Say a lyric is sung like "time to stop" and right then the music
stops. Or maybe "the phone rings" and an intrument mimics a phone
ringing... what is this called?? it has a name and it is bugging me
for weeks now.
I think that you might mean "word painting" or "text painting".
Are you talking about 'melody' ?
Literalism? Cartooning?
Gerard
"Laurence Payne" <NOSPAMlpayne1ATdsl.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:9bh7t3hkd6c155fds...@4ax.com...
> This is hard for me to explain but I know there is a word for it
Basically, it's bad composing. <grin>
The best term, borrowed from poetry, would probably be ONOMATOPOEIA (which
has nothing to do with John Lennon's wife). I've fully capitalized to make
sure everyone sees it.
A related term is "Mickey-Mousing", though this applies to the music closely
following the screen action -- not sounding like it. The term came from the
original Mickey Mouse sound films, in which the music and the screen action
were tightly linked.
"Mickey-Mousing" is usually a term of opprobrium -- Frank de Vol's score for
"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" is a good example of bad Mickey-Mousing.
But it can be used effectively, as in Max Steiner's score for "King Kong".
Word painting?
"Word painting (also known as tone painting or text painting) is the
musical technique of having the music mimic the literal meaning of a song."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word-painting
Jos.
--
Ardis Park Music
www.ardispark.nl
Here's an article on it: http://mediawebsource.com/meter.htm