Patrick Suiter - A Musical review of Macbeth (1971)

"Perhaps my least favourite thing about this movie is the awful musical score by the Third Ear Band, which consists of ear-splitting noises coming in at the most random moments of the film. I would describe this score as “Gaelic Inception noises”, but if there’s a more technical term for it, let me know in the comments".

-Thomas McGrath

How right you were Tom. How right you were.

'Unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty' as I go through this score.

I have been kindly asked by Tom to put myself through the torture of reviewing the dumpster fire that is the score to Polanski's Macbeth by the Third Ear Band. I don't know why I am doing this. I actually had to watch this film a second time to do this and I almost lost faith in humanity.

I don't know how anyone thought this score was a good idea. For the entirety of the movie, all I can think is: Is this a joke?

First of all, the score almost serves no purpose in the film in the first place. If I were to time how much of this film is underscored with music, it would probably only be a good 20-30 minutes. There is literally like no music until 8 minutes in.

This could be for a plethora of reasons, I mean, it is a Shakespeare play, and plays aren't usually underscored with music in order to put the focus on the actors and the lines that are spoken (because that's where the magic of Shakespeare comes from). It could be to build intensity, but that only works in a few scenes.

One thing I don't think it intended to do was make the entirety of the movie one of the most boring waste of 2 hours I think I have ever experienced. 'You see this poorly choreographed fight scene? We will just make it even less engaging by having it in complete silence', because that makes total sense.

The only times when we ever really hear music are in transition passages in the film, and most of them sound so sh*t that I would have preferred them not to be there.

The Third Ear Band who obviously don't have a good ear for music! (that was too far I'm sorry)

One of the main things film music should do to the audience is help to convey emotions that we should be feeling in response to the film. The director can use the music as a vehicle to express their message. So when I hear happy, major sounding music after Macbeth talks about his 'black and deep desires' at night time, I've got to start asking questions.

You might say, it could represent how he is hiding his darker self and the music correlates with that, but, let's be honest, no one is going to put that together when they are in the cinema. Use thematic development to show the inner feelings of your characters, not just some random notes that someone who has never touched a violin before could put together!

Speaking of themes, there were none, at least that I noticed. Even if there were, if even I couldn't recognise any (and I was listening intently to the score) then I don't think anyone else will. Compare that to something like Star Wars. If the Imperial March plays, I think we all know what it is. Maybe that's not fair to compare since Star Wars is far more popular than this sh*t show, but I'm doing it anyway.

Going back to the lack of music, it's fairly clear that the music is only ever present to fill the empty space. It only ever pops up when nothing interesting is happening. Seriously, do I even have to explain why this is a bad choice? It is just such a missed opportunity.

But still, there is no music in the main titles. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? I'm literally just looking at BLACK TEXT AND CLOUDS and you think that's a good time for the film to be BASICALLY SILENT?!?! Way to draw the viewer in right?

To be fair, there is fighting noise in the background, but I still don't feel engaged.

Or lack thereof, in this case.

I couldn't tell you how many famous films have effective main title music. Star Wars, Superman, Blade Runner, James Bond even, Pink Panther, Alien, Catch Me If You Can, The Incredibles, must I continue? Some movies, like Interstellar, don't, but it's not for a full 2 minutes, and in context with the scene it's effective.

There are lots of other awkward silences too. Like I said before, there is no music for any fighting. There are moments, such as when people hail Macbeth as king, that the actors literally stand still in complete silence for 5 seconds. This just takes you out of the moment.

Since the Third Ear Band attempted to include some Middle Ages influence into their soundtrack for this movie, I have many questions to ask. The first being: did they even try?

The second; do they know when the oboe was invented? The mid-17th century. So when I hear oboe music at the banquet at Macbeth's castle, in a movie that is set in the 11th century, I think there may be a time traveller in the film.

This is an oboe - if you didn't know.

The third; since when was the bass guitar an instrument in the 11th century? I can't believe I need to make this point. The bass guitar combined with the other strings and woodwind makes it sound so out of place, and makes the score sound even worse.

I could go on and on about the fact that they play the violin and other strings when they were invented in the 16th century, the recorder in the 14th century and so on. Would it have been that hard to do some research?

One of the most annoying offenders is when a little boy (Fleance I think) sings to King Duncan. What pisses me off is that he is singing a piece that sounds like it was written in 1971, not in the 11th century.

First of all, back then, pieces did not have functional harmony (resolved dissonance) and the same chord patterns and cadences that we are used to hearing in popular music nowadays. They didn't even have a sense of key as church modes didn't come into practice until the renaissance. Pieces were often monophonic (one vocal line with no accompaniment). They didn't have a clear sense of metre (grouping of notes) or beat. (Pieces usually used conjunct intervals too but I'll give that a pass).

So when I hear this boy singing a piece that does the exact opposite of all of these; it has functional harmony, modern chord patterns, cadences, homophonic texture (vocal line and accompaniment), a clear sense of metre and beat I am left confused at what was going on.

But still, you might be asking, all we know of that time is Gregorian chants and sacred singing. We don't know that many instruments, or any secular stuff. In response to that I ask: well, why do the Third Ear Band pretend that they do?

I don't care if they use Middle Ages elements in the soundtrack itself, but when they use these elements in the banquet itself which is a diagetic sound (meaning the characters can hear it as well), I'm left baffled at this tomfoolery? You are literally playing instruments that didn't exist at the time, singing styles that weren't created. It seems almost like a fat middle finger to anyone that has ever briefly studied music before.

This banquet scene becomes even more idiotic when you realise the people on screen aren't even playing the same instruments you are hearing in the soundtrack, and the people in the soundtrack are literally playing out of tune. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but either way, f*ck off.

Please inform me if you see anyone playing an oboe here. No one is even blowing into an instrument?

Furthermore, their choice of style is questionable anyway. I did some research, and apparently they used elements of music from the Middle Ages, India, and Jazz?!?! This is the second of the many times I will say this, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Besides the middle ages, what does India and Jazz have to do with anything? And if picking random notes like a 3 year old to make up chords is Jazz then I think I need to re-educate myself. We'll get back to this later.

So far, we've barely gotten into what the music actually sounds like, here goes nothing.

There are a few 'redeeming' moments in the score. By redeeming, I mean they aren't entirely shit, but they are still pretty shocking, very subpar all round. These moments include: (because I can't be bothered to go into too much detail)

· The interesting music effects in the dagger scene (they even have an effect synced with the dagger appearing which was kinda cool), as well as tremolo strings to add tension

· The scene where they mourning Duncan's death, simply because it’s a good tone setter. Doesn't sound good though.

· The low tones when Birnam wood is moving, which foreshadow the following events.

· When Banquo's ghost haunts Macbeth, literally the only time where this aleatoric crap is fitting (I'll explain soon I'm getting there I promise)

Ok! Now let's shit on it.

Lady Macbeth's descent into insanity is how I would describe analysing this score.

A lot of the time when music plays, it lacks meaning. The music is rarely very notable, except for a few interesting moments. For example, when Banquo dies, we hear one low note. There is near to no emotional impact garnered from one note that is low in the mix anyway. When Macbeth is told he is Thane of Cawdor, guess what we hear? One long note in the woodwind. Oh my goodness. Is it really that hard? This takes legit 10 seconds total to write.

Half of the chords sound like they were picked at random. I'm not even talking about the bits of the score where the witches come on. In the bits where there is supposed to be functional harmony, they have just picked chords that don't fit with the melody or vice versa. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? What is the point of this? To try and be edgy? To try and fit to the period? Well it doesn't. It's just mind-boggling, I don't understand.

The constant switching from functional harmony to non-functional is embarrassing. Seriously, make up your mind. The constant shifts between the two can be very jarring, which takes attention away from the movie to the music, which should not happen.

Another way they take your attention away from the music is with its entries. It doesn't start soft and then get louder as it enters, the scene changes and then straight away, we are subject to a loud, clusterf*ck chord, that leaves me surprised, in disgust and distracted from the movie. Other movies, such as Star Wars (sorry I'm relying on John Williams a lot here, I can't believe they were in the same business) transition into the music before the scene changes, and start softer so the transition is less jarring, and your attention is kept on the film, where it should be.

The tone doesn't blend well at all. The instrumentation they went for here seems like it's had no thought put into it whatsoever. This also takes your attention away from the film. The instruments they used all have very clashing tone colours (sound quality), which may have been intentional, to which I have to ask; WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Still, it sounds absolutely shocking.

Tom used this gif in his review for the movie itself (which you should check out if you haven't already), and it's just too fitting I had to include it.

You thought it couldn't get any worse? Oh it does. It gets so much worse.

The thing that I think most people remember about this score are the scenes involving the witches. I just want to know where the threshold lies where we have gone too far to try and set atmosphere? Because picking random notes to make ear-splitting cluster chords that sound like shit, playing them at full blast with lacklustre instrumentation is NOT my idea of a mysterious mood.

They also use pedal notes (long held notes while other parts move) which are not even in the same key as the rest of the instruments. This means that the pedal note and the melody have different tonal centres, and it sounds awful! How hard would it be to just move the pedal note to the correct tonic.

It always seems like all the instruments are on different worlds, not even listening to each other, and just making it up as they go. Oh my goodness, it's so bad.

It's at this point that I have to ask myself, is this a joke? Were they taking this seriously?

There is no real way for me to analyse this music here. It literally sounds like horseshit. They literally sound like when a group of 5 year olds all pick up musical instruments and play them at the same time and chaos ensues. They make my awful compositions look like masterpieces, and me like Mozart. Listening to this makes me realise that back then you really didn't need talent to get into the business.

And that brings me to my final point, the use of aleatoric music in this movie. Tom, to answer your query about a more technical term for some of this music, this is the one. This score utilises aleatoric music in quite a few bits, such as Duncan's death. Aleatoric music is quite a broad term, meaning music that is often left up to chance. In this case, they literally randomised the notes that were to be played in the score.

This was supposed to create a 'chaotic' nature perhaps, but I just think it sounds absolutely shocking. To think that someone would put so little effort into creating a score just baffles me. Not only that, but aleatoric music sounds like absolute shit, as you might expect.

I can respect styles like German Expressionism (in which you must play all 12 notes of a tone set before playing the same one again) because it still requires a lot of smarts to pull off well, even if often it doesn't sound very good, but in this case it requires no effort, and it sounds awful anyway!

Would it have been that hard for this score to be passable? I would have accepted some average string writing maybe with some winds if that tickled their fancy, or maybe even with a touch of harpsichord (before you say I'm hypocritical this is non-diagetic sound I'm talking about) to make it sound a bit more old-fashioned. Also, do some research about the styles you are imitating before you attempt to.

I still can't believe that this is a score that was actually put to film. It is so objectively terrible, I seriously question whether it was a joke. To be fair, I'm sure there's someone out there that likes this kind of stuff, and if you do, good for you. Definitely not my cup of tea.

Usually bad scores don't impact a movie too much, but in this case, it does. This score is totally f*cked. It's often so distracting in the movie. There is nothing about it that is at least average. Seriously though, I don't know what they were thinking when they made this, why does this exist?

I give Third Ear Band's score for Macbeth a 0.5/10. And that's generous. How the flying f*ck did this score get nominated for a BAFTA? I don't know how to respond.

This, in my opinion, is the worst score ever put to film. If you’ve heard worse, let me know in the comments. Now, I'm going to go listen to some John Williams to restore my faith in humanity. Peace.