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Diegetic music, also calledsource music, is music that is part of the fictional world portrayed in a piece of narrative media (such as a film, show, play, or video game) and is thus knowingly performed and/or heard by the characters.[1] This is in contrast tonon-diegetic music, which refers toincidental music or ascore that is heard by the viewer but not the characters, or in musical theater, when characters are singing in a manner that they would not do in a realistic setting.
The term refers todiegesis, a style of storytelling. In her 1987 workUnheard Melodies, Claudia Gorbman was influential in establishing the terms "diegetic" and "non-diegetic" (derived fromnarrative theory) for use in academic film music studies. From there, its usage spread to other disciplines.[2][3]
Source music was sometimes used as scores from the earliest days of Hollywoodtalkies, in some cases—such asThe Public Enemy (1931)—using it to the exclusion of any underscoring; or inTouch of Evil (1958), where there is proportionately more source compared to underscore.[2]
In Britain, from 1940 onwards, there was a trend for including specially composed piano concertos (dubbed 'Denham Concertos' bySteve Race after thefilm studios) into films as part of the plot. An early example wasJack Beaver's 'Portrait of Isla' from the score for the 1940Edgar Wallace filmThe Case of the Frightened Lady. Here, the piano is actually played by lead actorMarius Goring (an accomplished pianist) as Lord Lebanon. A year later,Richard Addinsell's much more famousWarsaw Concerto appeared in the filmDangerous Moonlight, in which a piano virtuoso plays a concerts and recalls composing the concerto while the Germans bomb London.[4]
Songs are commonly used in various film sequences to serve different purposes. They can be used to link scenes in the story where a character progresses through various stages toward a final goal. If it is synchronized with the action, as in the "Good Morning" dance sequence fromSingin' in the Rain, it is said to beMickey Mousing.[5]
If the characters in the film can (or could) hear the music the audience hears, then that music is calleddiegetic. It is also calledsource music by professionals in the industry. It is said to be within the narrative sphere of the film.[6] For instance, if a character in the film is playing a piano, or turns on a CD player, the resulting sound is diegetic. The cantina band sequence in the originalStar Wars is an example of diegetic music in film, with the band playing instruments and swaying to the beat, as patrons are heard reacting to the second piece the band plays. Inroad movies where the characters are traveling by car, we often hear the music that the characters are depicted as listening to on thecar stereo.
By contrast, thebackground music that cannot be heard by the characters in the movie is termednon-diegetic orextradiegetic. An example of this is inRocky, whereBill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" plays non-diegetically as Rocky makes his way through his training regimen, finishing on the top steps of thePhiladelphia Museum of Art with his hands raised in the air.
A combination of these concepts in film sound and music is known in the industry assource scoring—a blending of diegetic source music, such as a character singing or playing an instrument, with non-diegetic dramatic scoring.[7][8][9]
There are other varying dimensions of diegesis in film sound, for example,metadiegetic sound, which are sounds imagined by a character within the film, such as memories, hallucinatory sounds, and distorted perspectives.[10]
Another notable condition of diegesis iscross-over diegesis, which is explored in the bookPrimeval Cinema - An Audiovisual Philosophy by Danny Hahn, in which he describes it as "blending/transforming a sound or piece of music from one spectrum of diegesis to another – from diegetic to non-diegetic space".[10] The sci-film2BR02B: To Be or Naught to Be is an example of cross-over diegetic music in film, with Schubert'sAve Maria playing over separate shot sequences as non-diegetic music, but then later showing it to come from a gramophone in a hospital waiting room. A similar cross-over occurs in the closing scene of the HBO docudrama "Conspiracy", in which a Schubert concerto is placed on a gramophone and commented on by the characters in the room, then transforms into the incidental music for the closing credits. Music can also becomes diegetic with the assistance of audio engineering techniques, having its reverberation undergo change to match the room's characteristics and indicate a spatial location from the surround speakers. Even thoughAve Maria reappears extensively as diegetic music, its inclusion was treated as non-diegetic by the film-makers, the song being a bespoke recording by sopranoImogen Coward to match the film's tone, and the film being edited to her recording. The recording itself was timed to include a layer of narrative commentary for audiences familiar with the German lyrics.[11][12]
This distinction may also be made explicit for comic effect, a form ofbreaking thefourth wall. For example, the first appearance ofKermit the Frog inThe Muppets is accompanied by what initially appears to be astock "heavenly choir" sound effect, which is then revealed to be coming from an actual church choir singing on a passing bus. The 2014 filmBirdman does this several times throughout the movie, where all the music turns out to be diegetic, produced bystreet performers.[13]
Examples of diegetic music in opera go right back to its beginnings - for instance the central wedding serenade inMonteverdi'sL'Orfeo. Stories about musicians are common in opera, and almost all operas include some level of internal performance.[14]Wagner used the singing contest as a plot mechanism inTannhäuser andDie Meistersinger, andBizet'sCarmen makes full use of the street music and street activity of Seville.[15]Ariadne auf Naxos byRichard Strauss is an example of opera within an opera.Benjamin Britten'sPeter Grimes contains a wide variety of diegetic music.[16]
Inmusical theatre, as in film, the term "diegesis" refers to the context of a musical number in a work's theatrical narrative. In typical operas or operettas, musical numbers are non-diegetic; characters are not singing in a manner that they would do in a naturalistic setting; in a sense, they are not "aware" that they are in a musical. In contrast, when a song occurs literally in the plot, the number is considered diegetic. Diegetic numbers are often present inbackstage musicals such asCabaret andFollies.[15]
For example, inThe Sound of Music, the song "Edelweiss" is diegetic, since the character (Captain von Trapp) is performing the piece in front of other fictional characters at a gathering. In "Do-Re-Mi" the character Maria is using the song to teach the children how to sing, so this song is also diegetic. In contrast, the song "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?" is non-diegetic, since the musical material is external to the narrative, it being a conversation that would in a naturalistic setting take place as simple speech.[17]
In both the 1936 and the 1951 film versions ofShow Boat, as well as in the original stage version, the song "Bill" is diegetic. The characterJulie LaVerne sings it during a rehearsal in a nightclub. A solo piano (played onscreen) accompanies her, and the film's offscreen orchestra (presumably not heard by the characters) sneaks in for the second verse of the song. Julie's other song in the film, "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", is also diegetic. In the 1936 film, it is supposed to be an old folk song known only to blacks; in the 1951 film, it is merely a song that Julie knows; however, she and the captain's daughter Magnolia are fully aware that Julie is singing. When Julie, Queenie, and the black chorus sing the second chorus of the song in the 1936 version, they are presumably unaware of any orchestral accompaniment, but in the 1951 film, when Magnolia sings and dances this same chorus, she does so to the accompaniment of two deckhands on the boat playing a banjo and a harmonica. Two other songs in the 1936Show Boat are also diegetic: "Goodbye, My Lady Love" (sung by the comic dancers Ellie and Frank), and "After the Ball", sung by Magnolia. Both areinterpolated into the film, and both are performed in the same nightclub in which Julie sings "Bill".[18]
The musicalThe Phantom of the Opera offers an interesting example of ambiguity in distinguishing between diegetic and non-diegetic music. At the end of Act 1, Christine and Raoul sing "All I Ask of You", and the Phantom, having eavesdropped on them, reprises the song shortly after. Narratively, there is no reason for the characters to be singing, and so these numbers would appear to be non-diegetic. However, in Act 2, within the opera "Don Juan Triumphant", which the Phantom composed, not only are Christine and Raoul's words repeated, but they are sung to the same tune they used, suggesting that the eavesdropping Phantom heard them to be singing, rather than speaking, their conversation. To define "All I Ask of You" as either diegetic or non-diegetic is therefore not straightforward.[19]
In the television seriesBuffy the Vampire Slayer, the episode entitled "Once More, with Feeling" toys with the distinction between diegetic and non-diegetic musical numbers. In this episode, the Buffy characters find themselves compelled to burst into song in the style of amusical. The audience is led to assume that this is a "musical episode", in which the characters are unaware that they are singing. It becomes clear that the characters are all too aware of their musical interludes, and that determining the supernatural causes of the singing is the focus of the episode's story. On the same show, the episode entitled "The Body" was presented without any non-diegetic music at all, in order to convey the reality of the theme of death within the family that it portrays.[20]