Music concrete – a collage of sounds – use of voice edited- ethereal – recurring motif – distortion – one woman’s voice through – woman power and the powerful connection to god- ethereal – “calling” delusional – recurring motif – calling from god. Reverb a collage of voices – themes of disassociation – hallucination, death, and women’s power. Maternal themes – all non-diagetic –
After recently watching the new Netflix movie ‘The Wonder’, I grew a strong insightful connection to Mathew Herbert’s soundtrack and Techniques. His ethereal score shows strong uses of musique concrète throughout. Certain recordings are layered together to create a collage of different sounds which work extremely well in making a timeless and effective piece.
The movie presents strong connections to religion and God, with running themes of maternal instinct, hunger and disassociation. Despite techniques of ‘musique conctrete’ the constant use of voice also becomes a heartbeat for an immortal and ageless piece of sound; similar to themes shown on screen such as religion. Sounds taken from a woman singing are used as a recurring motif to foreshadow motherly power throughout the entire film.
Within the film, the little girl is going to die from hunger but believes God will save her until she realises that ‘Mrs Lib’ the lady that nursed her is her saviour and rescues her forever. The repetitiveness of a woman’s voice foreshadows how female motherly instinct becomes her God and is always present throughout the film; overpowering any religious beliefs.
Despite the film being set in rural Ireland; Location becomes a trivial point to the movie. Themes throughout show how the power of religion and motherhood override their surroundings; resulting in them running away to Australia. I believe that Herbert represented this beautifully within the soundtrack. It could have been easy and extremely narrative to create a traditional Irish folk-sounding score. However the entire score is non-diegetic and non-suggestive of location, or time; much like how religion and motherhood are not relevant to place or time. With the use of voice, musique concrete, and distortion, they all collage together to create a un earthly and ageless atmosphere. The sound within the film creates a celestial soundtrack as if it can not be placed on Earth; cleverly linking to the themes throughout the film.