I recently visited the cinema to watch “The Old Oak” by Ken Loach, a very real story about community in an ex miners town in the north of England. The sound in this film made me realise how evocative the absence of music can be when applied correctly in a film. There are three instances in which I noticed music in this film, some non-diegetic standard piano parts during the opening credits and some similar music to end the film that set the tone and leaves an aftertaste , and one piece of diegetic music in the middle of the film, the rest of the sound is made up entirely of foley effects, atmospheres and the voice.
“Ma” is a Buddhist concept, the concept is applied to many different mediums of art in Japan and has various meanings leading to various English translations. The most meaningful translations to me and this particular blog are “space” and “gap”. “Applied to music, the concept of ma acknowledges that sound is complemented by silence”, in this article Kulezic-Wilson condemns Hollywood’s choice to awkwardly jam music into any scene with excitement, she agrees with Martin Scorsese’s point of view that by using music to tell the audience how to feel you “take the audience emotionally off the hook.” By using music too heavily Hollywood has nullified subtext in cinema, they are telling the audience directly how to feel rather than allowing an audience to piece things together themselves.
(Kulezic-Wilson, https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/mmi/article-abstract/2/3/1/216265/The-Music-of-Film-Silence)
The Old Oak’s absence of music works in two ways, it compliments the realistic narrative and compliments the little music it does contain in its runtime. Having such a realistic plot and natural dialogue paired with no diegetic music during the story helps to emphasise how real the film is and immerses the viewer. The film deals with themes of racism, economic despair and community, when dealing with such topical and real subject matter in a way that is set in reality dramatic music could feel inappropriate and distracting. I feel like one of Ken Loach’s intentions was to make the beginning of a story that is so real it serves as a true story, this sets up the resolution in the second half which demonstrates solutions for real life dilemmas encountered in multi-cultural society and acts as a guideline for ways in which we can welcome and integrate cultures that are new to us, to add dramatic music would somewhat invalidate this. The second way that the absence of non-diegetic music works is it enhances the effect of the scene in which one of the refugees performs some music for the community, music is part of everyday life so to have no music within the film wouldn’t really fit with the realism aspect that Loach strives for in this feature.
The diegetic music in the middle of the film is a touching moment, the community gathers together in the back of the pub (both locals and the Syrian refugees who had just moved into the town) and they start eating together, they have started to share the spaces available to them, one of the refugees plays a song on a Syrian instrument (I think the Oud) for the whole community which everybody appreciates. It serves narrative purpose rather than a dramatic purpose, the community is starting to accept and welcome the culture of the refugees. Going back to the concept of Ma, the gaps between the intro music, the diegetic music scene in the middle and the music that ends the film lift this moment, it catches the audience off-guard which makes the moment feel more significant to an audience, this directs the audience to question the narrative importance of this scene directing them to the idea that we should share culture as well as space.