Oedipus Rex

Contemporary Traces of the Modern Soundtrack

Developed for RMIT Media Arts

Audio-visual narrative

Whereas a film like LACHTO DROME (Safe Journey) works to thread the disparate musical semes of transient and dislocated musical cultures into a global homogenous narrative, OEDIPUS REX gives different musics and different musical styles their individual and separate status, connecting them into a chain of heterogeneous events. Ironically this is done whilst being set as musical cues to a filmic version of a grand mythological (and historically universalizing) narrative such as the Oedipus tale.

This is achieved due to the anti-narrative techniques employed by Pasolini: discontinuous editing; partially defined settings and alienating landscapes; brutish improvised documentary-style camera work; a melange of performance modes from trained actors and on-site locals; post-synched dialogue tracks devoid of original location atmosphere. The bizarre mix of songs, musical styles and score fragments which occur throughout the film complement the confused journey-narrative of the film's psycho-drama; the music track is a disconnected series of aural incidents followed by the sporadic and arrhythmic sequencing of events.

When Oedipus stabs his eyes out after he sees his wife/mother has hung herself, he gives an insight into the audio-visual narrative approach the film has taken:

"In darkness I won't se what I shouldn't have seen. I'll no longer recognize those I desired to recognize. I should have cut off my ears too, to better lock away from my wretched body and to no longer see or hear anything."

Close analysis

The sections listed below detail the source/fragment of music and the positions it occurs within the film's sequential narration.

A: small brass band playing pompous march (c. late 1930s)

1. opening credits
5. the soldier/father sees the baby Oedipus
42. Oedipus locates himself in lush green field - END

B: sombre string quartet

2. mother breast-feeding Oedipus in lush green field
23. Angelo takes Oedipus to see the prophet Teiresias
36. Queen & Oedipus discuss her and Laius' killing of their first son
41 Angelo leads Oedipus to lush green field of modern day Rome

C: small orchestral ensemble playing foxtrot

6 the baby Oedipus looking across the square at his mother and the solder dancing at the party

D: chorus of men singing folk song

7. baby Oedipus in his cot while his mother and the soldier make love in adjoining room
10. peasant brings the baby Oedipus to the King
26. Angelo, Creon and the Thebian Queen leave the city to meet Oedipus (cross-faded with 25)
31. victims of the pestilence are carried for burial (cross-faded with 30)

E: traditional Japanese flute and drum dirge

8. the soldier looks in on baby after making love to his mother;
9. segue to first landscape scenes of man carrying baby to be flung off cliff
15. Oedipus receives prophecy from Apollo and wanders down from the tree-on-hill
16. Oedipus roams the desert trying to not return home
18. Oedipus continues roaming the desert
20. Oedipus roaming the desert
21. Oedipus after he kills Laius en route to Apollo
27. Oedipus encounters the Thebian Queen

F: solo trumpet and women's folk singing

11. Polybus journeys with new-found baby to palace

G: children's group rhyme-singing

12. Polybus & Queen look at new-found baby

H: solo 'ethnic' recorder/flute

13. a grown-up Oedipus feels an urge to visit Apollo and talks with Polybus & Thebian Queen

Ia: celebratory middle-Eastern folk chamber ensemble 1 (clapping/flutes/drums)

14. Oedipus arrives at Apollo's tree-on-hill

Ib: celebratory middle-Eastern folk chamber ensemble 1 (violins/guitar/male-chants/drums)

17. Oedipus feasts with tribe
28. celebration of marriage between Oedipus and Thebian Queen

J: Indonesian vocal chants

19. Oedipus encounters village people and naked woman inside mud-brick corridors of village

K: solo woman's vocal wailing with flute

22. Oedipus arrives at city as people are leaving in droves

L: solo woman's vocal wailing

24. Angelo shows Oedipus where the sphinx resides
28. pestilence cover Thebes and people confront Oedipus for a solution
29. Creon returns from Apollo with news
30. victims of the pestilence are carried for burial (cross-faded with 31)
34. Oedipus is consoled by Queen after encounter with Teiresias the prophet
35. argument between Creon and Oedipus
38. Queen sense discovery of info about the failed killing of her baby son

M: Jew’s harp and guitar with plucked violin

35. the people of Thebes rejoice Oedipus' slaying of the sphinx (cross-faded with 26)

N: chorus of women singing in unison

32. pestilence victims are burnt
37. Queen prays for Oedipus at temple

O: solo atonal flute

33. Teiresias the prophet confronts Oedipus with truth
39. Oedipus sits on steps in modern day Rome and plays flute (as Teiresias the prophet did)
40. Oedipus plays flute in modern day Rome as Angelo plays soccer and workers leave factory

Text © Philip Brophy.