Seetha, the serpent, the tomb, tiki pop and surf rock: the “Orientalism” in soundtrack

Abstract

This article analyzes the representation of the East in Western media culture through music, taking as a case study the scene of Seetha’s dance in the film Indian Sepulchre (Fritz Lang, 1959). The original track makes use of orchestral arrangements associated with exoticism to build a soundscape that evokes mystery and sensuality. The analysis is based on the concept of audiovisual contract by Chion (1990), revealing how sound and image are articulated to produce meaning. In counterpoint, the replacement of the track by Misirlou, in an arrangement by Martin Denny, inserts the tiki pop aesthetic and significantly changes the atmosphere of the scene, emptying its drama and intensifying the kitsch aspect. The article addresses how the "East" is systematically represented as exotic, in a stereotypical way, by the bias of the West. Based on the semiotics of the culture of Iuri Lotman (1981), it is considered the incorporation of the song Misirlou as an example of "movement" of the work (Zumthor, 2005), allowing the incorporation of extrinsic to a given culture. The persistent aestheticization of the exotic, in media contexts, creates soundscapes that, although decontextualized, remain in the western imaginary. Having as theoretical references, the concepts of musical topics, song of the media, nomadism, it is asked: What elements are present in them that lead to the concept assimilated by the imaginary of the western ear, elaborated by the arrangers? The presence of elements captured -and filtered-by the culture of the West, remain as components of a generic and imprecise "East": the adoption of the Hijaz scale (dominant Phrygian) and specific timbres point out that modal systems still cause estrangement, given the lack of listening habit.