Showtime: Jazz as a narrative drive in Homeland.
The classic narrative is a journey that is shaped by the structure, whereas in serial narratives this narrative self-awareness has to be multiplied by the tenth power. How does Homeland use jazz to narrate and bring an affective layer to its construction? To thematize the human psyche?
Since the post-war period (I’m referring to World War II), the United States has emerged as the world power in both the military and cultural areas. Through its culture industry, Hollywood, the Marshall plan and many other things, the country has arrived and is in its current position. Homeland is one of this nation’s many excellent products, entertaining and stoking narratives, maintaining power.
There are many layers that overlap each other, in the cinematographic language, to form a cohesive and coherent story in order to move us. In addition to the image, sound is often the ultimate expression when you want to stimulate emotions in the audience. A good song in the right place in the narrative can mean a moment of awakening, of suffering, of confusion and the series works in this sense. More complicated, however, and interesting, is the ability to transform music as an essence/narrative driving force: when music becomes part of the narrative in general, it fosters emotions and “emotionally” covers the events narrated in that episode or movie .
Taking as a reference the studies of Greek dramatists and, later, with Russian emigration, the Russian dramaturgical models, the Americans formulated and thought about the act of telling stories. Homeland, a North American product, does this in a very timely and shrewd way in relation to thematization of their agendas in their track (score) and soundtrack.
I think that first it is interesting for us to distinguish these two things: No, they are not the same thing. “Score” would be the original soundtrack, composed by some musician; soundtrack is the musical selection (of songs not originally intended for the audiovisual piece) made by the series’ creative team. In this sense, Homeland is defined, both the soundtrack and the musical selection, by one word: Jazz.
Yes, good old jazz. It’s not just about having cohesion. Homeland brings intra-narrative and extra-narrative elements through Jazz. And with that, it molds and encourages the audience to enter the protagonist’s psyche (who, by chance, loves the musical genre). In this sense, jazz seems to me like an emotional exhibitor, which brings the character’s subjectivation process to the narrative. It is the way through which we access the protagonist’s psyche.
And then, I think jazz enters halfway between the spark that initiates the warmth of the protagonist’s identity, but at the same time covers the narrative as another layer. In addition to all that, the uses of sounds in this genre are only so cool because of a good script and direction etc (hello hello Russian and Greek friends).
In the first season, Carrie Mathison deals with Abu Nazir and faces the climax of bipolarity packed with the song “Trista”, by Tomaz Stankó.
The series deals with themes such as madness, paranoia, investigation (since it is a series of espionage), democracy, power, individuality and psyche. And what is more cohesive with such themes than a genre that relies on improvisation? In the near future unknown? A genre that looks like disorder, but builds on it, to some extent. The series has in its musical selection names such as the incredible Miles Davis and the Polish fifth of the jazz artist Tomazs Stankó and ends with the wonderful Kamasi Washington.
On the other hand, the iconic music of the opening titles, composed by Sean Callery, who manages to materialize the aforementioned themes, has an energetic drive that, somehow, makes you enter the tangle of information that the mind of the protagonist, Carrie (Claire Danes) . In the middle of it all, the series brings a transnationality through the sounds: the song Terminal 7, known as the music of the end of the series’ dramatic episodes, manages to evidence a Middle Eastern beat added with some touches of wind instruments from the same location. Which is also in tune with the spatial changes in the narrative.
Jazz in Homeland not only evokes feelings and encourages the audience to feel what the protagonist is feeling: it literally puts you in her mind, takes you to the places she goes, in a way, and on top of that, serves as a springboard , or rather, drive/creative energy for the narrative. It is the music taking shape and materializing in narrative events and motivating them through the unexpected mishaps.
The series’ music creates emotions, identifications, unites elements that make us empathize with Claire (a woman who orders air strikes against civilians). Perhaps living is like a jazz song: it seems to have a feeling, a guiding melody (head), but, most of the time, we are just improvising and working with our current material bases, even if a powerful country bombed us to take over our oil!
PS: In the original concept of the show, the different types of jazz that Saul and Carrie enjoy should become a symbol of their different methods of intelligence work. Carrie loves the chaotic Thelonious Monk, while Saul prefers the softer, more sedate John Coltrane. That’s why there’s the Louis Armstrong part of the opening montage, and the two of them talk about it once or twice at the start of season one.
Also notable is the symbolism behind Carrie’s eyes being closed vs. open, starting with Carrie sleeping as a child. Not counting photographs of her growing up, who has her eyes open, her eyes don’t open until the end of the montage when she says “everyone’s not me”, suggesting that 9/11 wasn’t just an “opening event” eyes” on history, but also for this woman whose life was dedicated to protecting her country and who sees herself as now “awake” to what is happening.
Finally, I hope that all the teachings that I took from the series Homeland can bring some light to all of you. May you live a truth and not a lie to survive, that you understand that we do know little and that we need to filter out what is really important, that it is not your own enemy and that you do not let your ideas die! Share! Leave your opinion here! It’s very important to know what you think!
