Scholarly Article: Scoring the Nation

“Scoring the Nation: Audio-Visual Affect in Irish History Films”

Steven Sehman and Niall Ó Murchú

Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, 18:1, Spring 2024.

Abstract:

This article analyses how transnational co-productions render Irish history audio-visually by comparing the soundtracks of Some Mother’s Son (1996) and The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006). The puzzle is whether history films can enhance immersive perceptual experiences of place by using local music, while catering to the audiovisual skills and expectations of global audiences. The study compares Bill Whelan’s and George Fenton’s respective soundtracks. On the one hand, Whelan’s avowedly Irish soundtrack performed by the Irish Film Orchestra with virtuosos from the Riverdance Orchestra crowds the images and prescribes audience feelings. On the other, Fenton lightly melds classical film orchestration with Irish melody and instrumentation and The Wind that Shakes the Barley blends diegetic singing with its more spacious soundtrack. The conclusion is that combining local instruments and diegetic song with limited cinematic orchestration succeeds better than neo-traditional instrumentation in screening Irish history.