Animated Bach

While writing my review of Koji Yamamura’s Muybridge’s Strings this week, I got to thinking about how many innovative animators have been inspired by the music of J.S. Bach.  In the case of Muybridge’s Strings, Bach’s Crab Canon – which is often described as a musical palindrome – complements Yamamura’s exploration of the possibilities of non-linear time. 

Just what is it about Bach’s music that inspires?  His lyricism?  His mathematical precision? (See: Noralv Pedersen’s “Music is also mathematics” and R.D. Fergusson’s “Johan Sebastian Bach: Mystic and Mathematician”). 

Here is a selection of animation films / sequences inspired by Bach.  Let me know in the comments if you think of any others.

Muybridge’s Strings

(Koji Yamamura, 2011)

music: Crab Canon

Motion Painting No. 1

(Oskar Fischinger, 1947)

music: Brandenburg Concerto no. 3, BWV 1048

See: Michael Barrier on this film

Spheres

(Norman McLaren and René Jodoin, 1969)

music:  Bach played by Glenn Gould

Pastorale

(Mary Ellen Bute, 1950)

Music: J.S. Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze." A pictorial accompaniment in abstract forms.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasy in G minor

(Jan Švankmajer, 1965)

See: Dan North on this film

Gestalt (部屋/形態)

(Takashi Ishida, 1999)

music: one of the Great Eighteen Choale Preludes, the hauntingly ethereal BWV 659 “Nun, komm’ der Heiden Heiland” (Come now, Saviour of the heathen) performed on an organ

See: my review of this film

The Art of the Fugue

(Takashi Ishida, 2001)

-          this film was commissioned by the Aichi Culture Centre to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Bach’s passing

music: ??? 

Fantasia

(Walt Disney, 1940)

music: the film opens with Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue in D minor conducted by Leopold Stokowski.  This section of the film was directed by Samuel Armstrong with visual development credited to Oskar Fischinger

The End of Evangelion

(新世紀エヴァンゲリオン劇場版 Air/まごころを、君に)

(Kazuya Tsurumaki/Hideaki Anno, 1997)

music: the soundtrack to this film was composed by Shiro Sagasu but liberally features selections of J.S. Bach’s music throughout including “Air on the G String” (August Wilhelmj’s adapation of J.S. Bach’s “Air” from the Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWC 1068), “Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major”, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”, and “Komm, süsser Tod”.

Tale of Tales

(Yuri Norstein, 1979)

music: the score was composed by Mikhail Meyerovich and includes excerpts from several pieces by Bach (most notably the E flat minor Prelude BWV 853 from The Well-Tempered Clavier).  In addition, the film references Mozart (the Andante second movement from Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, K41), the tango “Weary Sun” by Jerzy Petersburski, and most prominently a traditional Russian lullaby.

Man and Raven from Olga Brio on Vimeo.

Man and Raven

(Olga Brio, 2010)

Music: Jascha Heifetz and J. S. Bach

The Triplets of Belleville

(Sylvain Chomet, 2003)

Music: Bach's Prelude No. 2 from The Well-Tempered Clavier (Book 1) played by Glenn Gould is also featured during the bicycle scene 

 cmmhotes 2012

Muybridge’s Strings (マイブリッジの糸, 2011)

In his first collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), the animator Kōji Yamamura takes us on a journey into cinematic history.  Muybridge’s Strings (2011) is a poetic investigation of the nature of time – a concept which has occupied philosophers since ancient times.

Our relationship to time underwent a radical transformation in the 19^th century with the development of photography and related technologies.  The English photographer Eadweard Muybridge was among the first to recognize the scientific potential for photography in the study of human and animal locomotion.  The most significant of these was Muybridge’s 1878 series “Sallie Gardner at a Gallop” which settled the debate over whether or not all four of a horse’s four hooves leave the ground while galloping.  Most artists of the day usually painted a horse with at least one hoof on the ground, for the action was too fast for the human eye to determine all parts of horse locomotion.

To set up this experiment, Muybridge placed 24 trip wires (strings) at equidistant intervals (27 inches/68.58cm) that would trigger cameras to take a photograph.  It is these strings that inspired Yamamura to make Muybridge’s Strings.  The motif of strings interlaces itself throughout the film in a manner reminiscent of “the red string of fate” of East Asian folklore that is said to bind us together “regardless of time, place, or circumstance / the thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.” (see my discussion of Kazuhiko Okushita’s animated short The Red Thread to learn more.)

Two distinct storylines are woven together in Muybridge’s Strings.  The first is the remarkable life of Muybridge himself which Yamamura explores first through the man’s life's work – the film is replete with images from Muybridge’s famous photographic series (the elephant, American bison, naked man running,  mother and child, and so on) – and also through an investigation of the man himself through vignettes from his troubled marriage which ended in his murdering of his wife’s lover and being cleared on the grounds of “justifiable homicide”, through to his celebrated zoopraxiscope lectures at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.

The second storyline is that of a mother and child in present day Tokyo, which was inspired by Yamamura’s observation of his own daughter growing up.  The speed with which children grow up draws attention to the passage of time – a constant reminder of how fleeting our time here on earth really is.  Visually, Yamamura distinguishes the two time periods by adding warmer hues to the Tokyo storyline, in contrast to the shades of grey of the past.  The two parallel stories are linked through the use of similar motifs: Muybridge’s stopwatch, mother and child, the clasping of hands, horses, and; of course, strings.

Strings bind the Tokyo mother and daughter together in a beautiful abstract sequence, but strings also appear as a motif in the piano that they play together.  The soundtrack of the film was arranged by the legendary NFB music director Normand Roger.  In keeping with the theme of non-linear time, they decided upon the use of J.S. Bach’s Crab Canon (1747) as a key musical motif in the film.  This is significant for the Crab Canon is a musical palindrome – an arrangement of two musical lines that are both complementary and backward.  Here you can see a video of the tune being visualized as a Möbius strip. 

The soundtrack also foregrounds the sounds of technology: from click clack of photos being taken to the and the whir and clatter of the zoopraxiscope, which is considered the first device for the projection of moving images.  Although the technologies have changed in the ensuing 125+ years, our desire to photograph and capture fleeting moments of time has only increased.  With Muybridge’s Strings Yamamura manages not only to pay tribute one of the moving images pioneers, but to also open our minds to a consideration of our own relationship to the passage of time.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

Muybridge’s Strings is available for purchase from the NFB on DVD and Bluray as part of the Animation Express 2 collection.  It will also be released on Bluray in Japan in August.

An exhibition of Koji Yamamura's works is currently on at Skip City until July 22.

 Order the Flip Books today:

Muybridge no Ito 1  [Flip Book]

Muyvridge no Ito 2  [Flip Book]

This film screened at:

onedotzero: j-star 11

onedotzero is a London-based moving image and digital arts organisation which commissions, showcases and promotes innovation across all aspects of moving image, digital and interactive arts.  Founded in 1996, onedotzero has gained a reputation for representing a diverse array of artistic endeavour via the annual onedotzero: adventures in motion festival and its associated touring. Suppported by the BFI and the Arts Council England, it has a cross media and collaborative approach attuned to technological advances and fast paced change within digital arts and the contemporary culture landscape.

The Japanese portion of the festival selection j-star 11 screened at Nippon Connection 2012.  It’s an eclectic mixture of music videos, innovative commercials, and short films.  Thank You World from the Sapporo Short Fest 2011 and Blind by Yukihiro Shoda were made as a direct response to the 3/11 disaster.  I had not heard of Construction by Mirai Mizue, but it turned out to be a low res excerpt of Tatamp (2011) featuring twoth.  Some of the highlights for me were Toshiaki Hanzaki’s animated music video for Mr. Children – a popular band who have a long history of supporting alternative animation – tangefilms’ phenakistoscope inspired animated music video for Hitomi Azuma, the surreal geometric play of Shinya Sato’s video for Chateau Marmont, and Yasuda Takahiro’s two tone approach to the primal scream of Kaisoku Tokyo’s Copy.  For those of you who missed this event, a number of the films are featured on Vimeo.

cmmhotes 2012

Thank You World by Seiichi HISHIKAWA, J 2011, HDcam, 2’59 Min.

Christmas / Amazarashi by YKBX, J 2011, HDcam, 6’24 Min.

Blind by Yukihiro SHODA, J 2011, HDcam, 5’17 Min.

Construction by Mirai MIZUE, J 2011, HDcam, 3’15 Min.

Tsuchinoko / Gaka by Yuto NAKAMURA, Ayahiko SATO [rakudasan], J 2011, HDcam, 5’37 Min.

Nnet Station Op by Fantasista UTAMARO, J 2011, HDcam, 0’24 Min.

The Smell Of The Flowers / Mr. Children by Toshiaki HANZAKI, J 2009, HDcam, 5’23 Min.

Senkyou / Mergrim by Makoto YABUKI, J 2011, HDcam, 3’09 Min.

Xylophone by Seiichi HISHIKAWA, J 2011, HDcam, 3’05 Min.

Polygon Graffiti: An Uguisu Morph by QNQ/AUJIK, J 2011, HDcam, 4’32 Min.

Kira Kira / Azuma Hitomi by TANGEFILMS, J 2011, HDcam, 3’09 Min.

Assimilation by Takuya HOSOGANE, J 2011, HDcam, 1’29 Min.

Anomie / Amazarashi by YKBX, J 2011, HDcam, 4’37 Min.

Electropia / Joyz / Uk + by Noriko OKAKU, J 2011, HDcam, 4’39 Min.

One Hundred Realities / Chateau Marmont by Shinya SATO, J 2010, HDcam, 3’25 Min.

Kyu by Yyu FUJII, J 2011, HDcam, 1’29 Min.

Copy / Kaisoku Tokyo by Yasuda TAKAHIRO, J 2011, HDcam, 1’33 Min.

Damn What Ringtone / Hifana by Takashi OHASHI, J 2011, HDcam, 0’53 Min.

The TV Show / Takayuiki Manabe by Kousuke SUGIMOTO, J 2009, HDcam, 3’28 Min.

Henshin Gattai! by Shota SAKAMOTO, J 2011, HDcam, 1’33 Min.