Hall Of The Mountain King Leitmotifs

Sound of murder

Storytelling is mankind’s oldest tradition. The art of storytelling embodies several aspects that are difficult to successfully combine. The invention of the motion picture camera allowed for a revolutionary new way of telling stories. This new technology, however, was limited in the sense that no sound could be added to the film. By the 1930’s films could play synchronized sounds with the actions; this meant that movies could use sound, music, and speech to add depth and intensity to the plot of the movie. The movie M by Frizt Lang excellently displays the combination of all the different aspects of storytelling. Lang’s sophisticated methods of manipulating sound is the reason why sound plays such a vital in today’s cinema.

Lang’s utilization of a leitmotif is evidence to the importance of the use of sound. The leitmotif in M is Hans Beckert whistling In the Hall of the Mountain King. The tune is first heard when Hans buys Elsie Beckmann a balloon from a blind man on the streets (M 00:05:22), and then again when Hans writes his letter to the press (M 00:08:36). Hans uses the tune as a way to calm himself in times of stress. When presented with more stressful situations Hans whistling becomes shaky, he also falls out of tune. The loss of fluidity shows how stress affects Hans’s mental state (Crabbe). This builds on the complexity of the character, as well as adding to the tension and suspense. The viewer realizes that when the tune is out of melody and shaky that Hans is in a state of panic, or paranoia. This demonstrates just how twisted and unstable Hans’s psychological make up is. Later, in the film Hans is identified by the blind man who sold him the balloon, the blind man identifies Hans by the sound of his voice (M 01:35:29). Had there not have been sound then there would have been no way for the blind man to identify Hans. Without sound, there would also be a loss of plot complexity, depth, and suspense. With each new victim that Hans apprehends the tune is heard. This constant

The techniques employed to make sound the focal point of attention in almost every scene were unprecedented, they would also transform the role and significance of sound in the film industry (Crabbe). Today’s modern films owe a debt of gratitude to Lang’s creativity and methodical utilization of sound. When Hans buys Elsie a balloon he whistles the infamous tune till the end of the scene, just before the scene ends there is an emphasis put on the last notes of the tune (M 00:05:41). Lang emphasizes the end of the tune to illiterate the steadiness of how he whistles it. The way in which Lang approached editing sound the same way he would edit scenes, he would edit out specific sounds, highlight others, carry sound from one scene to the next, and use uncomfortable silence (Crabbe). These editing methods had yet to be discovered by Hollywood. By today’s standard these techniques are typical and widely used, but this is due to Lang's approach and utilization of these mechanisms. The movie Pulp Fiction make use of Lang's silence technique to create an uncomfortable atmosphere (Pulp Fiction 00:37:35). Lang's pioneering work created a new foundation in which future generations of directors and sound editors could build from; had Lang continued to make silent films the metaphorical foundation of sound-on-film would have progressed much slower, and the techniques might not have advanced to where they are today. It