World building through world synthesis: The synthesised score of Blade Runner - Liane Gualdim Silva

Video paper presentation for University of West London's 2024 edition of "21st Century Music Practice" Conference.

Paper abstract:
Different film scores can produce alterations in a film’s narrative and its interpretations, and in particular, the use ofdifferent instrumentations can produce different results. This research focuses on Composition and Songwriting, more specifically, on the use of Commercial Electronic Music Instruments (CEMI’s) in music composition for film.

The films ‘Chariots of Fire’ (1981), ‘Thief’ (1981), and ‘Blade Runner’ (1982) mark the first few scores with synthesisers as the main featured instruments, but they do so in different ways. One useful way to better understand how CEMI’s such as these can be used in film music, is to adapt Allan Moore’s concept of Authenticity to this context, which is thesecond stage of this research. After a brief overview of these films and their scores, I will explain how Authenticity and Authentication can be useful tools to analyse and compose film music, and focus on Ridley Scott’s

‘Blade Runner Final Cut’ (1982/2007). By looking more deeply into a particular example from this film, I aim to understand how the soundtrack of ‘Blade Runner’ authenticates the film’s narrative and worldbuilding, with particular contrast with the other two films. More specifically, I look into how Vangelis’ score employssynthesised instrumentation in different contexts, how it combines it with occasional use of acousticinstrumentation, and how this practice influences (and sometimes even changes) the film’s narrative. Additionally, through practical demonstration, I propose new approaches to composition in these contexts.

Ultimately, the goal of this research is to start a conversation surrounding the different uses of CEMI’s in film music composition, how these can authenticate (or not) different elements, and how composers can harness this to produce different narrative results.