How is Horror connected to Studio Ghibli music?

Nago turning into a demon (Studio Ghibli, 1997)

According to John Hartley’s text, "Genre can be understood to be a categorization of the media texts according to shared characteristics". (Hartley, 2002). Which means that media is presented in a way in which the audience is telegraphed a set of preconceptions and expectations of a given text before actually viewing of the text.

While trying to apply the genre Horror to my mind map influence of Hayao Miyazaki’s work I found it difficult to apply since most of his artworks were for children. Though one of his works did convey the notions of horror, how humans were destroying nature in “Princess Mononoke” and for this blog I will go into further detail.

This is the song called “The Demon God”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFd8NwUfDPg

(Studio Ghibli, 2010)

Joe Hisaishi's composed almost exclusively for Miyazaki's anime projects and for Princess Mononoke he created the horror inspired theme for Nago. In this theme the demise of Nago from a benevolent forest god into a demon god. His impending death was represented by the slow timpani’s in the beginning section. Later as he is morphing into his Demon state where the tendrils of hatred began lancing out of his physical husk the music periodically raises pitchs with the violins to invoke a sense of horror as Nago's body as he slowly transforms into the demon God. Here I see that the music reflects the changes and expresses the horror of death of a main character in the anime.

Another media that uses Horror in its context: "The Dark Knight"

(The Dark Knight, 2008)

The Jokers Theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6NssdlE2rw

(DC Comics, 2010)

In sound design there are many themes and emotions that are required by the producer to create when composing or sound designing for film.

Following the theme of horror the Jokers theme song in Batman Forever created by Hans Zimmer is an artistic blend of unconventional techniques used to compose the theme. In the theme, Hans used a razor blade instead of the bow on the cello to create the high pitched, scratchy, harsh sounds which perfectly instilled Horror and a sense of dread into the viewer and became iconic to represent the Joker's twisted tortured mind. ("The Dark Knight (soundtrack)", 2008)

The differences between the two media are as follows:

• Joe Hisaishi used a full orchestra to create a sense of horror and tension in “The Demon God”, a similar effect was achieved by minimalist sounds of razor blades used on cellos for the Jokers theme by Hans Zimmer.

• Joe Hisaishi tended to use more traditional orchestral pieces in his compositions and loud Tatari drums’s to pronounce impending doom in Princess Mononoke.

• Both artworks were depicting horror but for different audiences where use of different instruments and techniques changes the age category.

In summary, Joe Hisaishi in Mononoke used an orchestra and large traditional tatari drums to convey impending doom with a waves of high pitched orchestra strings to instill dread and horror to great effect. Han Zimmer on the other hand needed to create a twisted character and physically represented the twisted nature with unconventional playing of a traditional instrument. Both pieces used a great build up to an end state climax. The use of a traditional Japanese tatari drum reflected well of the story setting was placed around 1500's feudal Japan in Mononoke. Where as the razor blades on cello strings gave a modern cutting (pun intended) performance that raises the hairs on the back of your head.

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Sources:

Hartley, J. (2002). The key concepts (3rd ed., pp. Page 96-97, Genre). USA: Routledge.

Studio Ghibli. (1997). Nago [Image]. Retrieved from http://studio-ghibli.wikia.com/wiki/Nago

Studies. (2018). Genre theory. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/longroadmedia/genre-theory-12207909

The Dark Knight (soundtrack). (2008). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_(soundtrack)

Legendary Pictures, Syncopy. (2008). The Dark Knight [Film]. USA.

Studio Ghibli. (2010). Princess Mononoke - The Demon God [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFd8NwUfDPg

DC Comics. (2010). Dark Knight: The Joker Theme [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6NssdlE2rw