The History of Sound

Directed by Oliver Hermanus and released by MUBI, The History of Sound is based on a pair of short stories by Ben Shattuck detailing students Lionel and David’s relationship while attending the Boston Music Conservatory circa 1917, as they travel together recording the folk songs of people across rural Maine.

Appropriately then, it doesn’t take long in this brief trailer for David to launch into an American folk ballad, “Silver Dagger”—as popularized by Joan Baez in her 1960 rendition, albeit this version, of course, predates it in terms of setting.

At 0:24 an ethereal synth washes over, accompanied by an ominous bass tone in the relative minor key, and what sounds like a heartbeat under the dialogue “don’t die”.

At 0:36 it’s revealed that the singing is diegetic, tying it a little more closely to the unfolding exposition. Notice how at 0:44 church bells ring as a character suggests he feels like he’s “at the end of something”, tying together an arguably morbid sound with his premonition.

At 0:49 the singing dovetails exquisitely into a character humming on screen, bringing the ethereal straight into something far more personal and grounded, while making a connection between the two. This brings us right back to the sequence at the beginning of this tightly edited, one-minute trailer, with what looks to be one lover explaining sound through feeling the resonance of one’s hand on their throat while humming.

Juxtaposing orchestral soundscapes with folk singing is an effective way to illustrate the pairing of Lionel and David against their broader cultural backdrop of early twentieth century Maine. Moreover, in seeking to record the folk songs of their time and place, Lionel and David display an earnestness and openness that would appear to mirror their relationship.

In its brevity and relative lack of attention-seeking aural tropes, the trailer is refreshing self-assured; it makes its point about what it is (and isn’t) with a deft interweaving of diegetic folk singing on- and off-screen with broader, ethereal soundscapes.

The History of Sound reaches theatres September 12th.

— Curtis Perry