When examining the impact of congruent and incongruent interaction, examples where this can be noticed are in reprises of songs in musicals. In my post, I will be using two different films as examples: “For the First Time in Forever” from Frozen and “Remember Me” from Coco.
“For the First Time in Forever” is sung just before Elsa’s coronation; both Elsa and Anna have their own feelings about the gates being opened for the first time since they were kids. The song follows more of a congruent structure. When Anna is singing, the music has more intense patterns, matching the comic lyrics about her potential to find true love. However, when Elsa is singing, the music has more release patterns, matching the tragic lyrics about the fear of revealing her powers. As the two sing together, both sisters have different feelings, so with the intensity musical patterns towards the end, the song is more congruent with Anna’s comic lyrics while being incongruent with Elsa’s tragic lyrics.
In the reprise, after Elsa has fled the kingdom, Anna has traveled to find her, and the two are about to address the eternal winter. For most of the song, it’s incongruent considering the context of these lyrics. Anna begs Elsa to come back with her, Elsa pushes Anna away, and then Elsa learns of the eternal winter, coming off very tragic. Despite this, the music has intense patterns. The speed of the music plays to the stress both sisters feel; Anna’s desperation to bring Elsa back and Elsa’s fear of her own powers. These intense patterns continue until Elsa freezes Anna’s heart, the music transitioning to releasing patterns. No lyrics are sung, but this is the congruency missing in the song, feeling like consequences for Elsa caving into fear.
When comparing this to “Remember Me”, there’s one significant difference: the lyrics never change when the song is repeated, only the patterns change in the music, altering how the audience interprets the meaning of the song. The song is sung three times in the movie by Ernesto, Hector, and Miguel. The first time, when Ernesto sings it, the music has intense patterns, creating incongruity with the tragic lyrics. The intense pattern creates a love song interpretation and “remember me” can be seen as arrogant yet passionate.
The second time, when Hector sings it, the music has releasing patterns, congruent with the song’s tragic lyrics. We learn not only that Hector and Miguel are related, but also that Ernesto murdered Hector and stole his songs, “Remember Me” being a song he wrote for his daughter, Coco. The releasing pattern creates a song of comfort and, while listening to Coco sing alongside Hector, “remember me” can be seen as a form of eternal connection.
The last time, Miguel sings it to Coco, his great-grandmother who suffers from dementia, in hopes that it will remind her of Hector. Throughout the film, Hector faces the possibility of being forgotten, Coco’s memories being the last thing that can save him. When Miguel sings it, he sings it in the same pattern that Hector did. However, the musical ascription in this scene is different. In Hector’s version, he was recalling a memory many decades ago. In Miguel’s version, he’s hoping to help Coco recall these memories from many decades ago.
Music communicates different things to different audiences. With the different ascriptions and patterns in these two versions, we see the impact music has on different contexts through reprises. How do you think reprises convey feelings in different ways?
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