Happy Halloween! BONUS dumb joke in the end screen so stick around for that lovely musical display. LAST DAY to grab my brand new ebook package with 40 downloadable backing tracks for 50% off! jazzpianoimprov.com/
That would be really cool if you did a reaction and breakdown on big poppa by the notorious B.I.G. ik the background is between the sheet but i always thought it was interesting
I didn't want to miss the discount, but now I apparently have the materials on an account on teachable, but I meant to buy it for my sister who is the pianist! I thought it was going to be a link in my email that I could give her so she could sign up to receive the book. What do I do now?
You must listen to Collin Stetson play “The Righteous Wrath of an Honorable Man” he’s insanely talented and that song is an absolute showcase of his skills.
You're so right, this theme does feel happy, triumphant even. Evil prevails just as it was meant to. There was never a way out for this family. I've watched this movie exactly once and it's stayed with me for years. Truly disturbing and one I'll never watch again.
What makes this even better, and i just discovered this, is that according to legends, Paimon's arrival is supposed to be accompanied by bells and trumpets and we have that here! that makes this theme even better and genius!
I’ve once heard this track being described as “a sunrise in hell” and it fits. It has an evil, yet triumphant feel to it. Hereditary has become one of my favorite horror movies so thank you!
I came here to say this- glad you mentioned it! “Watching a sunrise in hell” is SUCH a good description of this glorious yet emotionally dissonant soundtrack! 🙌🏼
It is exactly that “the occult is triumphant in conjuring, resurrecting King Paimon” It comes in with the sounds of Trumpets and loud noises… that was exactly the theme.
What makes this even better, and i just discovered this, is that according to legends, Paimon's arrival is supposed to be accompanied by bells and trumpets and we have that here! that makes this theme even better and genius!
Aster has this way of making you feel safe in such horrific situations with his use of bright beautiful colors and soothing musical scores. He makes you feel as though things are alright as the world crashes and burns around you. It’s so astounding and wonderful and makes me love his work so much.
What makes this even better, and i just discovered this, is that according to legends, Paimon's arrival is supposed to be accompanied by bells and trumpets and we have that here! that makes this theme even better and genius!
The amount of crazy odd textures and timbres he got from conventional instrumentation on this soundtrack is wild. It's part of the reason it's so off putting, it's hard to tell what instrument certain sounds are coming from.
When I first watched this movie, I was with friends and the ending to me felt warm, cozy, and comforting, and my friends all called me a psychopath saying it was clearly a horrific ending. And while I clearly could identify it as disturbing it still had those comforting qualities and I had just attributed them to the lighting and set design of the tree house, but now I know there was that specific intent with the score as well. Absolutely brilliant
@IBHID well to be fair, unlike most demon films, the film doesn't necessarily establish Paiman as objectively evil. He also turns out to have been the real protagonist ie its his goal that moves the story fwd and he finally gets what he needs. Which as far as the film tells us is just a (preferably male) body. Not world domination or the torture of millions, dude just wants a body. Now it's not *nice* to steal one elses just because he died fleeing when your friends scared him, sure it's pretty amoral, but you were raised as siblings. And it's not like possession itself is what *makes* demons evil. Aside from some body hijinks mostly facilitated by human nut jobs, we haven't really seen Paimon portrayed as bad. Certainly Paimon-as-Charlie didn't come across as evil. Awkward, troubled, possibly neurodivergent, but not evil. For all we know he might just be a spirit the cult enslaved.
This has the kind of terrifying feel that the THX theme does for whatever reason. It's triumphant but grows louder and louder into an unsettling cacophony that has weirdness in it due to the unusual textures and sporadic dissonance.
What makes this even better, and i just discovered this, is that according to legends, Paimon's arrival is supposed to be accompanied by bells and trumpets and we have that here! that makes this theme even better and genius!
Emotional dissonance is one of the most common techniques in horror. For example; kids singing, amusement parks, parties, camping, the ocean. Things our brains associate with fun and happiness but twisted into something scary.
That cacophony is exactly that; where you’re playing bright and loud but you push even further beyond so much so that it turns crass and you get that vibrating distortion of sound. It’s taking what should be a triumphant fanfare and twisting it to something distorted which gives off that eerie and disturbing sensation of “Oh no, we’ve gone too far”
Like what the opposite of a heavenly body may sound like. The dark triumphant mimicking of singing angels. I remember feeling things, like this is how it should be. It's incredible how music can make us feel things we otherwise may not have.
Oh shit, it's like that scene at the end of The Lighthouse with the dude like... Literally screaming with joy and it's TOO bright. It's the same kinda vibe. I love modern horror...
Exactl... This plays bananas to our brain. A horror movie with happy and candy sound 🎵🎼 thats nuts. Imagine Kun fu panda 🐼 with a horror soundtrack....😱🤯🤯
I noticed Ari Aster likes to have bright sounding OSTs in his movies, especially if they're horror/thrillers. Another example is Bobby Krlic's Fire Temple from Midsommar. If you listen to this without the context of the movie, you wouldn't think it was a horror flick. Amazing.
Ari Aster loves working with sound full stop! At the beginning of midsommar the first "jump scare" is a phone ringing because it's been so silent the entire time up to that.
@@princesszsay kind of like the only jumpscare, even. Or first of three. He doesn't really rely on jumpscares for Midsommar, he trades them off for a slowly, unyieldingly increasing sense of dread more scarring than any jumpscare could ever be. And I love him/the movie for that.
I had the pleasure of listening to Philip Glass talk about movie scoring years ago. He had scored a horror movie - I forget which one - and we watched the scene where someone is murdered. But Glass chose to score it using a delicate tune rather than a cacophonous mess and his comment for why he did this still rings in my head. Something like: by scoring something calming while the viewer is watching something horrific, you as a composer are forcing the viewer to travel emotionally between these two states. The wider the chasm, the more difficult the journey but also the more memorable.
God I love Phillip Glass. I'm pretty sure the horror movie you're talking about is The Candyman (I'm too lazy to even Google it rn). But his work on The Truman Show is beyond beautiful and honestly one of my favorite movie scores of all time.
A common element between that score and the Midsommar score is the slow but methodical dancing around the tonic underpinned by a tonic drone. Gives such a sense of inevitably. That what happened was always going to happen, and the characters were merely there to bear witness to their fate. Truly haunting.
It feels like witnessing a sunset after a night of experiencing trauma. Like when even the comforting things in life feel more like cold, alienating indifference rather than something uplifting, because it's so detached from the realities you've just had imprinted on you. Midsommar had a similar vibe. Ari Aster is really good at simulating the sense of depersonalization and the baseline unsafe feeling that comes with ptsd. The sense that all efforts towards comforting you are an impending rug-pull.
Db major is my favorite key. It just sounds so magnificent and ethereal and honestly finding out the theme is written in that key makes perfect sense for this film.
Because Db Major is often used as an emotionally arresting key, a showstopper piece with high emotional apexes. Examples include: "Pure Imagination", an introduction to another world in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory "Colors of the Wind", the absolute belter solo piece from Pocahontas "All I Ask of You", Phantom of the Opera's gorgeous love song In classical music, there's Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, Liszt's Trois etudes, Debussy's Clair de Lune. In jazz, there's "Body and Soul" and "The Girl From Ipanema". Each of these is unbelievably filled with awe, but Hereditary uses minimalism to evoke the unknown. In a way, it's like Clair de Lune. Staring into the darkness, feeling small, but in two completely opposite emotions.
I wrote a paper on Colin Stetson for a seminar in college and the most impressive thing about his music is that most sounds you hear are just him on a wind instrument. That kinda distorted feeling is, from what I recall, just the mics he uses for recording (typically contact mics), his embouchure, and the occasional multiphonics he plays on his instruments. Those notes dancing around that arpeggio come from him singing into the instrument WHILE playing WHILE circular breathing. He is a freak of nature in the best way and I'm glad people can appreciate the beauty of his work without knowing all the extended techniques he employs.
I am so incredibly delighted to see Hereditary analyzed by Charles… easily the most disturbing and emotionally damaging movie I have ever seen, and a big part of that is the disconnect between the visuals and the music. The juxtaposition is so strong and it just does something to me that no other film has ever made me feel.
Yes. Glad I'm not alone in this. There's something dark and disturbing about this film. It stayed with me for days. I feel like it welcomes a demonic entity when you watch it. I say this for a couple of reasons. One for the melancholy it left and two for what happened the next day. As soon as I woke up, a bird flew into my bedroom window. That's never happened before or since. And anyone who's seen the movie knows how disturbing that is.
Yea. My husband took me to see this like 2 months after one of our twins passed. I was NOT ok during most of this movie and felt numb on the way home. I couldn’t even verbalize what I felt. It wasn’t good thi
For me, it was the scene directly after Charlie gets decapitated where Peter just calmly goes to bed while leaving her in the car. Something about that felt so real and shocking. Truly a masterpiece of a horror film
This movie was so disturbing that, even after not watching it in a couple years, just the few scenes and talking about the music are enough to tighten my chest and raise my heart rate. What a great terrifying movie and score.
in a way using a triumphant theme for a terrifying ending makes it seem all the more hopeless, since usually when you hear this in movies you think they day has definitely been won by the protagonists and there’s nothing the antagonists can do to change that. this theme sounds like a triumphant and definite victory. it sounds so COMPLETE.
IDK if Ari Aster did this intentionally but perhaps what makes the unnaturally happy theme most disturbing to me is WHY it sounds so happy. In various books on demons such as the Ars Goetia and Dictionnare Infernal is that the arrival of the kings of Hell (such as Paimon in the movie) are often heralded by trumpet fanfare. Its a triumphant theme, but it’s a triumph for the King Paimon. Absolutely brilliant.
The best description I've ever seen of this song was the time someone described it as sounding like "sunrise in Hell." Especially given I experience sound-color synesthesia, so to me, those big bands of sound, those four notes you talk about here, are vivid bands of golden orange and red. Also though, I wanna talk about my FAVORITE thing about this track, which is the fact that narratively, it tells us that our perspective as the audience has changed. Before, when we followed the living family, the soundtrack was suitably dark and nightmarish... but after Peter's death and rebirth, we get that shift to that warm, triumphant theme, and that confirms for us immediately that we aren't following the family anymore, because none of them are left to follow. We see the finale from the perspective of the cult celebrating their glorious victory. Yes, the fear is over... because those who were afraid are all dead.
"He is described as a man riding a Dromedary camel, preceded by men playing loud music (particularly trumpets), as well as cymbals". This score is defiantly inspired by this quote from the lore regarding the demon Paimen.
By far….. the scariest movie I have ever watched in my damn life. No comic relief, very serious themes, and dark atmosphere of a family falling apart. Scared the absolute shit out of me, and I don’t even scare that easily.
As an electronic musician who is old beyond taking much pleasure in messing around with VSTs for weird sound effects, I just wanted to thank you and 12 tone for teaching me so much about how I can conjure just as much dynamics through learning just a bit of music theory and doing some unexpected things with it. This score is a perfect example...
@@reygenne1 thanks. now that I'm getting closer to having some new music to release I was thinking of changing it to math my new vibe, but that's the second time in a few days a stranger has voiced their approval. Maybe I'll change the project name of the old stuff instead, so I can still get my fresh start ...just in reverse
no problem, and im going to elaborate even more on why your name, dyscotopia, is awesome first off, its based word is like dystopia, which means a corrupted/miserable form of society or something, which im pretty sure we can agree is a really cool and unique word secondly, "dysco" in your name is pronounced like disco, which we know is a genre, a nightclub (discotheque), which considering you're a musician, is really fitting thirdly, it's just naturally from the fact your name is creative and unique compared to most names i've seen, so that alone make it an awesome name already that's all! and i hope you have a great result with your start and from now on!! :3
That click goes way...way beyond just being a tick. Ari Aster really has a near devoted appreciation to the Ars Goetia and other grimoires. Truly inspiring.
Knowing Colin Stetson style of playing the saxophone, that "inter-voice movement" you called our attention to; Stetson is playing the arpeggio as he is also singing through the saxophone... At the same time! He's a master of making the saxophone sound huge and immersive. I encourage everyone to look up Stetsons live videos. Unreal.
Exactly. I have seen him live and i am very confident the entire track here is just Colin Stetson playing bass sax solo. There is no orchestra, it is only Stetson playing all the parts live while breathing in and out at the same time for like 8 minutes straight.
Also noticed a bit of infrasound adding to the feeling of unease (listen to 13:55). It's the notes that exist right on the cusp of what humans are physically able to hear and we've got hereditary memory that tells us to be afraid of those low notes since they often were accompanied by some sort of natural disaster.
11:45 The instrument used is a bass saxophone!! It's an incredible instrument that Colin uses in a lot of his music but especially in his "New History Warfare" albums as well as his most recent "What we were that what wept for the sea". He is an absolute genius and I highly reccomend checking out ALL of his work!!!!!!
Hereditary is such a good horror film where it's not just jumpscares, but also mystery in it. The clicking that Peter does tells me that Charlie was already possessed by Paimon since the beginning, since Paimon does the clicking.
Your enthusiasm for this score reminds me of how emotional my own response was when I first saw Hereditary. What I found most amusing was that Aster chose to use the old Judy Collins chestnut, Both Sides Now, for the end titles, serving as a sort of palette cleanser; a trick he repeated for Midsommar with Frankie Valli's The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore.
God I love it when soundtracks/pieces have a sort of sickeningly happy sound to them, like someone's completely content with something they're about to do despite it being dramatically ironic. Thank you so much for covering this, I'll be sure to watch it. Some other exemples of inappropriate bright/happy songs are (SPOILERS AHEAD): Stay from interstellar, where the triumphant yet unknowing chords becomes a dreading cacophony later in the movie when the initial efforts to leave are actively trying to be stopped. I wanna say the hunger games movies soundtrack might have this type of effect as well in a few songs but don't count me on it I wanna say there's a scene in a movie where a character sacrifices themselves while another character yells at them not to with a laid back happy melody playing, but I can't think of other examples off the top of my head rn
evangelion does this a few times. one of the most notably komm susser tod imo, the song in general is super bright and happy but the lyrics and what's happening on screen are super messed up
I think the subtle tuning of instruments throughout this is a key part of what makes this so creepy - the beginning arpeggios are not all in tune with each other, and there's a few points here where the 'landing' in Db isn't really to the piano-tuned Db. Really dope.
I think there were some significant things left unexamined here by not talking about the microtonality of the portmanteau that was used, and the unique timbres Stetson achieves by circular breathing and drone singing while playing saxophones and clarinets. Those are keys to making an otherwise 'happy' set of notes sound intensely creepy.
Like he said, it's because the notes are played major which is what is considered "happy" as opposed to playing minor notes which have a "sinister" sound to them.
Honestly, moreso than Ave Maria, the beginning of this piece sounds A LOT like the beginning of the Ring Cycle, with those layered, building arpeggios all playing at different times, with varying rhythms. Almost creating a flowy slightly underwater sound. Strangely haunting and beautiful music.
I would say it is more reminiscent of bartoks wooden prince introduction than wagners ring intro, but bartok was very likely inspired himself by wagner when writing the wooden prince so i guess both references work But in temrs of "vibe" and build up, i feel that this piece is closer to bartok than wagner
I've never experienced this movie and felt afraid or terrified. Its ending feels oddly satisfying and triumphant. The theme makes me feel bittersweet and almost proud but I don't feel fear and I don't hear fright. It's perfect.
Colin Stetson in all honesty is such an incredible composer and musician. This theme what I’d call hauntingly beautiful and it forces you to pay attention, even if you find yourself wanting to look away. If possible I’d like to recommend the trailer music to the upcoming anime of Uzumaki, the man does some incredible things with the sax, and for me it has a similar vibe to the hauntingly beautiful music of Hereditary. Highly recommend it! Looking forward to the next upcoming videos!
When I first heard it, it gave me a very esoteric feeling. It was strangely familiar. Its almost like I've heard before in another life or in another dimension. The feeling of it is very triumphant and almost holy. Hearing the trumpets and choir, it gave me a feeling of having the secrets of the universe being unlocked to me. I envisioned that this sound is something that would have been heard in Ancient Egypt when the pyramids were still clade in white limestone. Add all these feelings to the movies plot and seeing the crowning of Paimon, a King of Hell, it was very unsettling as if I personally was somehow giving homage to pure evil.
Excellent comment. And yeah it feels like they found the notes on an ancient Sumerian tablet or some shit. Incredibly epic, cosmic sort of ending. Felt Lovecraftian to me.
Thank you. This is why it boggles my mind when people say they hated this movie or that it’s not scary (that’s subjective i guess); because not only were the tools used so effectively, the effect achieved from those tools feels so sophisticatef and of course downright scary. It’s a new kind of scary in media that makes Aster such a great director from the get go.
I think people mainly associate “scary” with ghosts, monsters, serial killers, and jumpscares. This is an emotionally tormenting film that is horrifying in a completely new and different way. It requires a different mindset and appreciation for it. I think that may be why. I absolutely loved it
The intro really throws backroom vibes especially with the imagery of the sideways tree house, adding this oddly familiar feeling while looking at something that absolutely should not make any sense but somehow does with the music.
It really overtakes you how the music is just a pure celebration of tonality. I really couldn't stop talking about the music in this movie for a while after I saw it. Especially because I didn't expect Colin Stetson, but I recognized him when I heard the most incredible saxophone technique I've ever heard.
The thing is that this theme blends into the final scene so good. A demon in normal horror movies look monstrous and even muscular and animalistic, but in Hereditary it goes beyond that and there the demonic is just like Divine. demonic is just otherworldly as the abrahamic god (with some middle eastern and roman flavours) differing only in the intentions. So it deserves such a regal music but it must sound essentially scary to us.
I hear that intro as a moment of subtle tune up.. like different members of wind section testing their instruments.. arpeggios to check tuning which develops into the music
Major key is so underrated. Just look at Pixar; _all_ their saddest musical moments, in the entire filmography, they're all Major key, every time. "When Somebody Loved Me": Major key. Boo getting her door: Major key Marlin realizing his kid is the only thing he has left in the world after his wife and eggs got massacred: Major key. The UP montage: Major key Joy remembering the sadness in Riley's life as a good thing: Major key. Show me someone who's first impulse is "scary" music for a scary scene and "sad" music for a sad scene and I'll show you someone who lacks imagination. The bitterest tears are cried for something we used to feel happy about.
also look at japanese songs that talks about sad topics like heartbreak, depression, grievance. they always play in happy tune. Because its our coping mechanism to sad emotions to counter it which is why you feel the negative emotion more.
Dang just realized on your point at 9:16 the cute little bell/chimes ringing sounds like the bell priests ring during communion to prompt people throughout the parts of the ceremony.
An amazing piece of advice my music teacher gave me was: every instrument has a comfortable range or a 'pleasant' way to be played. If you push the range or timbre to its limits, you can play the happiest notes and still feel the strain and tension
I've never seen this movie and I don't intend to because I don't do horror movies, but just this bit of music makes my soundtrack hungry brain drool and gives me waves of goosebumps.
This is one of my favorite movies that I've never seen and probably never will. It's a masterpiece, and I'm happy to enjoy its elements by proxy, so thank you for helping me appreciate the music and how it enhances the movie that much more.
This is the most scary and disturbing movie to me, and the music played such a huge part of it. All your senses are taken for a horrifying ride. I still haven't been able to re-watch it.
It's amazing what a simple ... bastardization (? in a good way, of course) of a single note can do to signal to the audience how they're supposed to view a scene, like the detuned G# going sharp. Just a subtle change, a subtle cue that registers to the ears and brain sort of subconsciously. Genius stuff.
I love that Stetson made the theme in Db, a half-step up from middle C, just a hair off from TRULY settling us into something comforting. And then the major line cliche before final end! So, so good. So simple. So chilling.
@@charliezard64European music history in the past associated keys with varying emotions. Some people still hold to that, but it seems less relevant now that we use an equal temperament tuning system. Back then not every key had the exact same intervals between notes.
@@timtheenchanter55Yes and also, the half-step interval used to be called the Devil’s Interval. Now, I could just be an exhausted music teacher who is constantly teaching C major. But the fact that it’s Db instead of C is interesting to me. Probably over-thinking it, but that’s part of the fun of these very detail-oriented movies.
@@kandyjo isn't the "Devil's Interval" the tritone, though? I know the original quote goes "mi contra fa est diabolus in musica", and "mi contra fa" might be read as E against F, but in that original context, didn't that refer to the mi and fa of two different scales, which essentially made up a tritone?
I think it also has to do with context. Sometimes nursery rhymes can be made to sound scary even if in the major scale if slowed down and with an echo added. Similar with carnival music. It almost lends an eerie feeling that things are too saccharine and something is "off" Another example would be in the "Courage The Cowardly Dog," cartoon episode with that weird and insane character named Fred. There was a motif that kept playing in the background that was like a carnival tune in a Lydian mode in some parts, especially towards the end where it was sung slightly out of tune. th-cam.com/video/tFx0l6rCRu8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=egIWXxAZ9IYC5rKI Perhaps it acts as a sort of musical equivalent of an "uncanny valley effect."
Yes I also noticed the same thing in the "Star Trek: Voyager," episode, "The Thaw," where the crew find some people in stasis pods and connected to a virtual reality program with a sadistic clown Some of Voyager's crew enter the program to rescue the people trapped in the running VR program, and there's also some eerie clown music in the background which should be happy since it's in a Major scale but kind of sounds ominous instead once you know what is going on.
I did some reading about Paimon (the King of Hell featured in the film), and apparently his appearence is often accompanised by trumpets and cymbals. I love how this was worked into the soundtrack and throughout the film.
Theres actually a lot to this. The demon Paimon that gets reborn in a bibllical context qoute "He hath a great Voice, and roareth at his first coming, and his speech is such that the Magician cannot well understand unless he can compel him." and you have that deep vocal rumble that appears. The trumpets? And how it escalates into a cacophony? If you summon Paimon, he shows up with an entourage of musicians, for no other apparent reason than because he can "There goeth before him also an Host of Spirits, like Men with Trumpets and well sounding Cymbals, and all other sorts of Musical Instruments.
Some of the most effective and affective horror/suspense music is simple. It is stripped down to its core. This is a beautiful example of that. Much like the Jaws theme, it is able to convey the message without the extras which would otherwise detract from the film. Genius
Colin Stetson's solo work is absolutely incredible. He is an absolute machine with what he does. I highly recommend reacting to some of his live performances.
I think the incorporation of the instrument is a very genius addition of details about Paimon’s demons instruments playing when he’s introduced inside the book of Ars Goetia.
I wish everyone had this much enthusiasm for classical music as well lol where the greatest minds created great masterpieces, which created many genres of music today
I’m not even a horror fan (I couldn’t even look at the footage lol) but I must say, this theme is FANTASTIC!! It definitely has a very weird, off putting vibe. The composer is brilliant!!
One thing you missed out is how the demon Paimon, who is being summoned in the scene, always travels with a host of spirits and demons playing trumpets and cymbals. One of his greatest powers is his knowledge, specifically his knowledge of the arts. He has a great voice and roars when he arrives. All of these descriptions are from an ancient grimoire called "The Lesser Key of Solomon" and the theme seems to have been composed in order to perfectly match these conditions.
The reason why I think it’s so disturbing is that it’s so triumphant but something isn’t quite right like it also feels eerie somehow. the trumpet and sax sounds also make sense because it’s meant to be a rebirth of the demon King Paimon (hence the name of the piece being reborn) and it’s described that Paimon would be accompanied by trumpets also bells I think which is why we can hear some bells and some low vocal sounds which is terrifying. also the clicking sound that he makes shows that he is possessed because Charlie was always making the clicking sound as well because Paimon rode on a camel and this is because Charlie was a vessel for Paimon before Peter became Paimon at the very end
The cool thing about that intro with the clarinets is that it’s almost exactly the same as the intro to “Mothers and Daughters” earlier in the movie when Annie tells Charlie goodnight after her mother’s funeral. In the earlier track, the parts layered over the clarinet typically add a dissonant voice, where the new voices in “Reborn” all build with consonance until that climactic melody rings through everything else, almost like the score is saying that things have been set right by the end of the movie.
I highly recommend the harmonic series too, amazing way of easing from bright harmony into something weird. I also recommend playing wholetone OVER it, keeping the intervals at any given moment and how they transition in mind. Start out with just the 1st, 2nd and third degrees, bring in the minor 7th (Implies dominant) or tritone (Implies lydian), then the tritone or minor 7th and sharp 5th if you also wanna kinda unravel the weirdness gradually there, for example. You can also start a harmonic series from what was previously a harmonic!
Opening track from 2:57 DEFINITELY sounds more like Wagner’s Das Rheingold, WWV 86A: Vorspiel than it does Ave Maria imo. Also a cool connection to themes of birth. Super encourage a listen, I think this is more what the film composer was going for
This is officially my new favorite video on youtube. Everything from the editing to the explanation to the topic to your lovely enthusiasm makes this a masterpiece that I never want to stop watching. Thank you
Another counter intuitive reason that it's so scary is that the soundtrack for the whole movie before this point has been utterly devoid of any harmonic cadence, or tonal theme. Then suddenly this almost triumphant reveille-like motif just bursts through. But the reason for the triumph is horribly twisted.
What makes this even better, and i just discovered this, is that according to legends, Paimon's arrival is supposed to be accompanied by bells and trumpets and we have that here! that makes this theme even better and genius!
I once listened to this while closely regarding the painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights." It felt like being caught between a dream and a nightmare, and I found myself crying from the macabre beauty of it all. Two masterpieces of art made centuries apart brought together in a colorful symphony of Hellish triumph.
I love it. It forces you to fight against yourself feeling sense of comfort for just long enough before resolving with the discomfort you should feel in the scene.
Love the jolliness of the background melodies, and the portamento of the melody too. Reminds me of unsettling beauty you might find in Annihilation as well.
There's also something to be said for the way the strings are played. Despite playing a "happy" series of notes, their attack and vibrato sound a little Psycho-ish.
There are no strings in Reborn. Stetson talked about this actually he wanted to avoid horror soundtrack cliches so the only strings you hear are made to sound like bats.
I really enjoy these deep dives into music I would not ordinarily take the time to appreciate much. Also the breadth of Charles' musical knowledge/listening means we get to know about all the intentional references and musical detail which creates the atmosphere and conveys emotion. Great stuff!
Happy Halloween! BONUS dumb joke in the end screen so stick around for that lovely musical display. LAST DAY to grab my brand new ebook package with 40 downloadable backing tracks for 50% off! jazzpianoimprov.com/
Day 3 of telling Charles to listen to NCT's "From Home" and "Superhuman" !
That would be really cool if you did a reaction and breakdown on big poppa by the notorious B.I.G. ik the background is between the sheet but i always thought it was interesting
Charles, how do I purchase this as a gift for someone else?
I didn't want to miss the discount, but now I apparently have the materials on an account on teachable, but I meant to buy it for my sister who is the pianist! I thought it was going to be a link in my email that I could give her so she could sign up to receive the book. What do I do now?
You must listen to Collin Stetson play “The Righteous Wrath of an Honorable Man” he’s insanely talented and that song is an absolute showcase of his skills.
"The victory of something that shouldn't have won" is the best description of what this theme feels like
@@MongoHongoscan’t wait for someone to start an argument cuz of this
@@snailcheeseyt I mean it’s not worth an argument at all, but he has to be trolling 😂
@@sawyerweathers8713 fr
@@sawyerweathers8713 troll or not, he is right
@@tuskact4overheaven873😶
You're so right, this theme does feel happy, triumphant even. Evil prevails just as it was meant to. There was never a way out for this family. I've watched this movie exactly once and it's stayed with me for years. Truly disturbing and one I'll never watch again.
Im definitely watching this again lol, I didn’t want to for the longest but it def deserves a rewatch
What makes this even better, and i just discovered this, is that according to legends, Paimon's arrival is supposed to be accompanied by bells and trumpets
and we have that here!
that makes this theme even better and genius!
YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT TWICE, ITS LITERALLY SO MUCH BETTER THE SECOND TIME
Oh, no. I'm going to have to watch it again, aren't I? {Cries in dark joy}
Turned it off after the Charlie scene.
I’ve once heard this track being described as “a sunrise in hell” and it fits. It has an evil, yet triumphant feel to it.
Hereditary has become one of my favorite horror movies so thank you!
that's perfect! not only triumphant, but also joyous and glowing
I came here to say this- glad you mentioned it! “Watching a sunrise in hell” is SUCH a good description of this glorious yet emotionally dissonant soundtrack! 🙌🏼
It is exactly that “the occult is triumphant in conjuring, resurrecting King Paimon”
It comes in with the sounds of Trumpets and loud noises… that was exactly the theme.
Amazing, succinct description. That cuts right to the heart of the matter, I'll use that to describe this every time from now on, thank you!
What makes this even better, and i just discovered this, is that according to legends, Paimon's arrival is supposed to be accompanied by bells and trumpets
and we have that here!
that makes this theme even better and genius!
Aster has this way of making you feel safe in such horrific situations with his use of bright beautiful colors and soothing musical scores. He makes you feel as though things are alright as the world crashes and burns around you. It’s so astounding and wonderful and makes me love his work so much.
What makes this even better, and i just discovered this, is that according to legends, Paimon's arrival is supposed to be accompanied by bells and trumpets
and we have that here!
that makes this theme even better and genius!
Its much creepier that way because not even the warm light of day can save you from the horrors.
It's so triumphant. It's a fanfare for demons. stetson is brilliant and underrated.
The amount of crazy odd textures and timbres he got from conventional instrumentation on this soundtrack is wild. It's part of the reason it's so off putting, it's hard to tell what instrument certain sounds are coming from.
One comment I saw described it as "sunrise in hell" which hits the nail for me.
Dude. That's exactly what it is. Perfectly described 👌 👏 👏👏
Actually King Paimon is supposed to arrive with the sounds of trumpets and loud instruments.
I wouldn’t say triumphant… have you seen the film
If you look at Paimons lore the sounds used in this correlate to his arrival. Like trumpets blowing and cymbals crashing. It's really a masterpiece
Tinkling bells is another big one with him I’m pretty sure
damn genshin lore goes crazy
The paimon from genshin if we're going by actual mythos is actually a tiny femmeboi
It's disturbingly joyous, but it's not our joy the music is highlighting. I'm so happy you did a dive into this piece, it's absolutely phenomenal.
it just sounds joyous to me, no disturbing at all. Either I'm missing something, or perhaps I am not a human.
@@Jeremy-hx7zj Yeah I dont hear anything disturbing in this.
@@Jeremy-hx7zjwell the whole point was that the music was not disturbing, it was the context of where it was used that made it disturbing
@@functionatthejunctionDid you watch the movie. Lol
@@CrystalRose1111 Nope, which is a good thing in this case as we're discussing the music, not movie; allowing th music to be judged solely on its on.
When I first watched this movie, I was with friends and the ending to me felt warm, cozy, and comforting, and my friends all called me a psychopath saying it was clearly a horrific ending. And while I clearly could identify it as disturbing it still had those comforting qualities and I had just attributed them to the lighting and set design of the tree house, but now I know there was that specific intent with the score as well. Absolutely brilliant
Yeah. It’s absolutely, objectively horrific in the end… but simultaneously it doesn’t give me nightmares as scared as I am of demons.
the sense of horror and relief (coziness even) are in perfect tension. Aster is a genius
That's the thing - though my friends and I were left very disturbed, we couldn't help feeling happy for Pamon. 🤣
Your friends have never listened to real music.
@IBHID well to be fair, unlike most demon films, the film doesn't necessarily establish Paiman as objectively evil. He also turns out to have been the real protagonist ie its his goal that moves the story fwd and he finally gets what he needs. Which as far as the film tells us is just a (preferably male) body. Not world domination or the torture of millions, dude just wants a body. Now it's not *nice* to steal one elses just because he died fleeing when your friends scared him, sure it's pretty amoral, but you were raised as siblings. And it's not like possession itself is what *makes* demons evil. Aside from some body hijinks mostly facilitated by human nut jobs, we haven't really seen Paimon portrayed as bad. Certainly Paimon-as-Charlie didn't come across as evil. Awkward, troubled, possibly neurodivergent, but not evil. For all we know he might just be a spirit the cult enslaved.
This has the kind of terrifying feel that the THX theme does for whatever reason. It's triumphant but grows louder and louder into an unsettling cacophony that has weirdness in it due to the unusual textures and sporadic dissonance.
YES. THANK YOU. I was just sitting here trying to think of what it reminded me of!!
nah cause why did the THX theme always freak me out when i was little? it’s so interesting when you dive into it a lil deeper haha
THX theme was fucking horrifying
neat! so that's what freaks so many people out!
What makes this even better, and i just discovered this, is that according to legends, Paimon's arrival is supposed to be accompanied by bells and trumpets
and we have that here!
that makes this theme even better and genius!
Emotional dissonance is one of the most common techniques in horror.
For example; kids singing, amusement parks, parties, camping, the ocean. Things our brains associate with fun and happiness but twisted into something scary.
That cacophony is exactly that; where you’re playing bright and loud but you push even further beyond so much so that it turns crass and you get that vibrating distortion of sound. It’s taking what should be a triumphant fanfare and twisting it to something distorted which gives off that eerie and disturbing sensation of “Oh no, we’ve gone too far”
Like what the opposite of a heavenly body may sound like. The dark triumphant mimicking of singing angels. I remember feeling things, like this is how it should be. It's incredible how music can make us feel things we otherwise may not have.
Oh shit, it's like that scene at the end of The Lighthouse with the dude like... Literally screaming with joy and it's TOO bright. It's the same kinda vibe.
I love modern horror...
It was like.....
a perverse abomination.
All too effective!
Totally. It's like laughing so hard you start to cry
It's like when you take ecstasy, doing wayy too far
Any horror movie can be scary, but nothing is more disturbing than a horror movie that's happy about what it is.
💯
Exactl... This plays bananas to our brain. A horror movie with happy and candy sound 🎵🎼 thats nuts.
Imagine Kun fu panda 🐼 with a horror soundtrack....😱🤯🤯
I noticed Ari Aster likes to have bright sounding OSTs in his movies, especially if they're horror/thrillers. Another example is Bobby Krlic's Fire Temple from Midsommar. If you listen to this without the context of the movie, you wouldn't think it was a horror flick. Amazing.
Ari Aster loves working with sound full stop! At the beginning of midsommar the first "jump scare" is a phone ringing because it's been so silent the entire time up to that.
@@princesszsay kind of like the only jumpscare, even. Or first of three. He doesn't really rely on jumpscares for Midsommar, he trades them off for a slowly, unyieldingly increasing sense of dread more scarring than any jumpscare could ever be. And I love him/the movie for that.
He actually has a whole other video on Midsommar lmao
Bobby Krlic is a BRIALLIANT composer, the Returnal soundtrack is phenomenal
@@cadebuhrer148yeah i was just gonna say this reminds me of the vibe of midsommar somehow omg
I had the pleasure of listening to Philip Glass talk about movie scoring years ago. He had scored a horror movie - I forget which one - and we watched the scene where someone is murdered. But Glass chose to score it using a delicate tune rather than a cacophonous mess and his comment for why he did this still rings in my head. Something like: by scoring something calming while the viewer is watching something horrific, you as a composer are forcing the viewer to travel emotionally between these two states. The wider the chasm, the more difficult the journey but also the more memorable.
God I love Phillip Glass. I'm pretty sure the horror movie you're talking about is The Candyman (I'm too lazy to even Google it rn). But his work on The Truman Show is beyond beautiful and honestly one of my favorite movie scores of all time.
Very cool
A common element between that score and the Midsommar score is the slow but methodical dancing around the tonic underpinned by a tonic drone. Gives such a sense of inevitably. That what happened was always going to happen, and the characters were merely there to bear witness to their fate. Truly haunting.
let’s not forget Beau is Afraid which also exemplifies this
heh. bear.
@@opheliasun4918exactly what I was thinking lmao
It feels like witnessing a sunset after a night of experiencing trauma. Like when even the comforting things in life feel more like cold, alienating indifference rather than something uplifting, because it's so detached from the realities you've just had imprinted on you. Midsommar had a similar vibe. Ari Aster is really good at simulating the sense of depersonalization and the baseline unsafe feeling that comes with ptsd. The sense that all efforts towards comforting you are an impending rug-pull.
Db major is my favorite key. It just sounds so magnificent and ethereal and honestly finding out the theme is written in that key makes perfect sense for this film.
IKR i can't exactly explain but this scale is like a warm blanket. I love it.
@@janenascimento3318 I also can't explain why I prefer it to C# major.
Because Db Major is often used as an emotionally arresting key, a showstopper piece with high emotional apexes. Examples include:
"Pure Imagination", an introduction to another world in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
"Colors of the Wind", the absolute belter solo piece from Pocahontas
"All I Ask of You", Phantom of the Opera's gorgeous love song
In classical music, there's Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, Liszt's Trois etudes, Debussy's Clair de Lune. In jazz, there's "Body and Soul" and "The Girl From Ipanema".
Each of these is unbelievably filled with awe, but Hereditary uses minimalism to evoke the unknown. In a way, it's like Clair de Lune. Staring into the darkness, feeling small, but in two completely opposite emotions.
I LOVE Db MAJOR ‼️‼️‼️‼️ it’s just. AUGH. it’s so nice
@@ZanraiKid dont forget part of your world from the little mermaid
I wrote a paper on Colin Stetson for a seminar in college and the most impressive thing about his music is that most sounds you hear are just him on a wind instrument. That kinda distorted feeling is, from what I recall, just the mics he uses for recording (typically contact mics), his embouchure, and the occasional multiphonics he plays on his instruments. Those notes dancing around that arpeggio come from him singing into the instrument WHILE playing WHILE circular breathing. He is a freak of nature in the best way and I'm glad people can appreciate the beauty of his work without knowing all the extended techniques he employs.
It feels like looking at the horizon during a sunrise, but the sun is a vibrant purple. Gorgeous, but incredibly terrifying.
This is such a good comparison
Hereditary, Midsommar, and Beau is Afraid are three of the greatest mindf**k horror movies ever made. Ari is a legitimate genius.
Don’t worry you can say it.
Don't worry you can say it.
Don’t worry you can say it.
Beau is Araid fucked me up after I watched it
Beau Is Afraid is a headfuck but also absolutely hilarious. Bonkers.
I am so incredibly delighted to see Hereditary analyzed by Charles… easily the most disturbing and emotionally damaging movie I have ever seen, and a big part of that is the disconnect between the visuals and the music. The juxtaposition is so strong and it just does something to me that no other film has ever made me feel.
Yes. Glad I'm not alone in this. There's something dark and disturbing about this film. It stayed with me for days. I feel like it welcomes a demonic entity when you watch it. I say this for a couple of reasons. One for the melancholy it left and two for what happened the next day. As soon as I woke up, a bird flew into my bedroom window. That's never happened before or since. And anyone who's seen the movie knows how disturbing that is.
Yea. My husband took me to see this like 2 months after one of our twins passed. I was NOT ok during most of this movie and felt numb on the way home. I couldn’t even verbalize what I felt. It wasn’t good thi
For me, it was the scene directly after Charlie gets decapitated where Peter just calmly goes to bed while leaving her in the car. Something about that felt so real and shocking. Truly a masterpiece of a horror film
@@Write-Stuff okay but magic and demons aren't real though
@@ashleyj7996your husband can't read the fucking room jfc
The scratchiness of the brass in the one part makes the "happy" into "horrifying" but in an "epic" way also.
This movie was so disturbing that, even after not watching it in a couple years, just the few scenes and talking about the music are enough to tighten my chest and raise my heart rate. What a great terrifying movie and score.
in a way using a triumphant theme for a terrifying ending makes it seem all the more hopeless, since usually when you hear this in movies you think they day has definitely been won by the protagonists and there’s nothing the antagonists can do to change that. this theme sounds like a triumphant and definite victory. it sounds so COMPLETE.
IDK if Ari Aster did this intentionally but perhaps what makes the unnaturally happy theme most disturbing to me is WHY it sounds so happy. In various books on demons such as the Ars Goetia and Dictionnare Infernal is that the arrival of the kings of Hell (such as Paimon in the movie) are often heralded by trumpet fanfare. Its a triumphant theme, but it’s a triumph for the King Paimon. Absolutely brilliant.
Stetson did the score, not Aster. But I'm sure they both talked about that together.
@@Emma88178 Ah, my bad!
@@Emma88178but stetson would portray it like this if it wasnt to Aster describing what he wants it to sound like
The best description I've ever seen of this song was the time someone described it as sounding like "sunrise in Hell." Especially given I experience sound-color synesthesia, so to me, those big bands of sound, those four notes you talk about here, are vivid bands of golden orange and red.
Also though, I wanna talk about my FAVORITE thing about this track, which is the fact that narratively, it tells us that our perspective as the audience has changed. Before, when we followed the living family, the soundtrack was suitably dark and nightmarish... but after Peter's death and rebirth, we get that shift to that warm, triumphant theme, and that confirms for us immediately that we aren't following the family anymore, because none of them are left to follow. We see the finale from the perspective of the cult celebrating their glorious victory. Yes, the fear is over... because those who were afraid are all dead.
"He is described as a man riding a Dromedary camel, preceded by men playing loud music (particularly trumpets), as well as cymbals". This score is defiantly inspired by this quote from the lore regarding the demon Paimen.
By far….. the scariest movie I have ever watched in my damn life. No comic relief, very serious themes, and dark atmosphere of a family falling apart. Scared the absolute shit out of me, and I don’t even scare that easily.
As an electronic musician who is old beyond taking much pleasure in messing around with VSTs for weird sound effects, I just wanted to thank you and 12 tone for teaching me so much about how I can conjure just as much dynamics through learning just a bit of music theory and doing some unexpected things with it. This score is a perfect example...
dyscotopia is an awesome name
@@reygenne1 thanks. now that I'm getting closer to having some new music to release I was thinking of changing it to math my new vibe, but that's the second time in a few days a stranger has voiced their approval.
Maybe I'll change the project name of the old stuff instead, so I can still get my fresh start ...just in reverse
no problem, and im going to elaborate even more on why your name, dyscotopia, is awesome
first off, its based word is like dystopia, which means a corrupted/miserable form of society or something, which im pretty sure we can agree is a really cool and unique word
secondly, "dysco" in your name is pronounced like disco, which we know is a genre, a nightclub (discotheque), which considering you're a musician, is really fitting
thirdly, it's just naturally from the fact your name is creative and unique compared to most names i've seen, so that alone make it an awesome name already
that's all! and i hope you have a great result with your start and from now on!! :3
That click goes way...way beyond just being a tick.
Ari Aster really has a near devoted appreciation to the Ars Goetia and other grimoires. Truly inspiring.
The click is a cluck right
Knowing Colin Stetson style of playing the saxophone, that "inter-voice movement" you called our attention to; Stetson is playing the arpeggio as he is also singing through the saxophone... At the same time! He's a master of making the saxophone sound huge and immersive. I encourage everyone to look up Stetsons live videos. Unreal.
Exactly. I have seen him live and i am very confident the entire track here is just Colin Stetson playing bass sax solo. There is no orchestra, it is only Stetson playing all the parts live while breathing in and out at the same time for like 8 minutes straight.
Also noticed a bit of infrasound adding to the feeling of unease (listen to 13:55). It's the notes that exist right on the cusp of what humans are physically able to hear and we've got hereditary memory that tells us to be afraid of those low notes since they often were accompanied by some sort of natural disaster.
natural disasters and predators
Yeah I always noticed that , it sounds like a huge turbine slowly spinning up. Like the kind of sound that shakes your skull
11:45 The instrument used is a bass saxophone!! It's an incredible instrument that Colin uses in a lot of his music but especially in his "New History Warfare" albums as well as his most recent "What we were that what wept for the sea". He is an absolute genius and I highly reccomend checking out ALL of his work!!!!!!
Hereditary is such a good horror film where it's not just jumpscares, but also mystery in it. The clicking that Peter does tells me that Charlie was already possessed by Paimon since the beginning, since Paimon does the clicking.
Mind blown
It's exactly that, many theories proves that
This movie does not aim for Shock horror but rather existential horror
@@Suc-Chiiare two like actual terms for movies?
@@pranavchoudhary8615 probably, i could be wrong becoz im not sure if thosr are the exact terms.
Your enthusiasm for this score reminds me of how emotional my own response was when I first saw Hereditary. What I found most amusing was that Aster chose to use the old Judy Collins chestnut, Both Sides Now, for the end titles, serving as a sort of palette cleanser; a trick he repeated for Midsommar with Frankie Valli's The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore.
let’s not forget Beau is Afraid
Bro, never stop making these videos please. You're made for it. Your knowledge and exuberance is so captivating.
God I love it when soundtracks/pieces have a sort of sickeningly happy sound to them, like someone's completely content with something they're about to do despite it being dramatically ironic. Thank you so much for covering this, I'll be sure to watch it. Some other exemples of inappropriate bright/happy songs are (SPOILERS AHEAD):
Stay from interstellar, where the triumphant yet unknowing chords becomes a dreading cacophony later in the movie when the initial efforts to leave are actively trying to be stopped.
I wanna say the hunger games movies soundtrack might have this type of effect as well in a few songs but don't count me on it
I wanna say there's a scene in a movie where a character sacrifices themselves while another character yells at them not to with a laid back happy melody playing, but I can't think of other examples off the top of my head rn
evangelion does this a few times. one of the most notably komm susser tod imo, the song in general is super bright and happy but the lyrics and what's happening on screen are super messed up
@@caliath1804Oh yeah that's a good one. That whole section of the movie is soooooo fucked because of that combo.
The ending of Let's Talk About Kevin, with the super happy Everyday by Buddy Holly.......
Still gives me chills. The complete terror I felt with this theme at the treehouse scene at the end… good lord. A near perfect horror film.
I think the subtle tuning of instruments throughout this is a key part of what makes this so creepy - the beginning arpeggios are not all in tune with each other, and there's a few points here where the 'landing' in Db isn't really to the piano-tuned Db. Really dope.
Not just the notes themselves, but the distortion of the theme makes it sound like something used in an alien movie. Definitely other worldly.
I think there were some significant things left unexamined here by not talking about the microtonality of the portmanteau that was used, and the unique timbres Stetson achieves by circular breathing and drone singing while playing saxophones and clarinets. Those are keys to making an otherwise 'happy' set of notes sound intensely creepy.
I agree - the droning especially
It doesn't sound happy even when isolated from context lol, it sounds off on its own I don't get how he finds it happy
Like he said, it's because the notes are played major which is what is considered "happy" as opposed to playing minor notes which have a "sinister" sound to them.
Hearing this music in the theatre was such a crazy feeling. So many conflicting emotions.
Honestly, moreso than Ave Maria, the beginning of this piece sounds A LOT like the beginning of the Ring Cycle, with those layered, building arpeggios all playing at different times, with varying rhythms. Almost creating a flowy slightly underwater sound. Strangely haunting and beautiful music.
My thoughts exactly!
Just the comment I was looking for! I think the Ave Maria is a stretch.. It also reminds me of Slovakian Fujara with the open overtone playing.
Yes! Definitely Rheingold
I would say it is more reminiscent of bartoks wooden prince introduction than wagners ring intro, but bartok was very likely inspired himself by wagner when writing the wooden prince so i guess both references work
But in temrs of "vibe" and build up, i feel that this piece is closer to bartok than wagner
I had the EXACT same association. The Rheingold opening is exactly this
I've never experienced this movie and felt afraid or terrified. Its ending feels oddly satisfying and triumphant. The theme makes me feel bittersweet and almost proud but I don't feel fear and I don't hear fright. It's perfect.
Colin Stetson in all honesty is such an incredible composer and musician. This theme what I’d call hauntingly beautiful and it forces you to pay attention, even if you find yourself wanting to look away. If possible I’d like to recommend the trailer music to the upcoming anime of Uzumaki, the man does some incredible things with the sax, and for me it has a similar vibe to the hauntingly beautiful music of Hereditary. Highly recommend it! Looking forward to the next upcoming videos!
I watched this movie for the first time a few weeks ago and I did the DiCaprio point and was like “is the music by Colin Stetson?!”
When I first heard it, it gave me a very esoteric feeling. It was strangely familiar. Its almost like I've heard before in another life or in another dimension. The feeling of it is very triumphant and almost holy. Hearing the trumpets and choir, it gave me a feeling of having the secrets of the universe being unlocked to me. I envisioned that this sound is something that would have been heard in Ancient Egypt when the pyramids were still clade in white limestone. Add all these feelings to the movies plot and seeing the crowning of Paimon, a King of Hell, it was very unsettling as if I personally was somehow giving homage to pure evil.
Excellent comment. And yeah it feels like they found the notes on an ancient Sumerian tablet or some shit. Incredibly epic, cosmic sort of ending. Felt Lovecraftian to me.
Thank you. This is why it boggles my mind when people say they hated this movie or that it’s not scary (that’s subjective i guess); because not only were the tools used so effectively, the effect achieved from those tools feels so sophisticatef and of course downright scary. It’s a new kind of scary in media that makes Aster such a great director from the get go.
I think people mainly associate “scary” with ghosts, monsters, serial killers, and jumpscares. This is an emotionally tormenting film that is horrifying in a completely new and different way. It requires a different mindset and appreciation for it. I think that may be why. I absolutely loved it
Just the fact that such a grand, major key is sooo distorted says how happy everyone in the situation is but how awfully disturbed we feel about it
The intro really throws backroom vibes especially with the imagery of the sideways tree house, adding this oddly familiar feeling while looking at something that absolutely should not make any sense but somehow does with the music.
It really overtakes you how the music is just a pure celebration of tonality. I really couldn't stop talking about the music in this movie for a while after I saw it. Especially because I didn't expect Colin Stetson, but I recognized him when I heard the most incredible saxophone technique I've ever heard.
The thing is that this theme blends into the final scene so good. A demon in normal horror movies look monstrous and even muscular and animalistic, but in Hereditary it goes beyond that and there the demonic is just like Divine. demonic is just otherworldly as the abrahamic god (with some middle eastern and roman flavours) differing only in the intentions. So it deserves such a regal music but it must sound essentially scary to us.
I hear that intro as a moment of subtle tune up.. like different members of wind section testing their instruments.. arpeggios to check tuning which develops into the music
Major key is so underrated. Just look at Pixar; _all_ their saddest musical moments, in the entire filmography, they're all Major key, every time.
"When Somebody Loved Me": Major key.
Boo getting her door: Major key
Marlin realizing his kid is the only thing he has left in the world after his wife and eggs got massacred: Major key.
The UP montage: Major key
Joy remembering the sadness in Riley's life as a good thing: Major key.
Show me someone who's first impulse is "scary" music for a scary scene and "sad" music for a sad scene and I'll show you someone who lacks imagination. The bitterest tears are cried for something we used to feel happy about.
THIS!!
also look at japanese songs that talks about sad topics like heartbreak, depression, grievance. they always play in happy tune. Because its our coping mechanism to sad emotions to counter it which is why you feel the negative emotion more.
Dang just realized on your point at 9:16 the cute little bell/chimes ringing sounds like the bell priests ring during communion to prompt people throughout the parts of the ceremony.
An amazing piece of advice my music teacher gave me was: every instrument has a comfortable range or a 'pleasant' way to be played. If you push the range or timbre to its limits, you can play the happiest notes and still feel the strain and tension
I've never seen this movie and I don't intend to because I don't do horror movies, but just this bit of music makes my soundtrack hungry brain drool and gives me waves of goosebumps.
it's not jumpscares, only distress anxiety and disturbance, if that's what worries you
This is one of my favorite movies that I've never seen and probably never will. It's a masterpiece, and I'm happy to enjoy its elements by proxy, so thank you for helping me appreciate the music and how it enhances the movie that much more.
This is the most scary and disturbing movie to me, and the music played such a huge part of it. All your senses are taken for a horrifying ride. I still haven't been able to re-watch it.
It's amazing what a simple ... bastardization (? in a good way, of course) of a single note can do to signal to the audience how they're supposed to view a scene, like the detuned G# going sharp. Just a subtle change, a subtle cue that registers to the ears and brain sort of subconsciously. Genius stuff.
I love that Stetson made the theme in Db, a half-step up from middle C, just a hair off from TRULY settling us into something comforting. And then the major line cliche before final end! So, so good. So simple. So chilling.
I don’t see how it being in Db would be any less conforting than in C…?
@@charliezard64European music history in the past associated keys with varying emotions. Some people still hold to that, but it seems less relevant now that we use an equal temperament tuning system. Back then not every key had the exact same intervals between notes.
@@timtheenchanter55Yes and also, the half-step interval used to be called the Devil’s Interval. Now, I could just be an exhausted music teacher who is constantly teaching C major. But the fact that it’s Db instead of C is interesting to me. Probably over-thinking it, but that’s part of the fun of these very detail-oriented movies.
@@kandyjo Keep it up in the trenches! Teaching music post-pandemic has been so rewarding but a different level of exhausting.
@@kandyjo isn't the "Devil's Interval" the tritone, though?
I know the original quote goes "mi contra fa est diabolus in musica", and "mi contra fa" might be read as E against F, but in that original context, didn't that refer to the mi and fa of two different scales, which essentially made up a tritone?
This score is one of the most unique scores in recent times. It should've been recognized more, but I'm glad you're showing it some love.
I’m SO GLAD you are discussing this! I always felt this scene has a celestial vibe to it, which is just SO WEIRD! What a great film and film score.
The sound gives me a feeling of bliss, of being somewhere you don't belong, something above you .
I think it also has to do with context. Sometimes nursery rhymes can be made to sound scary even if in the major scale if slowed down and with an echo added. Similar with carnival music. It almost lends an eerie feeling that things are too saccharine and something is "off"
Another example would be in the "Courage The Cowardly Dog," cartoon episode with that weird and insane character named Fred. There was a motif that kept playing in the background that was like a carnival tune in a Lydian mode in some parts, especially towards the end where it was sung slightly out of tune.
th-cam.com/video/tFx0l6rCRu8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=egIWXxAZ9IYC5rKI
Perhaps it acts as a sort of musical equivalent of an "uncanny valley effect."
Yes I also noticed the same thing in the "Star Trek: Voyager," episode, "The Thaw," where the crew find some people in stasis pods and connected to a virtual reality program with a sadistic clown
Some of Voyager's crew enter the program to rescue the people trapped in the running VR program, and there's also some eerie clown music in the background which should be happy since it's in a Major scale but kind of sounds ominous instead once you know what is going on.
I did some reading about Paimon (the King of Hell featured in the film), and apparently his appearence is often accompanised by trumpets and cymbals. I love how this was worked into the soundtrack and throughout the film.
5 notes, it's that last note going home that's the killer, makes it epic and that buzzing synth sounds makes it sound like demonic trumpets.
Ok I've been hearing this theme for YEARS and I would NEVER have guessed that it came from a horror movie-
Theres actually a lot to this. The demon Paimon that gets reborn in a bibllical context qoute "He hath a great Voice, and roareth at his first coming, and his speech is such that the Magician cannot well understand unless he can compel him." and you have that deep vocal rumble that appears. The trumpets? And how it escalates into a cacophony? If you summon Paimon, he shows up with an entourage of musicians, for no other apparent reason than because he can "There goeth before him also an Host of Spirits, like Men with Trumpets and well sounding Cymbals, and all other sorts of Musical Instruments.
Some of the most effective and affective horror/suspense music is simple. It is stripped down to its core. This is a beautiful example of that. Much like the Jaws theme, it is able to convey the message without the extras which would otherwise detract from the film. Genius
UGH this made my choral nerd brain BUZZ so happily! THE DETAIL LEVEL IN THIS SCORE IS LIKE A GOURMET FEAST OF TRIUMPH AND I AM DEVOURING EVERY ATOM!!
Colin Stetson's solo work is absolutely incredible. He is an absolute machine with what he does. I highly recommend reacting to some of his live performances.
I think the incorporation of the instrument is a very genius addition of details about Paimon’s demons instruments playing when he’s introduced inside the book of Ars Goetia.
Colin Stetson is my favorite composer of all time. Thank you for covering him and his work!!
This video feels like when ela teachers would force us to analyze every sentence of a good book.
I wish everyone had this much enthusiasm for actual movie/game music.
I wish everyone had this much enthusiasm for classical music as well lol where the greatest minds created great masterpieces, which created many genres of music today
I’m not even a horror fan (I couldn’t even look at the footage lol) but I must say, this theme is FANTASTIC!! It definitely has a very weird, off putting vibe. The composer is brilliant!!
I rewatched a few episodes of spongebob and saw "Spongehenge" again, for some odd reason the final song gives the same vibes as this song.
This is what I always thought the “Entry of the Gods into Valhalla” by Wagner should have sounded like. Terrifying, beautiful, and magnificent.
One thing you missed out is how the demon Paimon, who is being summoned in the scene, always travels with a host of spirits and demons playing trumpets and cymbals. One of his greatest powers is his knowledge, specifically his knowledge of the arts. He has a great voice and roars when he arrives. All of these descriptions are from an ancient grimoire called "The Lesser Key of Solomon" and the theme seems to have been composed in order to perfectly match these conditions.
It sounds like a theme for a space exploration film.
The reason why I think it’s so disturbing is that it’s so triumphant but something isn’t quite right like it also feels eerie somehow. the trumpet and sax sounds also make sense because it’s meant to be a rebirth of the demon King Paimon (hence the name of the piece being reborn) and it’s described that Paimon would be accompanied by trumpets also bells I think which is why we can hear some bells and some low vocal sounds which is terrifying. also the clicking sound that he makes shows that he is possessed because Charlie was always making the clicking sound as well because Paimon rode on a camel and this is because Charlie was a vessel for Paimon before Peter became Paimon at the very end
The cool thing about that intro with the clarinets is that it’s almost exactly the same as the intro to “Mothers and Daughters” earlier in the movie when Annie tells Charlie goodnight after her mother’s funeral. In the earlier track, the parts layered over the clarinet typically add a dissonant voice, where the new voices in “Reborn” all build with consonance until that climactic melody rings through everything else, almost like the score is saying that things have been set right by the end of the movie.
Literally just watched this last night and couldn't stop remarking on how good the score/ambient music is.
I highly recommend the harmonic series too, amazing way of easing from bright harmony into something weird. I also recommend playing wholetone OVER it, keeping the intervals at any given moment and how they transition in mind. Start out with just the 1st, 2nd and third degrees, bring in the minor 7th (Implies dominant) or tritone (Implies lydian), then the tritone or minor 7th and sharp 5th if you also wanna kinda unravel the weirdness gradually there, for example. You can also start a harmonic series from what was previously a harmonic!
Opening track from 2:57 DEFINITELY sounds more like Wagner’s Das Rheingold, WWV 86A: Vorspiel than it does Ave Maria imo. Also a cool connection to themes of birth. Super encourage a listen, I think this is more what the film composer was going for
Yeah Ave maria is a goofy comparison tbh
This is officially my new favorite video on youtube. Everything from the editing to the explanation to the topic to your lovely enthusiasm makes this a masterpiece that I never want to stop watching. Thank you
Another counter intuitive reason that it's so scary is that the soundtrack for the whole movie before this point has been utterly devoid of any harmonic cadence, or tonal theme. Then suddenly this almost triumphant reveille-like motif just bursts through. But the reason for the triumph is horribly twisted.
Glissandos are so underutilized and slept on
You should do Fire Temple from Midsommar. Incredibly cinematic and visual piece.
What makes this even better, and i just discovered this, is that according to legends, Paimon's arrival is supposed to be accompanied by bells and trumpets
and we have that here!
that makes this theme even better and genius!
It's 100% the timbre. Play that on a flute in a Disney movie and it'll SLAP.
Yup the theme itself isn’t scary at all, It definitely has a hopeful euphoric feel it.
I once listened to this while closely regarding the painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights." It felt like being caught between a dream and a nightmare, and I found myself crying from the macabre beauty of it all. Two masterpieces of art made centuries apart brought together in a colorful symphony of Hellish triumph.
I love it. It forces you to fight against yourself feeling sense of comfort for just long enough before resolving with the discomfort you should feel in the scene.
Love the jolliness of the background melodies, and the portamento of the melody too. Reminds me of unsettling beauty you might find in Annihilation as well.
The genuine enthusiasm for what you’re talking about is quite refreshing and enjoyable to see. Nice work!
There's also something to be said for the way the strings are played. Despite playing a "happy" series of notes, their attack and vibrato sound a little Psycho-ish.
There are no strings in Reborn. Stetson talked about this actually he wanted to avoid horror soundtrack cliches so the only strings you hear are made to sound like bats.
It’s so good. I like it a lot. Whoever decided to go with this deserves more.
I really enjoy these deep dives into music I would not ordinarily take the time to appreciate much. Also the breadth of Charles' musical knowledge/listening means we get to know about all the intentional references and musical detail which creates the atmosphere and conveys emotion. Great stuff!