Another Woody: J. S. Bach in Dixieland

Abstract:

no matter what the season was,this was still a townthat existed in black and whiteand pulsated to the great tunesof George Gershwin.

This statement by Woody Allen's character Isaac Davis from the beginning of Manhattan (1979) reads like a poem and encapsulates the public perception of Allen's works as set in New York to soundtracks drawing upon the Great American Songbook and Dixieland jazz. Functioning as non-diegetic music—mood-setting background and transitional music connecting scenes—and as diegetic music for social gatherings, the repertoire reflects Allen's own interest in Dixieland music. But just as many of Allen's films are shot outside Manhattan, a large number of his close to fifty auteur films feature western art music, and often prominently so. In these films, classical music often functions as an upper-social-class marker, as characters attend the opera or the symphony, but this repertoire also provides dramatic emphasis or even comic relief. While Allen's classical sound world is dominated by opera and by the classical and Romantic orchestral repertoire, seven of his films feature music by J. S. Bach.

In this article, I analyze the Bach excerpts—in Alice (1990), Another Woman (1988), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Irrational Man (2015), Melinda and Melinda (2004), and Small Time Crooks (2000)—and show how several of the cues differ from what is perceived to be typical of Allen's soundtracks. Bach's works are used in a wide variety of contexts. For example, they constitute a poignant social commentary, as in their use in the film of Mother Teresa in Alice, and show intertextual relationships with the works of Ingmar Bergman—the filmmaker admired by Allen—in Hannah and Her Sisters. In Irrational Man, the use of Bach is an important aspect of the film: several of the main voice-over narrations, including the film's philosophical underpinnings, occur during Bach's music. Most often, however, Bach cues provide an instant mode change. But there is a paradox in that the jazz repertoire has been carefully chosen, while Bach appears as an afterthought left to a music editor, even for on-the-camera performances, and often in bland, non-significant recordings. But it does not follow that the lack of intention during the production stages diminishes the end result. While for a documentary on Mother Teresa, Mozart's Requiem could have worked as well, the intellectual aspect associated with Bach works particularly well in several films, especially Another Woman and Irrational Man.