Avatar: music as a system of communication and power

Hello! After a brief pause, we begin the year with a new season. I want to anticipate that this season will have many changes throughout its development… I’ve had some concerns about topics and participations that I would like to incorporate to somehow… or well, transform the space into a more malleable and participatory way, so you’ll tell me on social media what you think about the new proposals that arise and of course, hearing new ones would also be incredible, so I’ll see you there, of course… now, after this commercial break, let’s dive in.

What better way to start the season than with a soundtrack from a film that, although it premiered at the end of last year, gives and will give a lot to talk about during awards season, as already seems tradition for this franchise.

Avatar: Fire and Ash, comes from one of the highest-grossing sagas of the last decades and it is inevitable to recognize the effects and techniques that have been used in its making, in addition to the importance of the nuclear message of its narratives. It usually stands out for these vertices, but what about the music?

This film seems to me a great example of how music becomes a regulating and core element from an unconscious vertex embedded in our way of inhabiting and being with others.

Before speaking specifically about this third installment, let’s go over a bit of history about this franchise by James Cameron. The first Avatar film premiered in 2009, on the music side with James Horner and Christopher Boyes as supervisor and designer of the sound department (I think starting to mention this detail is going to become important this season). Thirteen years later came the second part: Avatar: The Way of Water, now with a change in the music department. The passing of Horner in 2015 marked an important change in the music team. In the following installments, Simon Franglen joined as composer and from his imagination we have the sound of Pandora, both in the second and in the third installment… and the upcoming ones.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is undoubtedly a statement about society and the relationship not only with nature, but among ourselves and the way we approach inevitable changes. But what about the music?

Here is what matters. Musical creation cannot be separated from the context in which it is developed nor from the intentions that surround it. Music is not designed after the story, but is designed at the same time as the civilization. It is an integral part of the foundational act. Now then, with this we have a position on what we consider and value as a fundamental and characteristic part of civilizations… what we recognize and also what we do not…

In an interview with Franglen that I had the fortune to attend, one of the main topics addressed was the use of artificial intelligence. A great detail that also stands out in this franchise is the clear stance in relation to artificial intelligence, since James Cameron has spoken strongly against it for the making of his films, therefore he maintains those regulations in all his production departments and music, above all, is no exception. Now then, what does this mean?

Let’s remember that the central theme of Avatar is a new civilization, therefore this implies that, through a process of creation, practically from scratch a root had to be created.

And one of the elements that was created from scratch was also the music. Why did the music adhere to this political postulate of the entire project? Because here music is considered as one of the most important methods in the activity that distinguishes, and through which a society can prosper or perish: communication.

It was sought that the Na’vi would not be anything like humans, therefore the basic method of communication also had to be created. For Avatar: Fire and Ash, several instruments were created, among them 2 outstanding ones… the composer was looking for something that could be played by someone who measured two meters tall so interesting things emerged… and here we should think “physiology is just as important for the creation of our communication systems… and among them, music.” At the same time, since it is a film directed at mortals like us… it had to weave a fine fabric that connected this new culture with our contemporary emotions… that is, emotion is placed as connective tissue between cultures and emotion uses music as a channel.

With this fixation on creating new instruments and melodies that articulate with emotions as human as pain and family, Avatar proposes that we understand music as part of the logics and grammars that sustain a culture. This can be clearly seen in pieces such as “The Ash Camp” where different timbres and contrasts can be heard, that is, the difference between cultures is accentuated, something like an emotional border between groups, in this case, the antagonistic group of the film and it does so in an almost macabre way.

For the creation of this channel, Simon Franglen wrote a total of 1907 pages of music over a total of 7 years.

It is curious because what the music pursued was the emotional creation of spectrums as dense as they can be: pain, separation and grief… so we can say that here music offers itself as the emotional architecture of a civilization, as a living cultural system.

The final piece of the soundtrack: “The Light Always Returns” invites us to reflect on the complete journey and to maintain hope in unity. Here we can hear voices and instrumentation that seeks to assimilate the greatness of life, as well as the journey toward the union that sustains social institutions.

A greatness crowned with a certain nostalgia that anchors us to the complications of the journey and its constant presence in life’s paths… and it is in the final seconds that the album closes with choral voices… reaffirming humanity in union as a concept and as the position of power.

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