Post #9 - Avatar

Honestly, I have not gotten a chance to go see Avatar, but I did listen to the soundtrack. The film score, or the soundscape of the film, either tries to imitate the sounds of nature in Pandora or build the suspense and tension correlating with the plot, while the music of the Na'vi people had a substantial amount of chanting or singing in their native language. There is ample use of aerophones and some drumming and other percussion to portray the "otherworldly sounds." For more dramatic turning points in the movie, the film score is prominent in trying to carry the mood of the moment with a sound more similar to the Western music that the audience is accustomed to. Many of the songs remind me of tribal elements and sounds originating possibly from Africa or South America.


For example, the song called "The Bioluminescence of the Night" is part of what I consider the film score. There is a lot of percussion used and the many crescendos, decrescendos and its overall nonuniform nature makes me identify it as soundscape music.


On the other hand, this is what I consider an example of the Na'vi people's music. It has a lot of vocal harmonization in its alien language that definitely gives it an ethereal feel.