Connotation
In critical theory, connotation/connotative is frequently paired with denotation/denotative: the latter refers to the literal meaning of a word; while the former refers to the possible associations, references, depending of specific contexts, that can be attached to said word. For instance, the connotations attached to the word "night" can refer to meanings and images as varied as "death," "sleep," "danger", etc. Connotations are cultural constructs: for instance, the musical genre of jazz is still often used as a connotation for depicting a lurid, sleazy atmosphere—this simply because jazz had been often attacked as a "depraved" form of music.
Musical styles and genres can be effective conveyors of connotation: showing a character engrossed in the listening of classical music can be a marker of the character's high social status, or intellectual refinement.
The style of music associated with the cinematographic genre of the Western has been often transposed in films belonging to other genres. In A History of Violence (USA, 2005), a film taking place in contemporary Pennsylvania, film director David Cronenberg had requested from the composer Howard Shore a score explicitly referring to the genre of Western (orchestral texture with strings, prominent use of brass instruments, melodic and harmonic material evoking folklore and country music), as he wanted his main character and his actions—taking the arms to keep himself and his family safe from the Philly mob—to reminisce of such male, heroic qualities strongly associated with the figure of the cowboy.
- An excerpt from Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls (USA, 1962) gives a brief, yet effective use of a musical genre, jazz, as connotative of sexual arousal: a young woman answers at the door, and as she is only wrapped in her towel, she asks her neighbor to wait. While she quickly puts a bathrobe, the young man observes her through the half-open door (the slightly skew angle as the camera pans down and the presence of the door frame accentuates the notion of a "forbidden" view, typical of a voyeuristic position); the music is only heard during the young man's voyeuristic activity, emphasizing his sexual intentions—which will become more explicit later in the film.
- The representation of villains as amateurs of classical music is a popular cliché in cinema. In John Woo's Hard Target (USA, 1993) the villain, named Emile Fouchon, is characterized by the utmost cruelty of his business, which consists in organizing clandestine hunting games for rich people, in which the hunted are homeless former US army veterans, who are lured at the perspective of making money. In this sequence, Fouchon is at his home, a lavish Southern mansion. While the slow dolly motions and deep focus magnify a sense of luxury and of imposing spaciousness, enhanced by the bright dominance of the color white, Fouchon is seen playing at the piano the first movement of the "Appassionata" sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven: a difficult work that requires from its performer a consummate technique going beyond the usual modest skills of amateur piano players. That the film decides to portray a villain playing such a canonical Classical work epitomizing male qualities of endurance, strength, and technical mastery (as Beethoven's music is a frequent trope for conveying the idea of masculinity) is itself counterbalanced by the numerous visual signs of femininity, if not queerness: from the dominant color white, that contrasts with the harshness of his face—itself mirroring the darkness of his soul, to his narcissistic glance at his own reflection on the gold framed mirror, and the refinement of his home interiors. Architecture, furniture, works of art have been enduring Hollywood clichés for depicting gay interiors, as for instance the home of Waldo Lydecker in Otto Preminger's Laura (USA, 1944), or Jim Williams' in Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (USA, 1997). Indeed, later in the film, the portrayal of the relationship between Fouchon and his acolyte Pik Van Cleaf is undeniably homoerotic. The qualities of sophistication and refined taste usually expected from amateurs of classical music are here forcefully associated with villain-ness, but also queerness. This excerpt uses the technique of cross-cutting (a parallel montage allowing us to follow at least two events taking place in different places, and often, although not always, at the same moment). The cross-cutting reinforces this association between sophistication and cruelty. Event #1 is the "interview" by one of Fouchon's men of a homeless veteran, who doesn't realize that he will soon be hunted and killed; event #2 is about Fouchon at home, playing the piano and receiving one of his clients-hunters. Here, event #1 appears as a flashback inserted within event #2; yet Beethoven's music is heard continuously during the entire cross-cutting sequence, providing a temporal continuity in the narration—but not in the succession of both events, as event #1 has taken place before event #2. If we consider event #1 as an inserted flashback within event #2, then the Beethoven's music is clearly diegetic during the whole sequence, yet acting as an ironic, if not anempathetic underscoring to event #1.
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