How a Superhero Theme Works

so a lot of the time when a composer wants to write something that sounds heroic they'll just write something for the brass section [Music] ass face [Music] for one minion had a plan his name was Kevin ever the most part it kind of works but in truth it's been done so much that when you just write something for the brass section in order to make something sound heroic it can end up sounding kind of generic and this is for good reason brass has a long history with heroic and powerful figures like brass instruments were first invented when hunters cut off and hollowed out the horns of whatever they killed and used them to signal to other hunters that they were working with subsequently that's why they're called horns I mean this isn't rocket surgery and all that loud signaling became so useful that people started to use them in warfare as a means of communicating and organizing their army and that works better for some than for others and after a few centuries of that the people who are able to organize their armies on the battlefield eventually became monarchs and powerful figures and those same horns were used to signal their arrival and represent them in ceremonial events you can find really great examples of this in religious contexts there's a passage in the Bible it talks about a horn being used to signal something and Jewish ceremonies often use a traditional bone horn called a chauffeur after a while with the development of technology people just started making horns out of metal because metals just stronger than bone and that's how he ended up with goofy-looking things like this herald trumpet yes this is an actual instrument that people actually get paid to play I mean think about it that scene from Shrek doesn't exist in a bubble so eventually when vogner the guy who created light motifs which is kind of like the formal term for theme music when Wagner wanted to write a light motif for the hero of his opera he decided to put that hero's theme in the brass section [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you can almost look at this as the first-ever superhero theme but if we just write our hero theme for brass and leave it at that then our hero is gonna sound and feel like every other hero that's ever existed because writing your hero's for brass has literally been done for over a hundred years the real trick to writing a good superhero light motif or a hero theme whatever you want to call it is that you have to musically Express what that hero stands for see every hero stands for something something that actually makes them a hero and decide to go out and fight the bad guys and the bad guys are gonna represent the polar opposite of whatever that hero fights for so we have to first figure out what our hero represents then figure out a way to express that with music and I can think of a better example other than possibly the best superhero theme of all time my personal favorite all right now how are we gonna musically express what Superman represents as a hero well first we have to figure out what Superman stands for and luckily we don't have to put a lot of fun to it because Lois Lane directly asks Superman I mean whoa why are you here there must be a reason for you to be here yes I'm here to fight for truth and justice and the American Way okay so how does John Williams musically express truth justice and the American Way in supermans theme well there are two specific aspects of Superman's theme that Williams used to directly communicate that whole truth and justice in the American Way okay first Williams wrote Superman's theme as a March now marches are a form of martial music and martial music is a type of music that's typically used for a military setting or at least it used to be and in America March musics like really crazy important to our culture see it all started with the Ottoman Empire who if I'm not mistaken were the first people to have what we would now consider to be a military band they used music to both intimidate their enemy and boost morale for their own troops all while organizing their army both on and off the battlefield these marches spread around Europe and you can see its influence like you can look at that one Beethoven composition called the Turkish March well by the time of the American Revolutionary War using a field drum to keep formation was common practice for the battlefield and later on during the Civil War everyone maintained that practice well once the Civil War is over March music had become so widespread that it effectively became a form of pop music beginning around halfway through the 19th century marches were the name of the game all the way up to the 1940s when they were ousted by jazz and that was in no small part thanks to people like John Philip Sousa aka the March king who cemented American March music as a cornerstone of our culture he wrote a whole bunch of March music and is responsible for this thing see this is not a tuba this is a tuba this is a sousaphone which is just a marching tuba Sousa was also responsible for composing the Stars and Stripes forever the National March of the United States and he also wrote semper fidelis the official march of the United States Marine Corps March was so popular during this time that community bands started sprouting up all over the country and performed local gazebo concerts in fact that's why circus music sounds the way that it does it's just more March music which is what people were listening to at the time and it was at this time when the multi-million dollar industry of high school and college marching bands started sprouting up and performing during halftime shows so there's this interesting relationship that the US has with March music on one hand were used to listening to a bad marching band playing during a high school football game and professional marches playing while clowns get out of cars but on the other hand we also use March music to celebrate our armed forces and it reminds us of our warlike past so if you want to have a character that's supposed to defend a relatable American notion of truth and justice especially through their superhuman power then maybe using a March makes the most sense [Music] and I'm sure that Williams using March was in no small part to the fact that in 1952 Williams was drafted into the US Air Force and conducted and arranged for the US Air Force Band I'm sure they gave him some experience with the genre which might offer an explanation as to why he wanted to use a March to represent a Nazi fighting archaeologist but then again Williams also uses a March to highlight the oppressive and militaristic nature of the Empire I don't know all I'm saying is that we as Americans have a weird relationship with March music so okay we have Superman as this brassy March the brass implicitly conveys a form of heroism and power while that March is a strange juxtaposition of marshal power and nostalgic Americana well the second critical element of Superman's theme that Williams used to express Superman's Superman Ness was how he chose to color this piece now I'm not sure that color is the right word you might want to call it like the musical language or the musical style or even something like the tonality or sonority that Williams decided to use what I'm effectively saying here is that when Williams wrote Superman's theme he looked to one of my favorite composers of all time Aaron Copeland Copeland was a first-generation American born to Jewish immigrants from Russia who lived in Brooklyn and in short defined what America sounded like now I know I just went on a big rant about how important marches are in American culture but Copeland defined what many people consider to be the sound of American music some people go far enough to call Copeland the Dean of American composers and honestly this is kind of we're talking about music doesn't make as much sense as just listening to it so I'll let Copeland speak for himself [Music] [Applause] Copland was known as a populist composer meaning that he wrote music that would hold up to academic scrutiny but was still accessible enough that anyone could listen to and understand his works he used traditional American folk music to create musical structures that most listeners would be able to understand and enjoy and nowadays we end up hearing Copeland's influence all over the place even in instances we wouldn't really expect but in 1942 Copeland wrote one of his most famous pieces fanfare for the common man [Music] fanfare for the common man was written as a piece dedicated to America when we entered World War two so fanfare is just a small musical flourish that's normally written for just brass and percussion and a lot of time it's meant for celebration or like the announcement of something important classic brass stuff just think of that scene from Shrek again that would be a fanfare in fact most marches begin with the type of fanfare like when you watch the Superman film they go directly from talking about the Daily Planet into the March but when Williams arranged the concert version of Superman's theme he opens with the fanfare so fanfare for the common man was written to honor the American soldiers going to war it's one of the most culturally significant pieces of American music in fact Williams ended up using Copeland's vernacular style from fanfare for the common man again when he wrote him for the Fallen for the film Saving Private Ryan [Music] so when it came to Superman by using Copeland's vernacular style Williams ended up making Superman feel like he was representing America in the American Way of life and the films haven't exactly been subtle about it which is really the whole point behind I'm here to fight for truth and justice in the American Way but there you have it by just listening to the main theme from Superman you can tell exactly who he is what he is and what he stands for Superman's theme is a Copland esque March that sits within an idiomatically brassy sound the Copeland's style makes superman feel like that relatable everyday kid from Kansas but that March makes Superman feel like he belongs on an Uncle Sam poster and the brass calls back to that culturally ingrained sense of heroism all those factors work together in order to emphasize the fact that Superman is a hero that stands for truth and justice in the American Way and if you look carefully you can see other composers using similar techniques in order to make their heroes themes actually sound like they belong to their respective hero in fact the first Captain America film does something very similar to Superman you get that brass and that copeland desk march sound which is very Superman in fact here's the fanfare for the Captain America March right here [Music] but you can't blame sylvestre for that how else are you supposed to musically represent a hero that stands for truth and justice in the American Way but on the opposite side of the spectrum from Superman and Captain America you can see something like Danny Elfman's theme for Batman see Batman's theme kind of uses brass and it makes him sound sort of heroic but it isn't as prominent as any other two themes oh and Batman's theme is kind of a March except it doesn't really have a fanfare and it doesn't follow the traditional march form and technically it's going too fast like if this did actually follow March form then it would technically be a gallop which is just a fast March and also Elfman tosses out all those Copeland sounds and instead he writes Batman's theme in a minor key signature as opposed to Superman's major key signature that means theme opens with the lower darker register of the orchestra and uses a more chromatic texture all as a means of injecting a sense of chaos and darkness into the overall tone of the theme because we're Superman and Captain America stand for truth and justice in the American Way Batman throws razor blades at people's faces and suspends them from their internal injuries but if this theme works so well then how does this theme musically convey what Batman represents well Batman's theme almost sounds like someone took a March and threw it in a blender you could almost say that Batman began with an uncomplicated heroic March just like Superman or Captain America but then had something traumatic happened to it something that scarred that March in an irreversible way that now defines how that character acts and behaves and most importantly acts as a musical expression of what that character represents from a musical perspective you could describe Batman as a Superman that had one very bad night but there are going to be some heroes that are just difficult to try and score take spider-man for example we have at least five different themes that have been used in the last 15 ish years to describe him all with various degrees of success let's see if we can nail this down what does spider-man represent what does he fight for well that's pretty easy just ask Uncle Ben with great power comes great responsibility okay so spider-man has a responsibility to use his powers so now we have to musically represent responsibility and how are we going to represent something that abstract well what if instead of writing an entire piece of music that somehow expresses responsibility and neatly we use a small passage of music that we only ever play when spider-man is being forced to take on some kind of responsibility as a result of his powers and in turn create a representation of responsibilities through association in other words what if we just use a classic Vulgarian light motif all we have to do is look at places in the film where spider-man has to take on that responsibility here's a great example from spider-man 2 where he has to save a train full of people and passes out afterward just check out this great superhero Jesus scene [Music] [Applause] [Music] now this is not the first time you hear this specific piece of music here it is in the first film after Parker returns after watching Uncle Ben died and goes after the gunman [Music] here it is when he drops off the green Goblin's body who is also his best friend's dad [Music] and here it is again a very end of the first film when he's about to turn MJ down so he can protect her from spider-man's enemies if great power comes great responsibility by playing this piece of music whenever Spiderman has to confront a sacrifice that he has to make at the cost of his powers and responsibilities you get that passage this is a perfect example of a really powerful light motif but all that power comes from consistently using the same piece of music throughout all the films see if this scene had used brand-new music it would have meant nothing a massive amount of power behind a light motif comes from its associative properties that's why when they decided to make Superman's 2 3 and 4 they kept using Williams's main theme even though they would hire other composers on to arrange that theme and write other instances of incidental music they even do the same thing in Superman Returns it opens with that March and you get the fanfare whenever Clark Kent transforms into Superman but those little moments are still incredibly important like even though they kept the Burton Elfman duo for Batman Returns once they switched over to Schumacher and Goldenthal for Batman Forever and yeah Goldenthal understood why Elfman used that corrupted distorted militaristic March like sound for Batman and made his own version if you look at the tracklist for Batman Forever you can actually find a track called odd G's fledermaus Marsh music which I think is German for flying Mouse March music or I guess the bat March but back to that spider-man point so what happens if the spider-man film you're working on doesn't really offer you an opportunity to musically represent what the character stands for like see in spider-man homecoming a big part of spider-man's motivation is getting Tony Stark's approval rather than rising up to the responsibilities that his powers give him meaning that the entire theme for what spider-man represents would be like daddy issues or something so if you can't really effectively represent what the hero stands for or are never given the opportunity within the narrative to create a light motif that you can then associate with an element of that hero that represents what the hero stands for then you can dodge the entire problem by representing that hero as a cultural icon that's why when chiquinho scored spider-man homecoming he opened the film with a massive orchestral rendition of the original opening to the 1967 spider-man cartoon it's accepting that there are many interpretations of this character and even though they all might be different they are all inter rotations of this one cultural icon the first guardians of the galaxy film does something kind of similar to this like on one hand they keep using older pop music to emphasize how quill is kind of stuck in the past with his inability to cope with the trauma of losing his mother and its diegetic nature kind of helps move the narrative along but the film also has a light motif that represents quills inability to deal with his mother's passing at the beginning of the film when he can't confront his mother dying you hear this [Music] you hear that again when Peter has to confront his inability to face his past and accept the help of those around him we're the guardians of the galaxy and it finishes when he opens up the present from his mother it's a really great light motif but it also kind of highlights a problem that you have to face when you're working with a group film like this light motif explicitly represents quills inability to deal with his mother's passing and arguably it represents the entire reason he becomes star-lord in the first place its quills childhood trauma that he has to cope with in the climax of the film making the appearance of that light motif that much more appropriate if anything all the music on his Walkman is really just an extension of his character if not a further exploration of his relationship with his mother considering how she was the one who gave him the music in the first place so even though it's a team superhero film and some of the other characters get their own musical identity both the story and the score kind of suggests that this is more like star-lord and the guardians of the galaxy instead of just guardians of the galaxy but that's the problem with writing for a group superhero film if you want to write a theme that defines each and every character's motivation and purpose for that specific character being a part of the group or at the very least that character being a hero in the first place then the score would be really dense and chaotic and you would easily overwhelm your audience with just too much music and very few people would be able to follow along with the film so instead many composers kind of write a lowest-common-denominator theme that represents the collective motivations of the group which sacrifices the individual expression of each character for the sake of that group which in May cases forces the composer to write something that results in these are the good guys these are the bad guys and they fight which sucks because there have been some great opportunities for some musical innovation in recent years with a massive boom of superhero films like okay we already talked about how Captain America's theme works very similarly to Superman's theme and that they both stand for the whole truth and justice in the American Way and an Iron Man his theme is like an electric guitar [Music] which is kind of a great representation of Iron Man as a character like he's a rock star engineer Copland just wouldn't fit so when it came to civil war it would have been really cool to see the two sides that are led by Captain America and Iron Man respectively to also have the conflicting musical representation in one side getting a Copelan desk sound and the other side getting that like power cord electric guitar sound sort of like a musical representation of the conflict between freedom and justice that the narrative tries to explore you could basically get that one scene from South Park but at the same time you have to realize that I'm actually cherry-picking one of the three themes that have represented Iron Man within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and one of the two themes that have represented Captain America I mean even Thor has two different themes in his films but you also have to consider that both Iron Man and Captain America along with many of the other heroes that were fighting in the airport have already been collectively represented by what we now identify as the Avengers theme which was kind of brought back by the end of the fight scene in Avengers age of Ultron which also ended up adding some new music as well so some of these characters have multiple themes some of them have only been represented within the context of a group a few others have had their own offshoot films in between all these various group films that all have different music it's starting to get pretty complicated and because there's so much contradictory information there really isn't any chance for any one of these characters to have a musical expression of what they represent that's anywhere close to as powerful as Superman's theme like this whole franchise as of right now cannot construct anything that even comes close to this incredibly moving train scene they won't have the ability to reference clearly established themes for any given hero like they did in Superman Returns I mean I get that sometimes you just have to switch teams and you won't get the same composers or the license to use their music but even the guys behind Batman and Robin put in the effort to maintain some sort of consistent musical characterization so the next time you're sitting in a superhero film and you hear that hero's theme think to yourself what does this character stand for what does this hero fight for and how is the score representing that what does this music mien and why did the composer put it here what makes this hero's theme different from every other hero theme that's come before it and why and let's be honest with ourselves if your hero dresses in black uses guns outright kills people or just leaves them to die brands people to be executed in prison and has someone else build all of his equipment let's be real that isn't Batman that's the Punisher but would you still structure his theme like a March would you even use brass does that mean he's still a hero [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Sideways

Views: 196,654

Rating: 4.9672823 out of 5

Keywords: Superman, Hero, Superhero, The Superhero Theme, John Williams, Batman, Spiderman, DC, Marvel, Dc Comics, Avengers, Ultron, Civil War, Iron Man, Antman, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Hulk, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Robin, Batman and Robin, Leitmotif, Wagner

Id: OLweJucEPL0

Length: 23min 51sec (1431 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/parrmorgan]

He doesn't even mashup the themes. I thought it was a great idea and wanted to hear it.

[u/thisissamsaxton]

One thing he didn't mention but I think would be cool is even just to hear Iron Man's typical electric guitar chords, but done in an oppressive imperialistic way (like the march song for the bad guys in Star Wars) now that he's demanding uniformity as a character and he's less fun/wild.

And likewise hear Captain America's brass horns but maybe all playing their own melody, showing their freedom to be unique (but all still complimenting each other so it doesn't sound like shit lol).

[u/50mikemike]

The south park movie did it best with la resistance https://youtu.be/KgeDGmXLK40

[u/gcanyon]

I like Marvel movies a lot, I've seen all of them, but there's definitely a point to be made that I can't remember the music for any of them, while I can hum the original Superman theme without even thinking hard. Same for the Danny Elfman Spider-Man theme (or of course the original Spider-Man theme).

[u/willflameboy]

A musical analysis video with almost no music in it. Some good thoughts rendered almost meaningless.

[u/IAMHab]

But Tony and Cap have character arcs that develop a long way from their origin movies, and in opposite directions. By the time Civil War comes around, Tony is not the egotistical rock star he started as, nor is Steve the selfless soldier he started as. In fact, Tony is becoming more selfless while Steve is finally acting on his own personal interests, perhaps for one of the first times in his life. Maybe having the fanfare of CA 1 with the electric guitar of IM 1 would have worked if they had faced off earlier on, around Avengers 1, but at this point in their respective stories, it doesn't make sense.

[u/PurpleBullets]

I’m pissed he didn’t play any of the themes he was referencing. He had the video already!

[u/pixelSHREDDER]

I'll never understand why they dumped Ramin Djawadi's excellent Iron Man theme after the first movie....

[u/NealKenneth]

I can't stand Sideways.

He is way too "by the book" and mathematical with his approach to music, and he is long-winded to the point of hyperventilation... he needs to get an editor to cut down the size of his scripts, and take a breath between sentences sometimes. As for this particular video, of course music was one of the weak points of the MCU. However I don't think that applies to Civil War, which actually had some of the best music of the MCU and some really strong moments. So choosing Civil War as an example was weird.

Should have done Endgame, that movie has one of the weakest scores I've ever heard.

As for his fix, well...let's hear it. Guy goes on a 20+ minute rant about how bad other people's music is but can't take an hour to do his own demo? Come on.