Brief Summary
This video explores the extensive world-building and the complex, ultimately troubled, musical creation behind the movie Avatar. It highlights the depth of the lore, the creation of the Navi language, and the involvement of numerous experts to create an authentic alien world. The video focuses on the challenges faced by composer James Horner and ethnomusicologist Dr. Wanda Bryant in creating a unique score that blended non-Western musical traditions with a standard blockbuster sound, and how their efforts were often undermined in favor of accessibility and Western sensibilities.
- The video explores the extensive world-building and lore of Avatar, including the Navi language and culture.
- It details the challenges faced by James Horner and Dr. Wanda Bryant in creating a unique musical score.
- The video critiques the final score as a product of cultural appropriation and inauthenticity, driven by commercial interests.
Introduction: Avatar's Bizarre Success
The video introduces Avatar as a cultural phenomenon, noting its massive budget, record-setting box office success, and the extensive universe created for the film. It draws parallels between Avatar and other stories like Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, Fern Gully, and The Lorax, emphasizing its familiar themes presented in a visually stunning, blue-toned alien setting. The video sets the stage for exploring the depth of the film's lore and the complexities of its production.
Deep Lore and World-Building
Avatar boasts surprisingly deep lore, rivaling that of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. There's a dedicated book and fan-compiled wiki detailing the history of the RDA, the properties of unobtainium, and even two fictitious schools of thought explaining the formation of the Hallelujah Mountains. Every plant in the film has its own section with a made-up binomial nomenclature. The culture of the Navi is also thoroughly explored, including details about the omaticaya clan and their traditions, such as the significance of the Omata samba (blue flute), which ironically doesn't appear in the film.
The Navi Language and Scientific Accuracy
The Navi language is a fully developed con Lang created by linguist Dr. Paul Frommer, complete with its own grammatical structures and non-English sounds. Dialect coach Carla Mayer was hired to help the actors handle these sounds. The production team also consulted Dr. Jody S. Holt, a plant physiology professor, to ensure the accuracy of the plant science in the film. The creators even modeled the Pandoran solar system to accurately depict day/night cycles and planetary positions.
Dr. Wanda Bryant and the Musical Universe of Pandora
Dr. Wanda Bryant, an ethnomusicologist, was brought in to help James Horner develop a new kind of music for the Navi. By the time she was consulted, the team already envisioned drum circles where each drum represented a planet in the Pandoran solar system, played in complex rhythmic structures derived from orbital patterns. Bryant identified several issues with the initial concepts, such as the fact that the "blue flute" was actually a trumpet and that the Navi's four fingers would limit them to a pentatonic scale.
Cultural Blending and Musical Challenges
The goal was to create a culture that wasn't easily identifiable as any specific Earth culture, blending elements to create something vaguely non-white. However, the use of a pentatonic scale raised concerns about sounding too Asian, African, or Native American. Director James Cameron was heavily involved in the music production, but sometimes artistic concepts were ignored in favor of storytelling. Horner, well-versed in world music, challenged Bryant to find unique sounds.
Inspiration and Demo Creation
Bryant presented Horner with 25 examples of workable music, including Swedish cattle herding calls, folk dance songs from the Naga people of northeast India, and Inuit personal songs. They hired singers from various vocal traditions and instrumentalists who played non-Western instruments. The team wrote numerous demos, blending different styles, languages, vocal inflections, and tuning systems.
Cameron's Rejection and the "Alien" Sound
Cameron wrote the initial lyrics in English, which were then translated into Navi, but he began changing the lyrics to sound better to Western ears. The team ran into issues merging non-Western sounds with the Western orchestra. Despite their efforts to create music that sounded like nothing anyone had ever heard before, Cameron rejected every demo because they didn't sound right to him.
The Lament at the Tree of Souls and Abandoned Work
Only one song, "The Lament at the Tree of Souls," made it into the film. Cameron wanted a Navi "Amazing Grace" that could be understood by all, and rejected attempts to ornament the vocal lines to make it sound less Western. Bryant realized their dreams of creating a unique musical sound would be tempered. They had to abandon almost all their work, and any Navi vocal lines in the film ended up being nonsense lyrics chosen for how they cut through the orchestra.
Digital Replacements and Cultural Appropriation
The non-Western tonality was relegated to the end of phrases, and Horner sampled live instruments to treat them like Western instruments. The drums were completely digital, layered until they sounded right. The score ended up sounding incredibly digital and artificial. Bryant notes that the score perpetuates a generalized exoticism, suggesting Hollywood stereotyping. The music is described as taking something from a group of people without really asking and repurposing it beyond recognition to make money.
The Irony of Authenticity
The video draws a parallel between the film's plot and the creation of its music: a project sponsored by a corporation hires an expert to legitimize its intentions, but undermines their work for profit and accessibility. The score is a disaster, using vaguely non-Western sounds for the Navi but employing brass, a distinctly European sound, for heroic moments. The nature motif and "Dies Irae" melody appear in both the love ballad and scenes of death, creating thematic confusion.
Home Tree Motif and Overall Critique
One positive aspect of the soundtrack is the motif for Home Tree, which evolves from ominous to less so as Jake integrates into Navi society. However, this is a small success in a score that is largely a "scathing imitation." The story behind the music is depressing, as Horner's commendable efforts to create a unique musical landscape were undermined. The score is the musical equivalent of strip-mining, sacrificing authenticity for commercial success.
Conclusion: A Veneer of Authenticity
The film's music is artificially engineered to satisfy preconceived notions, creating a veneer of authenticity. It's what Western audiences think non-Western music sounds like, rather than genuine non-Western music. The video concludes by emphasizing the importance of keeping one's ears open to unusual sounds and being critical of inauthentic representations. The video also mentions a Pandora Research Foundation and a page on Navi music theory that claims they use pentatonic, diatonic, and microtonal scales.
