Unsettling Melodies: a Cognitive Approach to Incongruent Film Music

Incongruent film music is a soundtrack, either diegetic or nondiegetic, which expresses qualities that stand in contrast to the emotions evoked by the events seen. The present article aims at covering two interconnected areas; the first is comprised of a critical recapitulation of available theoreti...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Willemsen Steven, Kiss Miklós
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2013-11-01
Series:Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2014-0022
Description
Summary:Incongruent film music is a soundtrack, either diegetic or nondiegetic, which expresses qualities that stand in contrast to the emotions evoked by the events seen. The present article aims at covering two interconnected areas; the first is comprised of a critical recapitulation of available theoretical accounts of incongruent film music, whilst the second part of the paper offers an alternative, embodied-cognitive explanation of the audio-visual conflict which arises from this particular type of incongruence. Rather than regarding it as a phenomenon that works through disrupting conventions, we stress a perceptual-cognitive reason behind incongruence’s emotional strangeness.
ISSN:2066-7779