☞ Musical Perception in Fiction

Diegetic Music and its Delights

“Subspace Rhapsody” from Strange New Worlds

Diegetic music refers to music in a fictional story, such as a movie or television show, that is actually heard by the characters, rather than being a soundtrack that’s for the audience. Think of it as the difference between a character listening to a song on the radio and spooky music that is just telling the audience that something bad is going to happen.

When it comes to musicals, this can be particularly messy, because in some cases characters know they are singing and in other cases they don’t. As per Wikipedia:

For example, in The Sound of Music, the song “Edelweiss” is diegetic, since the character (Captain von Trapp) is performing the piece in front of other fictional characters at a gathering. In “Do-Re-Mi” the character Maria is using the song to teach the children how to sing, so this song is also diegetic. In contrast, the song “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?” is non-diegetic, since the musical material is external to the narrative, it being a conversation that would in a naturalistic setting take place as simple speech.

The musical episode of Strange New Worlds is all diegetic, as the characters know they are singing, even if they are discomfited by it. This is particularly true for the Klingons:

But diegetic music can also cause a kind of breaking of the fourth wall (assuming I’m understanding all of this correctly!), collapsing the distance between the characters and the audience. A particularly delightful example is where Boston Legal’s Jerry Espenson sings the television show’s theme song:

And if you’ve seen older advertisements for Skyrizi, you might have noticed at least one that incorporates the music itself. The viewer initially thinks the music is non-diegetic but receives clues that this is not so. Watch for someone adjusting a volume dial, someone playing part of the music on a keyboard, and another person playing the part of the tambourine in the jingle itself:

The beauty of all of this is that it allows for this constant dancing between different levels: the thoughts of the characters, what they are aware of, what we as the audience are aware of. And I love it. ■

(please feel free to share more weird examples of diegetic music in the comments.)

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Don’t forget that The Orthogonal Bet podcast is still going strong and that The Magic of Code is out!

The Magic of Code got a big review in the Wall Street Journal, which is really exciting. And I’ve been recording more podcasts (here’s one that’s out!).

And please rate and review my book on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere else! Thanks so much.

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A space colony.

In 1976, Richard Brautigan wrote a little essay/poem called “Owls” in response to the idea of the orbital colonies conceived by Gerard O’Neill for CoEvolution Quarterly (also available here):

Hoot! Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!

I think for the time being, the remaining years of this century, we should limit our exploration of outer space and concentrate our creative energy and resources on
taking care of our mother planet Earth and what lives here.

Owls hoot in the early Montana evening when the air is very still and floats the scent of pine trees.

I like this planet.

It's my home and I think it needs our attention and our love.

Let the stars wait a little while longer.

They are good at it.

We'll join them soon enough.

We'll be there.

This pairs nicely with Brautigan’s “All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace”, which starts this way:

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I am a fan of space exploration and might quibble with Brautigan’s priorities, but I think the broader point—that technology needn’t be at odds with the human or our environment—is one that is vital. Technology and nature can simply be in “mutually programming harmony.” And sometimes the stars can be patient for us.

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The Enchanted Systems Roundup

Here are some links worth checking out that touch on the complex systems of our world (both built and natural):

🜸 The Origin of the Research University: “Universities have existed for more than a thousand years — and for almost all of that time, they weren’t centers of research. What changed in 19th century Germany?”

🝤 WeatherStar 4000+: From the readme: “This project aims to bring back the feel of the 90s with a weather forecast that has the look and feel of The Weather Channel at that time but available in a modern way.”

🜚 The weird zombie existence of the Family Circus

Until next time.