Picking up the Civil War motif from an earlier post, I will substitute D779n13 for a posthumously published keyboard piece by Schubert (D946n2) in the soundtrack for a scene from Glory (1989). The film, starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman, recounts the early history of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first regularly formed black regiment in the United States Army.
One of very few non-military scenes in the film, a formal party of upper-class Bostonians begins at about 9 1/2', lasts just over 5 minutes, and is heavily scored -- only about 30 seconds are without music. The scene breaks down readily into three parts, the first a decidedly self-conscious entry into the party by Robert Gould Shaw (Broderick), the second a series of conversations, and the third a final conversation carried on outdoors. The piano music occurs only in the first two segments.
First segment: Shaw’s entry. Action: Shaw descends the central stairs in his parents' upper-class Boston house to join a large party in progress. He and two other soldiers pass singly through a doorway. Duration: 0:56 (from the beginning of the dissolve). Shot pacing is fairly consistent throughout, though not surprisingly the close-ups of Shaw tend to be a bit longer. Music: in during dissolve -- piano music (Schubert) assumed to be diegetic; continues to shot 5. Total time: 0:24. (Complicating factor: Music's diegetic status is somewhat compromised because the music’s volume level is unrealistically high for Shaw’s opening position on the stairs outside the room at whose opposite end the piano stands (as we learn later when we see it onscreen). The piano’s volume level is much higher than the snatches of conversation.) The piano music fades out slowly under a wordless boys chorus; music mixed with bits of conversation; music continues, with slow crescendo. Chorus total time: 0:32.Second segment: Conversations. Action: Shaw and Thomas Searles (Andre Braugher) converse as Shaw serves himself punch from a bowl. A servant closes a window noisily in the background, causing Shaw to spill the punch. Shaw’s mother enters, taking him to see a group of men assembled about a desk; he talks with his father, Governor Andrew, and Frederick Douglass. Then he excuses himself and turns to leave. Duration: 2:08. Music: background music abruptly out as we hear Thomas say “Robert.” Piano music as abruptly returns; continues to shot 15. Piano total time: c. 0:42. (Complicating factor: The piano music’s volume is now lower than before, but Shaw is standing within ten feet of the instrument, which we see for the first time -- the pianist's hands and sheet music remain visible throughout. Indeed, the volume level now suggests that the piano is in the next room.) As Shaw and Thomas converse, the piano is just visible behind. As Shaw and his mother walk toward the other room, the piano is briefly visible, along with the pianist’s head. The status of the harp -- we also see the harpist's hands -- is never clarified.) Music: Piano music fades out slowly once they are in the other room and conversation begins. (Complicating factor: Fade out without finishing the composition is unrealistic.)
The piano music suggests (roughly) the historical period; it indicates time (disjunct, presumably much later than the previous scene), place (a domestic situation; an educated, perhaps wealthy household), and situation (party, or at least domestic gathering of some kind and evening entertainment). The style of the composition is its most important element here, assisted by the moderate tempo and low technical demands (appropriate to Hausmusik rather than a concert performance).
Music is called on to stress the equivalence of plot and screen duration in the scene’s opening segment: the piano music re-enters at Thomas’s greeting at exactly the point it should be for the number of seconds that have elapsed from its fade-out under the boys chorus. This helps to counteract the effect of the point-of-view music, which is increasingly subjective and emotional, a condition supported by camera framing (the MS-CU-ECU series) and the three unrealistically exaggerated closeups of guests (shots 3, 6, 8). The reappearance of the piano confirms that we have been following in clock time Shaw’s stream of consciousness.
The pianist in this scene is playing the second of the Drei Klavierstücke, D946, composed in May 1828, shortly before Schubert's death. This piece, in Eb major but played a half-step lower in the film, is laid out in a simple 5-part rondo design. The pianist plays all of the first section, though its middle is suppressed under the wordless chorus. How appropriate is this music for the situation? Quite -- Schubert reception was in a positive mode at the time in both national sources likely for a Bostonian -- Germany and England -- even if, according to John Reed, "Until the 1860s Schubert and Schumann were both regarded as 'modern'" (255). There is an historical error, but it is very minor: The Drei Klavierstücke were first published in 1868, more than five years after the date of the film’s Boston party.
If we now substitute D7779n13 for the Eb-major Klavierstück, especially if the tempo is kept relaxed and the dynamic-level of the C# major section is kept down, the difference seems minimal. We are given many visual cues that prevent us from mistaking the party for a dance -- the only possible miscue from replacing the pastoral Klavierstück with a waltz. Because of the existing background music, we would have to transpose the waltz up a half-step to Bb major. The chorus sings in D minor, making for a sharp clash with the C# major of the waltz's second strain. As it is, there will be some clash between D major of the waltz and D minor in the chorus, but the tonality of the latter only gradually comes clear (by about 0:40), and the piano is gone by that point (see the summary version below).
Reference:
Reed, John. "Schubert's Reception History in Nineteenth-century England." In Christopher H.Gibbs, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Schubert, 254-62. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
