Following the Film Score

Movies and TV · 10 questions

Ten questions on film-score composers, leitmotifs, and film-music concepts.

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1. In film music, what is a recurring theme associated with a character, idea, or object called?

   1. Counterpoint
   2. Variation
   3. Ostinato
   4. Leitmotif
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   D) Leitmotif

2. Which Hollywood composer was born in Brünn?

   1. Erich Wolfgang Korngold
   2. Dmitri Tiomkin
   3. Alfred Newman
   4. Max Steiner
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   A) Erich Wolfgang Korngold

3. Which 1960 Hitchcock film did Bernard Herrmann score?

   1. Vertigo
   2. North by Northwest
   3. Psycho
   4. Rebecca
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   C) Psycho

4. What is the term for music that closely and emphatically follows on-screen actions?

   1. Mickey-Mousing
   2. Ostinato
   3. Leitmotif
   4. Counterpoint
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   A) Mickey-Mousing

5. What is typically decided during a film-scoring spotting session?

   1. Casting choices
   2. Music timing
   3. Scene order
   4. Camera angles
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   B) Music timing

6. Which 1966 film did Ennio Morricone score?

   1. The Third Man
   2. The Godfather
   3. Jaws
   4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
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   D) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

7. What term describes music that has no source within the story world and is not heard by the characters?

   1. Diegetic music
   2. Mickey-Mousing
   3. Leitmotif
   4. Non-diegetic music
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   D) Non-diegetic music

8. Which 1959 film did Miklós Rózsa score?

   1. Spartacus
   2. The Ten Commandments
   3. Ben-Hur
   4. Lawrence of Arabia
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   C) Ben-Hur

9. In film music, what does “underscore” refer to?

   1. Song within the scene
   2. Background music accompanying a scene
   3. Credit titles
   4. Sound-recording equipment
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   B) Background music accompanying a scene

10. What is the term for music used as a temporary placeholder during editing, before the original score is ready?

    1. Temp track
    2. Source music
    3. Underscore
    4. Leitmotif
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    A) Temp track