The Snowman / The Snowman and the Snowdog

I watched "The Snowman" again this year; it's a Christmas tradition for me. I remember playing "Walking in the Air" on the flute; it was the first piece I ever performed in public and I was scared witless. It was only in the last few years that I realised that it must have been the music that draw me to it in the first place rather than the visual artistry. First realised in 1982, they marked its 30th anniversary this year by creating a sequel: "The Snowman and the Snowdog". That aired this evening, and they kept the music at the core of the experience just like the original (which was shown last night).

The film itself has no dialogue and is completely silent, so the music must portray precisely what the images are showing. I imagine for the composers, Howard Blake for the original and IIan Eshkeri and Andy Burrows for the sequel, the experience of doing this was very similar to the requirements of the silent films of the 1910s and 1920s. Different elements of orchestral writing are used to portray different feelings, emotions and actions on the screen. High string motifs,  harp and glockenspiel are used to portray magic and mystery, quick scales, glissandi, trills and percussion interjections are used for sudden or surprise elements. Both films have a sombre moment at the end where the young boy realises the snowman has melted. This is reflected in the music with low woodwind motifs and 'melancholy' strings; long sustained notes and the use of octave unison in minor chords to paint a picture of hurt and sadness.

At the beginning of "The Snowman and the Snowdog" in particular, each character is portrayed by a different instrument; the young boy by a solo violin, the mother by a flute and the old dog by an oboe. The latter seems very appropriate, the oboe having an earthy, bitter tone compared to the lightness of the violin and flute. This reminded me of "Peter and the Wolf" by Prokofiev, where each character is portrayed by a different instrument or section of the orchestra. The difference is, whereas Prokofiev introduces each character separately, interjected by the narrator, in The Snowman films the effect is more subtle; the solo instruments are just prominent within the overall texture of the music.

Unlike Peter and the Wolf, where the narration clarifies the music, the music for The Snowman films is likely to have been written in the style of more traditional film music, where every effect and moment must be perfectly timed to occur simultaneously with the motion picture. The motion picture version of Peter and the Wolf has been created the opposite way; the visual images have been created to match in time with the music.