Johnson has established emotion, physical feeling/state, and physical movement in space as origins for metaphor which are used to interpret and translate a source domain into a target domain. He also clarifies that this can be done from abstract to abstract, which are high-level metaphors built upon the basic/primary metaphors (embodied experience—>abstract concept). So far the end concepts have been examples of linguistic metaphor, but as metaphors are a cognitive process, not just linguistic, these metaphors appear in other mediums such as art and music.

Because music is difficult to conceptually define it has oft been ignored by philosophy, citing these modes are gestural and don’t’ have an intrinsic meaning (p. 146-147). However, Johnson argues that music’s function is the “…presentation and enactment of felt experience” (p. 169).  He explores the use of melody and metaphor in the song “Over the Rainbow” and verifies the interpretation of melody against the lyrics, citing intervalic steps and leaps as methods of metaphorical interpretation of the emotional content also represented by the lyrics. Through this analysis he also recognises language’s relation to music. The language through which we describe music is the same metaphorical language through which we describe embodied experiences. This song makes use of the MOVING OBSERVER metaphor, the observer is on a metaphorical journey, “…starting somewhere, moving on a musical journey toward some other place and finally arriving at some metaphorical destination” (p. 172). While his focus is on melodic content, Johnson also states that harmony, volume, tempo, and meter are elements through which we can express abstract concepts (2007).

Maarten Coëgnarts explores the use of CMT in relation film in his article “Cinema and the embodied mind: metaphor and simulation in understanding meaning in films” (2017). Coëgnarts also identifies that a lot of work to do with CMT has been through linguistic expression, as such endeavours to explore the non-verbal aspects of film. The difficulty of using film as a target domain for conceptual metaphor is that film can be a concrete reflection of reality, the visual images it depicts exist tangibly in the world. However, just as art uses visual image as a medium for a target domain, so can the visual images of film through cinematic techniques such as “…camera movements, changes of shot scale, different editing techniques…” (2017, p. 7) to achieve embodied meaning within film.

Coëgnarts uses examples from Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Notorious (1946), in which the character’s subjective perspective (the act of seeing and perceiving) is conceptualised through camera movement and editing, which reveal character process by viewing the subject in one shot, following by the close-up of the object which they are perceiving. These shots placed one after another relate the two in time and space, and places important on the object the subject is perceiving. This sequence evokes the metaphor VISUAL FIELDS ARE CONTAINER, the filmic frame representing the visual fields of the characters (2017). He also explores the metaphors of INCREASE OF EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IS AN INCREASE OF THE AMOUNT OR QUANTITY OF SUBSTANCE IN THE CONTAINER, as well as THE INCREASE OF EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IS MOTION through camera movements. Through a shaky or rotating camera, we can simulate the physical sensation of being off-balance or suggest a feeling of emotional-imbalance, or through the slow zoom upon a subjects face we can suggest emotional intensity as the facial expression takes up the entire frame. These techniques use embodied states to create metaphors to communicate character subjectivity through the use of cinematic techniques.

An important facet to Coëgnarts work is his discussion of empathy and the Mirror Neuron System (MNS). This system infers that when people witness different actions performed by other individuals, they imitate those bodily motions or affects within themselves, and is a cognitive process through which the theory embodied simulation comes from (Van der Schyff & Krueger, 2018). Researchers like Coëgnarts, Dylan Van der Schyff, and Joel Krueger assert that through MNS, one feels empathy through the simulation of the perceived embodied experiences of others within themselves, and how we gain meaning through perception.

Van der Schyff and Krueger see the applications of MNS in music. Stating that music simulates emotional states and bodily affects not through the perception of others, but through the music itself due to the embodied knowledge gained by experiencing the context of that music in the environment (2018). However, William Rosar through Heinz Werner’s research makes the important distinction between simulating emotion and simply perceiving through Werner’s process of physiognomic perception. He states that music is inherently expressive whether you take on the perceived emotion or not. You can listen to sad music and not feel sad, similarly to how you can describe something as mysterious and not be mysterious (1994).

The goal of my research is not to measure how one perceives the music, but I discuss these theories of perception and interpretation to prove that music has an intrinsic meaning that can be interpreted. Coëgnarts identifies that there is still a lot of research to do in the realm of CMT and film music, but Chattah, Henning Albrecht, and Clemens Wöllner seek to fill this gap.

Albrecht and Wöllner explored metaphors and embodied meaning through the musical vessel of the leitmotif. They identify that the rearranging of a leitmotif in different contexts can reflect different character traits or story points, and we interpret the meaning through our embodied processes. We can understand how the music infers these on-screen characteristics just as we describe the music linguistically. Pitch can correlate with motion in space,  (2016) Instrumental timbres can describe physical characteristics, “Dark and low instruments stand for heavy and slow characters” (2016, p. 150). They argue that musical metaphors can be used to “…achieve identification with the main characters ideas and to establish a sense of embodied meaning” (pg. 146). Again, through conceptual metaphor theory we can more closely understand the subjective perspective of characters but this time through musical techniques.

Chattah explores this deeply through several different case studies, and clearly lays out the exact metaphors that composers use. He states “…Film composers seek to portray a character’s mood, state of mind, or other (non-visual) parameters” (2015, p. 86). My favourite example Chattah cites is that of Stepford Wives (2004), with a score composed by David Arnold. As Joanna Eberhart (played by Nicole Kidman) processes the fact she has just be fired, she sits fuming, desperately trying to keep it together. Kidman’s face is stoic, but what reveals her inner-anger is the swoop of choir rising up in pitch and volume. This gesture uses the metaphor PSYCHOLOGICAL TENSION IS LOUDNESS and PSYCHOLOGICAL TENSION IS PITCH FREQUENCY. It is also important to note the use of the choir, our tone of voice when speaking is heavily influenced by our embodied emotion. If we’re tense, we sound tense, if we’re angry we’re loud and gruff, if we’re relaxed our voices are softer. This also alludes to another metaphor Chattah identifies which is PSYCHOLOGICAL STATE IS TIMBRE. Distortion in sound can reflect the breaking or harshness of the voice when experiencing the emotions of anger, fear, or sadness.

Chattah also further identifies the metaphors through his case studies PSYCHOLOGICAL TENSION IS CONSONANCE/DISSONANCE, TEMPO IS SPEED OF PHYSICAL MOVEMENT, and PITCH FREQUENCY IS MOTION IN VERTICAL SPACE, citing the physical sensations of embodied emotions or movement in space as the method to translate the source domain of subjective experience (emotional or physical) into the target domain of music.

An important aspect of Chattah’s research is the acknowledgement of music’s context in the world. Embodiment not only acknowledges the interaction between organism and environment (in terms of objects and physical space), but also environment as in one’s culture. Music is a social activity, which engages our empathy, and can trigger emotional responses based on our experiences with that music in different contexts (Van der Schyff & Krueger, 2016). As such, Chattah argues that different musical elements can evoke those cultural associations and respective physical activities. This can be done through meter, for instance a 3/4 meter evokes a waltz, which has strong cultural associations to the upper class, or a “lavish lifestyle” (Chattah 2015, p. 104).

As CMT is an automated process of human cognition, I believe composers instinctively employ it when approaching a score. In interviews with different composers, you can hear them talk of ‘score concepts’ or ‘what the music represents’. These instances are further evidence of CMT at work within film scores.

Antonio Sanchez discusses his score for Birdman (2014), which features improvised jazz drums playing nearly constantly. Sanchez describes the score as being representative of the protagonist’s internal monologue. But, as the character has a loose grip on reality, Sanchez plays with the diegetic and non-diegetic nature of the score. He says “You’re hearing sounds and you don’t know if it’s because there’s a drummer in the street, or if it’s because there’s craziness going on inside his head, or if it’s just the film score” (the Film Experience, 2014). The sound of the drums is connected to Birdman’s subjective perception of reality, and as such I can assert the following metaphor AMBIGUITY OF REALITY IS AMBIGUITY OF SCORE DIEGESIS.

Carlos Rafael-Rivera uses a container metaphor in which he creates parameters for his approach to the entire score for The Queen’s Gambit (2020). As Albrecht and Wöllner state, film and music both conceptually represent the passing of time (2016, p. 146). As such we can take advantage of the primary metaphors TIME IS A JOURNEY, PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITIES ARE A JOURNEY, and MUSIC IS A JOURNEY to create Rafael-Rivera’s conceptual metaphor of CHARACTER GROWTH IS A MUSICAL JOURNEY or GROWTH IN CHARACTER IS GROWTH IN INSTRUMENTATION. Rafael Rivera found that “…having one theme for her as a character felt very constraining in a way, and put her in one color” (deadline, 2021), and as such introduced more instruments throughout the series to showcase her personal development and increasing complexity as a person (spitfire audio, 2020).

In an interview of Caroline Shaw regarding her score for Fleishman is in Trouble (2022), she describes Toby Fleishman’s state of being as “Everything’s kind of okay, but there’s something a little F’ed up” (Hollywoodrecords, 2023). This is reflected in the variable tuning of the strings at the end of phrases, particularly in the track “Ring of Copper”. Here she uses the conceptual metaphor IRREGULARITY IN REALITY IS IRREGULARITY OF TUNING.