Of course, one can’t talk about providing a new score to any scene – be it from a movie, TV show, or video game or whatever form of media for that matter – without discussing the original score.

The music in Portal 2 is something that I feel is fairly unconventional in video games, in that the vast majority of the music is procedurally generated, in that the music reacts to the player’s actions. I don’t mean that in the sense of “Player 1 finished this stage; change music track” (for the record, I will attempt to leave out any references to the game, for fear of confusing anyone who hasn’t played it); Portal 2 goes more in-depth, in the sense of “Player 1 is making use of a particular ability in this stage; add an extra layer of music to the existing stage”. I personally don’t know of any other game that does this, other than Conker’s Bad Fur Day for the Nintendo 64 (where the music in the first level was comprised of several layers, but only a particular set of instruments would play depending on where in the level you were). This does not mean, however, that the music in Portal 2 is diagetic, where the music is produced on-screen, such as for example, a shot of someone playing the instrument; but is non-diagetic where, as the word implies, the music is separate to that of the actions on screen (as defined by Anahid Kassabian (2001, pp42)); the characters never hear nor react to it, but we the audience can perceive it.
With regards to Conker’s Bad Fur Day, one would argue that the music is just as non-diagetic as Portal 2 or any other game for that matter, and I would agree. …With exception to one particular scene in the first level’s music; one particular scene involves travelling to a giant beehive, and travelling there causes the level music to change to the bees “buzzing” the level’s melody (believe me, it makes sense in context). But I digress.

(In case the video plays from the beginning, skip to 10:29, where the developers of Conker’s Bad Fur Day discuss how music was programmed into the game)

Since music in video games isn’t a subject that is discussed that much, an alternative medium is music in film, considering how games tend to be more “cinematic” with the idea of cutscenes. While this can translate well, I personally think that, in the case of Portal 2, this might not be as simple. As I mentioned; while the music is very much non-diagetic and exists outside of the game’s “reality”, it is also dependant on what is happening on screen. Much like, say, an old cartoon; the notion of “mickey-mousing” (where the music corresponds to the action on-screen) is the first idea that comes to my mind.

In the early days of western animation, there were two big names in the field of composing for cartoons: Carl Stalling and Scott Bradley. One could say that they were the “Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg of the time”, in that the two had very different styles and approaches towards their art: Bradley went down the route of writing original music, while Stalling chose to use predominately pre-existing music, re-arranged to be played by Warner Bros.’ orchestra. These pieces of music originate from varying genres of the time, from the classical pieces of Wagner and Beethoven, to ragtime songs of artists such as Egbert Van Alstyne and Nat D Ayer (as shown in the cue sheet provided by Goldmark (2005, pp40-41)). However, as these songs were used in short snippets only a few seconds long, they were selected in order to accompany what was being shown on-screen. As Goldmark explains:

“…rather than telling the story through the song titles, [the music in Bugs Bunny Rides Again] evokes the mood of the old West. Because Freleng (the director) chose to spoof the classic western film, Stalling has an additional set of genre-based musical code on which he can draw to manipulate the audience’s expectations. Songs such as “Cheyenne”, “Navajo”, and “My Little Buckaroo”, and of course, Rossini’s William Tell Overture all musically place the action in the old West – not because any of these pieces come from that time and place but because they are meant to signify cowboys and cattle or have been culturally resignified (the Rossini is the obvious example of the latter).”

(Goldmark, 2005, pp39)

Personally, I had never even known that the majority of the music in Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes cartoons was built on already existing material. I could attribute this to the cartoons/songs being much older than I am (Bugs Bunny Rides Again was first released in 1948, and the songs features were first released in 1911)

While this was no doubt a successful approach for Stalling, whose approach of using songs of the time can still be heard to this day, I personally think this isn’t the best of routes to take, possibly because I speak as a songwriter and would prefer to be, like Bradley, composing my own material.

 

References:

Goldmark, D., 2005. Tunes for ‘Toons. 14th ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press Ltd.
Kassabian, A., 2001. Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music. New York, NY: Routledge.
Seavor, C., 2013. Conker’s Bad Fur Day – Director’s Commentary pt 4. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcIupBUAy98 [Accessed 12 November 2013]