet easily recognisable. The metrical groupings have been left intact for this cue (‘The Murder’ was in 3/2, ‘The Knife’ is in 3/4) In both these cues, pitch (vertical) is as responsible as harmony (horizontal) for creating and sustaining anxiety. In Western art music, if one considers that developing or introducing new material in the recapitulation was an unusual practice, it could be argued that this cue shows material that has undergone similar processes.

The range of sounds at Herrmann’s disposal plays an extremely important role in contextualising the scene. As Chion observes, film is limited by the finite dimensions of the frame in which it is shot, cut, and sequenced, but audio events are free to wander and blend between different narrative levels in the diegesis.[25] The manipulation of pitch and harmony on at least two exclusive sound levels (the non-diegetic, atmospheric setting of muted strings) combined with explicitly diegetic (and therefore foregrounded) motivic material imbues the score with its much-celebrated tension.

One of the core reasons why Herrmann’s score for Psycho is so successful is because he uses a range of techniques to separate the logic of the music from the logic of the scenes. These techniques include having cues start in rhythmic unison, then undergoing simple changes as required by the narrative; dominant sevenths which do not properly resolve; above all, logical separation must therefore involve music reacting to itself rather than to diegetic events. Consequently, Psycho is not so much about deliberate, controlled anempathic separation, but it is more about having the score imitating, but never ‘mickey-mousing’, the narrative. This is called synchresis, a term derived from synchronism and synthesis.[26] We can therefore see that synchresistic procedures are of abiding importance to the score of Psycho, as they not only function as tools for separation of logic but also as for exploring the dimension of temporal continuity and discontinuity.

Where previously Herrmann might have used procedures normally found in formalistic art music – that is to say, taking the operatic principles of Wagner in which explicitly diegetic events (a character’s ululation, a motion from room x to room y, a door opening, or some other key narrative event) are used to signify change, in a film such as The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, here he presents a sound world that lies in stark contrast. His procedures are reminiscent of Debussy, in that both composers restate themes with very little or no development.

Another aspect of the symphonic tradition in Western art music is that of structure, and the use of formal structures in particular. Structures such as sonata form and binary form are traditionally defined by tonality; two distinctive tonal areas are usually compared and contrasted. This is not the case with Psycho. Psycho achieves some parallels with Western art music on small-scale localised detail – for instance, recurrence of themes, common cue structures – but there is insufficient evidence to argue any parallels with large-scale formal design.

There are four conclusions I can draw from answering this question.

The first of these is that I think, in Psycho, Herrmann was concerned with making distinguishing musical statements but less so with their subsequent developments. There is ample evidence for this in the score, whereby a key diegetic event such as the shower murder scene is supplied with new material, which never recurs until the second murder in the mansion. In the case of motivic material in the earlier cues, subsequent versions are condensed or expanded to suit the narrative requirements, rather than developed per se. Furthermore, muted strings are used throughout the score as a ‘surface layer’ to set the atmosphere, from which motifs are then derived.

The second of these is that a sense of integrity is traditionally achieved within a motion picture by means of a score functioning as a cohesive entity; cues are inherently discrete items assembled to form a unified whole. Consequently, if the overriding audience perception is one of stylistic and harmonic homogeneity, then an ‘integrated’ score results. Heterogeneity, whilst not a bad thing in itself, breaks down cohesion and subsequently any perception of unity. There are elements of the Psycho score which suggest acknowledgment of Western art music principles, but convention is never adhered to in the true sense, and this can be seen in, for example, the very loose ‘theme and variations’ form evident in the score.

The third of these is that any narrative will impose restraints upon the resulting soundtrack – film is inherently discontinuous, and can symbolically represent events which ‘happen’ eras apart, countries apart, worlds apart, and so forth. Music, and by extension, film music, is logically continuous, and therefore attempts to make some kind of imposition of order upon a discontinuous medium. The outcome is a struggle between the narrative imposing demands upon the soundtrack, and the soundtrack imposing demands – that is, temporal continuities - upon the narrative. This is why many soundtracks are perceived to be collections of fragmentary cues, and Psycho is no exception. The sense of perpetual irresolution only serves to heighten the fragmentary nature.

The fourth and final conclusion to make is that Herrmann manipulates both pitch (vertical) and harmony (horizontal) to create and sustain anxiety. In terms of texture, Psycho operates on at least two different levels, including the most primary basic level of atmospheric muted strings (that is, at the background level) and a more complex secondary semi-foregrounded level, most of which occurs in the first ten or so cues.

Word Count: 4,418

Bibliography

Brill, Lesley. The Hitchcock Romance: Love and Irony in Hitchcock’s Films (New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1988)

Bruce, Graham. Bernard Herrmann: Film Music and Narrative (Michigan, UMI, 1985)

Chion, Michel. (ed., trans., Gorbman, Claudia) Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen (New York, Columbia University Press, 1994)

Cooper, David. ‘Film Form and Musical Function in Bernard Herrmann’s Score to Vertigo’, The Journal of Film Music, 1 (2003)

Evans, Mark. Soundtrack: The Music of the Movies (New York, Da Capo Press, 1979)

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies (London, Faber and Faber, 1991)

Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music (Bloomington, University of Indiana Press, 1987)

Huntley, John and Manvell, Roger. The Technique of Film Music (Chatham, Focal Press, 1957)

Kalinak, Kathryn. Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film (Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press, 1992)

Manvell, Roger. Film (Middlesex, Penguin, 1946)

Nelmes, Jill. (ed.) An Introduction to Film Studies: Third Edition (London, Routledge, 2003)

Palmer, Christopher. The Composer In Hollywood (New York, Marion Boyars, 1990)

Prendergast, Roy M. Film Music: A Neglected Art (New York, W. W. Norton, 1992)

Russell, Mark, and Young, James. Film Music: Screencraft (Switzerland, Rotovision, 2000)

Smith, Steven C. A Heart At Fire’s Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann (California, University of California Press, 1991)

Spoto, Donald. The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures (Doubleday, New York, 1992)

Sterritt, David. The Films of Alfred Hitchcock (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993)

Wood, Robin. Hitchcock’s Films (London, A. Zwemmer Ltd., 1965)

Web Links

Haga, Thor J. ‘Film Music Ex Narratio: Does Film Music Exist Outside the Narrative?’, Film Score Monthly, August 2002. (Accessed 2^nd October 2004) <http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/articles/2002/14_Aug---Film_Music_Outside_the_Narrative_part_One.asp>

Wrobel, William. ‘Psycho Chord Profile’, Film Score Rundowns, June 2002. (Accessed 18 November 2004), <www.comcen.com.au/~agfam/rundowns/chordprofile2.pdf>

Videography

Psycho, director Alfred Hitchcock, composer Bernard Herrmann, screenplay Joseph Stefano, based on the novel by Robert Bloch, producer Shamley Productions, USA, 1960, 109 minutes

Discography

Herrmann, Bernard. Psycho: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (McNeely, Royal Scottish National Orchestra) (Varèse Sarabande, California, 1997)

---

[1] Bruce, Graham. Bernard Herrmann: Film Music and Narrative (Michigan, UMI, 1985), p. 36

[2] Huntley, John and Manvell, Roger. The Technique of Film Music (Chatham, Focal Press, 1957), p. 205

[3] Haga, Thor J. ‘Film Music Ex Narratio: Does Film Music Exist Outside the Narrative?’, Film Score Monthly, August 2002. (Accessed 2^nd October 2004), <http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/articles/2002/14_Aug---Film_Music_Outside_the_Narrative_part_One.asp>

[4] Evans, Mark. Soundtrack: The Music of the Movies (New York, Da Capo Press, 1979), p. 22

[5] Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music (Bloomington, 1987, University of Indiana Press), p. 24

[6] Loc. cit. (Gorbman)

[7] Wood, Robin. Hitchcock’s Films (London, A. Zwemmer Ltd., 1965), p. 114

[8] Brill, Lesley. The Hitchcock Romance: Love and Irony in Hitchcock’s Films (New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1988), p. 200

[9] Kalinak, Kathryn. Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film (Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), p. 33

[10] Russell, Mark, and Young, James. Film Music: Screencraft (Switzerland, Rotovision, 2000), p. 28

[11] Spoto, Donald. The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures (Doubleday, New York, 1992), pp. 317 - 320

[12] Gilling, Ted. ‘The Colour of the Music’, Sight and Sound, 41 (1972), p. 37

[13] Smith, Steven C. A Heart At Fire’s Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann (California, University of California Press, 1991), p. 239

[14] Palmer, Christopher. The Composer In Hollywood (New York, Marion Boyars, 1990), pp. 237 - 240

[15] Wrobel, William. ‘Psycho Chord Profile’, Film Score Rundowns, June 2002. (Accessed 18 November 2004), <www.comcen.com.au/~agfam/rundowns/chordprofile2.pdf>

[16] Palmer, Christopher. The Composer In Hollywood (New York, Marion Boyars, 1990), p. 241

[17] Spoto, Donald. The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures (Doubleday, New York, 1992), p. 326

[18] Prendergast, Roy M. Film Music: A Neglected Art (New York, W. W. Norton, 1992), p. 140

[19] Cooper, David. ‘Film Form and Musical Function in Bernard Herrmann’s Score to Vertigo’, The Journal of Film Music, 1 (2003), p. 3

[20] Prendergast, Roy M. Film Music: A Neglected Art (New York, W. W. Norton, 1992), p. 141

[21] Sterritt, David. The Films of Alfred Hitchcock (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 100 - 102

[22] Manvell, Roger. Film (Middlesex, Penguin, 1946), p. 142

[23] Golding, William. Lord of the Flies (London, Faber and Faber, 1991), p. ix

[24] Nelmes, Jill. (ed.) An Introduction to Film Studies: Third Edition (London, Routledge, 2003), p. 78

[25] Chion, Michel. (ed., trans., Gorbman, Claudia) Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen (New York, Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 66f.

[26] Ibid., p. 224

opera opens to rave reviews. astonishing debut performance from

I'm really tired so I will be brief tonight. Work has, and continues to, majorly stress me out - there's just so much of it, and before you all point your fingers and accuse me of being a slacker leaving everything till the 11th hour, that's so not the case... yesterday I had a friend from my course around and between us we analysed the whole 1st mvmt of Mahler's 1st Symphony, which according to our tutor should have taken us about a week and a half, but which we did in 12 non-stop hours. I've had the flu on and off at various points over the last 3 weeks or so, which really hasn't helped either.

My tutors want me to orchestrate up the rock opera I'm in the middle of composing, since it's "just" a piano score at the moment (what happened to giving praise for harmonic/melodic ideas?) and provide some librettos. (Or is that libretti? ... fuck ... ) Either way, it's quite a tonal rock opera, which therefore doesn't sit well with Mic, one of the tutors, who's into hardcore postmodernist theory, but does on the other hand sit quite neatly with Phil, who's a Professor Emeritus sort of professor more into Ravel and tonal things like that. The problem is that both of them mark all final-year composition work, so I have to come up with a method of pleasing both of them without digressing from either of their favoured styles too much.

My job is shit at the moment, I am arriving at work late, tired, and not with my mind fully focussed, plus my car window got smashed by some fucking pikeys on Fri night, so I was up dealing with neighbours and police for a good couple of hours, so I couldn't get to work and had to spend all of Saturday looking for the glass repair place, housed at possibly the most obscure location in the entire Leeds district, and suffer the indignity of travelling down the M621 with broken glass flying around my neck, whilst driving on about 3 hours sleep. But there was nothing I could do since the mobile repair division was fully booked all day and the weather was taking a turn for the worse. The arseholes at Autoglass were going to charge me 140 quid for one sodding window, so I got my old man on the blower and they reduced it to a 50 quid excess, which is still loads.

Very aware that I'm rabbiting now, but to conclude, I have done 2 out of 4 analysis pieces (the 2 longest ones, gd start) and 2100/4000 words for the Herrmann essay, 500/500 words done on my Herrmann presentation summary, and 600/1000 dissertation words. So far so good. Now for the final push. (No defecation metaphors please.)

the official word for those scrounging off welfare with 9 kids is Neet. in other news

A debate on telly has stimulated me to post this, quite intriguingly. As the title of the post suggests, it was about sex education/teaching of abstinence in schools.

We live in hard, beleaguered times. Our government is a pathetic mess of idiot politicians out of touch with the people they are supposedly in place to protect. On the one hand, they want safe sex to be taught in schools. On the other, they want 24 hour pubs open. A slightly confusing message would be the understatement of the year. The subject of STIs comes up in the debate, and eventually AIDS. Has anyone stopped to think, in the 'let's-have-science-cure-all-known-ailments' rush, that perhaps some illnesses can't be cured for a reason? Perhaps AIDS is nature's way of letting us know that the human race is erring?

I had a brilliant thought the other day, and the thought was that we could solve the NHS funding crisis by charging for the treatment and removal of STIs. It would encourage generally more monogamous relationships, and make a fuckload of cash to boot. Unfortunately it will probably never happen beacuse it's too radical ... these days you have fucking anti- and pro- everything. You can't please all the people all the time.

There was a brilliant argument from one (pro-abstinence) teen girl who thought it was right to value herself and her body, rather than just give it up to Joe Bloggs. The only problem is that a dire Western society such as ours, sleaze and smut in which we are all complicit, only keeps bringing down the people that want to escape. Sometimes you just have to be your own person, I guess.

The Foo Fighters had it right when they sang "what have we done with innocence, one in ten...." It seems that children no longer have the privilege of maintaining their own innocence about the world, and everything must be short-skirts-on-MTV, rappers telling girls to suck their dicks, teens getting free condoms in schools and fumbling around in the nearest park wasteland because they have nothing better to do. It's chilling how correct Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange is. Apparently some LEAs have also instructed teachers to start telling primary school kids as young as 7 or 8 what a "clitoris" is. Not to take the moral high ground or preach or anything, but that is just outrageous. If ever there was something that you could justifiably be in an uproar about, that would be it. I do believe I am right in asserting that our generation (and by that, I mean everyone currently aged from about 19-20 upward to 45) is probably the last to experience such innocence. Innocence is just like virginity. Once you've lost it, you've lost it for good.

University experiences also could be discussed here. How often have I seen the familiar nightclub scenario, a drunk girl surrounded by eight or so men, like dogs surrounding a stunned fox, swooping in for the metaphorical kill? She does nothing to try shoo them away, but invariably invites them to come closer, grind closer, feel. In my eyes, that girl is of little consequence to me, as are the men. It seems as though the ideology of "I'm entitled to have a little fun when I'm not around my parents" must pervade the general consensus, that consequentially, unviersity must be little more than one long shag-fest. It does invite the question, if a girl so valued her body, held herself in such high esteem, why she would do something like this? And the only reasonable answer I can think of is that she must have very little self-esteem, or be particularly insecure in such a way that carrying out this one-night stand must somehow fulfill some kind of Freudian need from within.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say that boy meets girl, falls in love, gets married, the end. Of course life isn't that simple, and I'm not expecting it to be for me, or for anyone else. If you want to win the scrum point, you're gonna have to get your hands dirty.

ad astra per ardua.

student who 'screened film to huge crowds' jailed for 3 months

One of those weeks where you feel you really haven't achieved anything, despite your best efforts and intentions. Sigh. I've started constructing a cue sheet for 'Psycho', and I've also been given permission to show a screening of 'Mulholland Drive' in one of the lecture theatres in 8 days time, as part of the statistics element of my dissertation, so I'm hoping lots of music ppl will show up. In other news, Dan's video game is finally up and running, although I've spotted about 4 bugs in it so far; the link to play the game is ... on the links page. This week I also feel washed out, and I can't explain why. Technically I should feel happy - I've only got 2 things to give in on Dec 10th, a 4000 word essay (2000 done) and the stupid Analysis, which I've actually done 6 mins/18 mins of 1 piece/4 pieces, so that's 1/12...not much really. So much work, so little time. As they say, there's no rest for the wicked. Or something.

customers of Italian takeaway become hospitalised; neighbouring undertaker blamed

Interesting week, work is coming along ok if only I could start doing things in the right sequence. I've put my balls to the grinder (not literally) to do composition work, and I have got about 16-17 mins of piano score, which would be great except composition is the last thing due in this term, whilst Symphonic Music Analysis is due on Dec 10, for which I have to analyse 60 mins of 1st movements, and I haven't even started. So, how much does a cheap wooden coffin from Co-op cost? Also managed to become slightly addicted to CM4, which is unbelievable since I don't even really like the game. Haven't exercised at all this week, so I'm nice and unfit.

student union rallies to defence of man who worked 10 hours without a break

Gone from completing four songs to five - yes, five - songs for the rock opera in piano score. Yet what does my tutor think when I present to him the work? "Is that it?" (Presuming he was expecting a full-blown set of orchestrations) Before my face crumbled, he quickly added, "But you've done loads of work, just orchestrate it in January or something..."

The sadly ironic thing about it all is I have completed about 16 minutes of music for composition, yet this is the last thing due in over the course of the year (May 05) whereas more pressing matters (dissertation, analysis of 60 mins of symphonic music) have been somewhat neglected. Trepidation is the predictable outcome. Tomorrow I must really crack on with my analysis of the 1st mvmt. of Beethoven's Eroica symphony.

I've also started to get paid for my job - what a relief. I received one cheque in the post and a bank credit when I checked my account online, so now I can finally start paying off that pesky credit card. By my calculations I should still be able to splurge on Xmas presents, work my current shift pattern (Mon 8am-11am, 5pm - 9pm (a killer) and Sat 8am - 6pm) and have enough money to go travelling after I graduate next summer. [Assuming, of course, nothing crazy happens, e.g. I fall in love and move in with some girl, so I have to work longer to make rent. (Un?)thankfully this is still in the realm of extreme unlikelihood, so I have decided not to contemplate such propositions.]

The gig at the OAP home on Thurs night was ok. There were more volunteers than usual (five) and my set got a decent enough reception - a heady mix of U2, Muse, Queen, Einaudi and Katie Melua. I may have to limit how many times I go there, since the student union is in crippling debt, and so therefore cannot reimburse the petrol expenses incurred by me. (Yeah, yeah, before you get up on the moral high horse, scream "it's voluntary!", and thrash your handbags at me, I also give several of the volunteers lifts home in the evenings, particularly if they are girls scared to walk home alone. We do, of course, live in rough times.)

Now the exciting bit! (Which you will know already if you read my website.)
After Christmas I will be turning my attention to the documentary that my housemate Ben is filming, since I agreed to write original music for it. Ben has let me be on set while filming happens in January, and I suppose I will add the music somewhere in post-production. Apparently it will be in the region of 45 mins long, so that's quite a challenge, but I like that. He also has plans to make 3 further parts to the documentary, which may or may not happen dependant upon the success of the original, but if that happens ... that's a "lorra lorra" stuff to write. Unless I resort to the time-hallowed composer's trick of sneakily recycling material ...

January 18th also marks the deadline for the Leeds Uni Liturgical Choir call for scores. The aim is to write a piece between 2-3 mins for the 22-strong Liturgical Choir (12 female, 10 male) that shouldn't be too hard. I may have to attend some of their few remaining Semester 1 rehearsals to find out their various capabilities; pointless to write something too easy or difficult. I was toying with the idea of setting Psalm 75 (see the previous posts in my blog) to music, part of which could be in the Lydian mode, (once outlawed by the Church for demonic connotations) which could then also play on the audience expectations surrounding augmented 4ths by reverting to diatonicism from modality. It all adds up to being quite a lot to pack into 2-3 mins.

But now I am off to bed. I have been up since 6.45 this morning due to a 10-hour shift at work, and I am absolutely fucking shattered. On the other hand, I don't suppose I'd be doing anything else at 6.45 on a Saturday morning, so I might as well drag my arse to LS27 and earn some money for sitting on my posterior. Feeling a bit under the weather as well of late; I think I have caught a cold that's spreading throughout our house. And goddamnit, it's the badminton tournament tomorrow (50p entry to play a team player, pint if you win.) and so my chances don't really look that great. Sigh.

consumer credit spirals out of control in the last quarter

A minor tautology is the understatement of the month, yet this baffling film-score vocabulary - synchresistically synchronised synchresisms - seems at the heart of my Herrmann module. Mickey-mousing is what they call it in the movies when the music closely follows the action (e.g. Donald Duck falls down stairs, cue orchestral imitation of falling down stairs (cymbal clash, comical brass and wind, etc.)) and synchretic music is the music corresponding to the relationship between what you see and what you hear. It's not quite mickey-mousing but it's not not mickey-mousing, either. Synchretic music can be subject to synchresistic procedures which may also be known as synchresisms. These new words come from a combination of synthesis and synchronism. (Just wait until you have synthesised synchresistically synchronised synchresisms...)

My first real day of work today, also. My shift was 8am-11am and 5pm-9pm. I was supposed to be up at 6.45 for my morning shift but managed to oversleep and get up at ... 8am. I rang the sick line to say that the traffic was heavy and arrived at 8.45, at which point my manager told me to go on break and start at 9am, then do an extra hour to last until 12. Thing is, I was really into my work, so I ended up finishing at 12.30 (not paid, don't ask me why I did that...) and I managed to collect about £700 for GE today. Yay. The dumbarses at Kelly Services have also found out that they posted my paycheck for last week to my old residence at Knowle Road, which is very helpful, but they're gonna stop the cheque and issue me a new one since I can't be bothered to head over there and pick it up. I won't be minted come Friday either, since it's all going on the piece of plastic we commonly call a credit card. Damn those evil things.

Pleased as I have also started a good portion of the 5th (out of 16) song for my rock opera. So far I think I have managed to bring a decent variety of material into my work, but with the music school being typical as usual with half the tutors away on holiday in the middle of term, I suppose it will have to wait until later this month before I can show anyone the progress I have made. By which point they willl probably tell me it's all bullshit and I'll be left shitting bricks before the December deadline, but hell, you wouldn't be a student if you didn't, I suppose.

Went to see Joss Stone play at LUU last night with a couple of guys from my house. Tell you the truth I was quite impressed with the set, and I wasn't expecting much either, but the girl can sing. I just hope she doesn't sell out to the core audience after 2 albums like Charlotte Church. Particularly impressed with the integration of the gospel singers into the typified funk structures. It all basically comes down, as Ben said, to 'call and response'. It's how workers in the slave fields of America in the 1800s used to communicate with each other throughout the long, arduous working day. It's how choirs communicate with each other from various sides of the vestibules and spaces within the church. And, above all, it is a natural way of equalizing texture and making sure that no one singer hogs the limelight too much. The fact that Joss was as fit as fuck was a bonus, of course. Haha.

Ah well. Maybe this time next year ppl will want to see me play piano in a band. Who knows what the future holds? (cheese alert!)

Tired. Off to bed. Bonne nuit.

Book of the month: Waiting, by Ha Jin.

suggested that the composer thought he could "bend time"

Below is 100 or so words from my latest essay for "The Music of Bernard Herrmann." Developing arguments about film music is virtually impossible because technological advances have changed the nature of it into something more scientific than artistic; and so everything is more clinical, sterile, logical, and, dare I say it, mathematical. This deeply disturbs me. Music is not something to calculate, not something to explore with a ruler and compass. That's what I loved about music, and why it is so fascinating. It is the not knowing, the unpredictability that you can shun or conform to your audience's expectations, that makes it so worthwhile.

“Musical time is abstract time”.[1] The implications of this are that a necessary operating condition of the music accompanying the narrative – whatever their nature – is that the music is structured in its own individual way; in other words, the inherent logic of this abstract time propels and impels the music to conclude at a temporal point in filmic space not necessarily in accordance with the logic of ‘human time’ as expressed in the diegesis.
[1] Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music (Bloomington, 1987, University of Indiana Press), p. 24

Our house is also throwing a fireworks & pie party on Thursday, the 4th. (£2 to cover expenses) So ... do come. If we know you.

situational inverse

You know what? It's really boring not having lectures. I wish I had 25 hrs a week like chemistry ppl, or something like that. Worse news, I have to go back to my bum-sucking job tomorrow. Perhaps a fry up would improve my mood.

somewhere a clock is ticking

Jamie's First Law:



No analysis work + attachment to bed = certain failure

Newton v Einstein

Now came Newton's truly brilliant insight: if the force of gravity reaches to the top of the highest tree, might it not reach even further; in particular, might it not reach all the way to the orbit of the Moon! Then, the orbit of the Moon about the Earth could be a consequence of the gravitational force, because the acceleration due to gravity could change the velocity of the Moon in just such a way that it followed an orbit around the earth.

If you think about it a moment, it may seem a little strange that in Kepler's Laws the Sun is fixed at a point in space and the planet revolves around it. Why is the Sun privileged? Kepler had rather mystical ideas about the Sun, endowing it with almost god-like qualities that justified its special place. However Newton, largely as a corollary of his 3rd Law, demonstrated that the situation actually was more symmetrical than Kepler imagined and that the Sun does not occupy a privileged postion; in the process he modified Kepler's 3rd Law.

The orientation of Mercury's orbit is found to precess in space over time. This is commonly called the "precession of the perihelion", because it causes the position of the perihelion to move. Only part of this can be accounted for by perturbations in Newton's theory. There is an extra 43 seconds of arc per century in this precession that is predicted by the Theory of General Relativity and observed to occur (a second of arc is 1/3600 of an angular degree). This effect is extremely small, but the measurements are very precise and can detect such small effects very well.

Einstein's theory predicts that the direction of light propagation should be changed in a gravitational field, contrary to the Newtonian predictions. Precise observations indicate that Einstein is right, both about the effect and its magnitude. A striking consequence is gravitational lensing.

The General Theory of Relativity predicts that light coming from a strong gravitational field should have its wavelength shifted to larger values (what astronomers call a "red shift"), again contary to Newton's theory. Once again, detailed observations indicate such a red shift, and that its magnitude is correctly given by Einstein's theory.

The electromagnetic field can have waves in it that carry energy and that we call light. Likewise, the gravitational field can have waves that carry energy and are called gravitational waves. These may be thought of as ripples in the curvature of spacetime that travel at the speed of light.

Mr Brightside

If you don't have this song by The Killers, get it. Now.



The morbid theme continues as I'm sad to say that Ricky Byrne lost his life in a car crash on his way home from work 2 days ago. His funeral will be held on Tuesday, if anyone wants to go. Deepest sympathies from all the Chessington ppl to his family.



Found a job at GE Capital as Collections Associate. It's calling up people who have arrears on their store cards. Clients include Burton and Topshop. The funny thing is that my Burton account was in arrears 2 months ago and I got a call from GE. How the tables turn. So far I have completed 16 hours, and the pay is £6.55 an hour, so not doing too badly. Unfortunately there is a 9am-4.30pm shift tomorrow. Worse luck for me, although Dan's mate is having a birthday Otley Run starting 3pm.



Apologies for not posting more frequently but life has been hectic. I have so many varying projects on my plate right now, so it's not always easy to find some time to update you all with the irrelevant minutiae of my life. Of course, there's the OAP home, which I have sacrificed for the 2 training weeks at GE since the hours clash, and then there's the music for my housemates Dan (video game) and Ben, (45-min documentary) the latter of whom asked me at 11.30 last night to score the 'Fun House' theme (think back to when you were 9 or 10) with a "Blackpool seaside edge." (verbatim)



Am also writing a 2-3 min piece for the 22-strong Leeds Uni Liturgical Choir, due Jan 2005. It's about halfway complete at the moment and is loosely based on Psalm 75.



Had two tutorials yesterday, one for Dissertation and one for Major Comp. Horribly, my dissertation tutor is also my Herrmann tutor. He is none other than the Head of School. However he seems quite impressed with my work, which is good, and positively amazed that I thought one of the songs on the Mulholland Drive OST was based on an old Roy Orbison song, which I could prove to him. He's quite involved in the maths side of music, so was quite easy to talk to him about inferential stats for my questionnaire. Am aware I'm writing in fuckwit Bridget-Jones stylee speak once more.



Anyway I better go write some more of my rock opera. I have about 6 1/2 mins out of 30-40 right now.

mirth

Ben Turner: "Sorry, I was just thinking about nuns' boobs."

--

Andrew: "I often take people from behind... which is a mistake."

--

Michael: "How do you know what piss tastes like?"

Ashley: "Because I've tried other peoples'."

--

Andrew "I'm going to have such fun on the toilet tomorrow!"

--



These excellent mirth-inducing quotes, and more besides, can be found by going here. It's the Gilbert & Sullivan society of KCL, where a guy I knew from my old school is currently absorbed with the intricacies of War Studies.