Professor analyzes musical themes in the movie Avatar

Wanda Bryant, a professor in the Performing and Communication Arts Division, analyzed the themes of the music from the epic film “Avatar” in a lecture for her class on May 18.Bryant had the opportunity to work as a music consultant for director James Cameron, and music composer James Horner.

Before the film was released in 2009, one of the major challenges for Horner and Bryant was narrowing down their music genres, themes and languages.

“We narrowed the music down to about 250 samples,” said Bryant as she demonstrated a couple of them to the class. “The first clip is a group of girls from Africa and the second is a group of women from Finland.”

According to Bryant, the instruments used most were women’s vocals and the drums. After the languages for the vocals were chosen, the next step was to go into the recording studio where “[Cameron] had the final word,” she said.

The final piece is put together in three steps: the initial sound or source, then a demo recording followed by the final score.

Bryant explained the film’s main scores, which were “Love Theme,” “Heroes Theme” and “Doom Motif,” all of which play throughout the film and have both symbolism and significance. That is what Horner’s music consists of in all his films, according to Bryant.

The “Love Theme” symbolizes hope, the future and pure joy. This score was also transformed into a pop song called “I See You,” which was performed by Leona Lewis.

“If James Horner can do something, he can write one hell of a song. It will strongly uplift you,” Bryant said of the piece, “Heroes Theme.”

According to Bryant, “Doom Motif” is only about four notes.

“Some may have heard this already in other works of Horner before,” Bryant said. “We hear this and think of doom.”

The themes of all three songs intertwine at the end of the film, according to Bryant.

Bryant also brought a treasured item, which was the “confidential” script from the film. In the script, there were tabs with notes that Cameron would take.

Bryant said she was overall honored to work with Cameron.

“This man is a genius,” she said. “It was fun. I learned about the process and the order of everything.