Sound and music are significant in storytelling to help the viewer grasp the personalities, moods or locales in which the story takes place.
Leitmotifs are usually used to identify a character. Regional Riffs are to give the listener an audio cue to where the story is, and Mood Motifs are to help set the tone of the sequence. You may also find Standard Snippets traveling in tandem with the instruments common to this trope.
Here we're exploring Mood Motif - and the musical instruments that seem inexorably linked to certain moods and situations. Most of these are fairly ancient connections, often dating back to opera.
Some composers are fairly well known for their Motif music.
Examples:
- Horns:
- The Grand Hunt
- Imminent Danger:
- You can hear these in the Die Hard movies every time John McClane is doing something daring/crazy/stupid that nearly gets him killed.
- The trombone act-out frequently used on Lost.
- Gamzee Makara's music and general Leitmotifs are associated with bicycle horns that 'honk', used as a display of what a terrifying Monster Clown he is.
- Triumph:
- Rocky: Gonna Fly Now.
- The triumphal march from Verdi's Aida, various others.
- The finale of Gustav Mahler's Symphony #1, in which the entire horn section is directed to stand up.
- Heroism:
- Pick any Superman-related theme music.
- The same is true for Superman Substitutes; the music will sound heroic, but will be slightly dissonant if the character is intended as an Affectionate Parody.
- Older Than Radio: Siegfried's Leitmotif in The Ring of the Nibelung.
- Majesty:
- Many vocal works, especially religious, of classical origin. A good example is the "Quoniam" from Bach's Mass in B Minor. Every time Bach, or any of his contemporaries, used trumpets (and timpani), the tune is set in D. This is because D was the natural tone of the trumpet at the time. Thus, D major is commonly associated with royalty in the Baroque era (the era of totalitarianism).
- The French Horns of High Adventure:
- As heard on Conan the Barbarian (1982) soundtrack.
- The Indiana Jones movies all share the same musical motif under the umbrella of Indy's theme.
- The Tuba (or Sousaphone) of Overweight Awkwardness, Mockery, Ponderous Size:
- Heard extensively in Porky's Theme from Mother 3 and Super Smash Bros.. Brawl.
- Jabba the Hutt.
- Parodied in Family Guy, where Stewie gets a job following fat people while playing a tuba.
- The mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- The dragon Leitmotif from The Ring of the Nibelung.
- A real-life sousaphone player followed protesting racists around in 2016 to mock them.
- Battle Crescendo:
- The Mutara Nebula sequence in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
- Spy/Secret Agent:
- Used to marvellous effect in Pixar's The Incredibles.
- Also used in True Lies with a little bit of Sexy Strings wound in.
- The James Bond theme and also the 007 variant, which counts as "Imminent danger" as well.
- GOLDFINGAAAAAAAAAH! "Wah waaaaaaaaaaah wow!"
- The Feeble Fanfare of Failure:
- Heard on The Price Is Right, Blockbusters, Card Sharks and a few other Mark Goodson shows, when a contestant loses a game.
- Also heard on Sesame Street when a skit ends with Muppets who shake their heads and sob, such as when the Beautiful Day Monster ate the ukulele Ernie had just repaired.
- Proud Warrior Race Guys:
- The Klingon Theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture is mostly elegant horns.
- Wacky:
- The Three Stooges.
- Any time a trombone plays a glissando. May also indicate drunkenness.
- The harmon mute, when played with a hand opening and closing over the bell. Wah wah waaaaaaaah. May also indicate failure.
- Spinning Paper.
- News program openings and closings.
- The Wha-Wha Muted Trumpets of Drunkenness.
- The Trumpets of the Apocalypse.
- The Bugle of:
- Wake up!
- The Cavalry's Coming!
- "Charge!" and "Reville".
- Also various, more complex things, such as the arrival of the messenger that saves the hero of Bellini's I puritani.
- Respectful Death:
- Taps.
- The second movement of Claude Debussy's "En blanc et noir," dedicated to a soldier who died in World War I.
- Call to Adventure:
- The Toy Trumpets of:note
- Living Toys (e.g. "March of the Toys" from Babes in Toyland).
- Pluckiness
- The Cowbell of:
- Blue Oyster
- More Cowbell!
- The TB-808's 'cowbell' sample, a weird tweaky noise that doesn't resemble a cowbell at all, usually suggests 80s Hip-Hop or Totally Radical.
- Bongos and Congas of:
- Sexy rhythm.
- Especially during the '60s. As seen on Star Trek, and parodied in Mars Attacks!!.
- Jungle settings (such as Darkest Africa).
- Ritual Combat:
- "My Skin Is Not My Own" from the Children of Dune miniseries.
- The traditional Brazilian fighting style capoeira requires this (and a berimbau) to be played during training and tournament fights. It is not, however, necessary for a capoeirista to hire a couple of musicians to follow them throughout the day in case a fight breaks out.
- Sexy rhythm.
- Timpani and Kettledrums of:
- Great importance.
- Epicness.
- Twothousand One A Space Odyssey's main theme, "Also sprach Zarathustra".
- Played with in Spaceballs. When Spaceball One transforms into <Bom Bom Bom Bom Bom> Mega Maid, Colonel Sandurz gives a dramatic pause for the Timpanist who is standing right next to them.
- Many classical religious works (think Bach's ''Mass in B minor'') use timpani for the more pompous movements, to very great effect.
- Scariness:
- When The Government shows up in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
- When something big and dangerous is approaching, rather like The Terminator.
- A timpani glissando may be used for a pun or other joke too corny to deserve a rimshot.
- The Taiko Drums of Battle:
- The Lord of the Rings has taiko drums when Orcs, Uruk-Hai, or the Balrog are attacking.
- Master and Commander uses them on its soundtrack to evoke the sound of cannons.
- zOMG! has taiko drums that attack you (lending a new meaning to "percussion battery"), either by ramming you or using some sort of earthquake attack.
- Warcraft 3 had units with big taiko drums that caused various area-effect status changes (buffs and debuffs) when used. Also used in a couple of the cutscenes for mood-setting.
- "The Battle Drums" from the Princess Mononoke soundtrack.
- Used for most space battles in Battlestar Galactica.
- Gong of:
- The Far East.
- Can be found as far back as Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado and Puccini's Turandot.
- The Far East.
- Snare Drum of:
- Military significance/doom.
- Used prominently in Gustav Holst's "Mars".
- War Was Beginning
- Traveling by railroad.
- The Rimshot.
- Resolve/Determination.
- The Terrifying Tam-Tam Crash of Cathartic Collapse (e.g. the final movement of "Scheherazade" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the second movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5, the final immolation of Valhalla in The Ring of the Nibelung, "Libera me" from Benjamin Britten's War Requiem).
- Jingle Bells for Slippy-Slidey Ice World and Christmas.
- Metallic clang objects for factories, industrial areas and blacksmiths.
- Church bells of:
- Joy:
- A wedding; happy endings; Christmas.
- Ridiculously common in opera. The opening of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer is even based around this.
- A wedding; happy endings; Christmas.
- Doom.
- Executions:
- Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard has an ominous bell ringing throughout much of its Act I finale, leading up to the execution of Fairfax.
- It tolls for thee!
- Warning:
- The British are coming!
- The sky is falling! (See Disney's Chicken Little.)
- A storm is upon us! (Though sometimes sirens are used instead.)
- Executions:
- Ominous Bells:
- "Tubular Bells" from The Exorcist is widely considered creepy. So, oddly enough, is the all-bells instrumental version of "Carol of the Bells".
- Funny, because the intro is what's famous from The Exorcist, and it's mostly piano and glockenspiel. When the aforementioned bells kick in, Tubular Bells is thrust quite firmly in the "Joy" section mentioned above.
- Church bells herald Arthas' triumphant return home in Warcraft III. Of course, at this point, he's already been thoroughly corrupted by the Frostmourne.
- "Tubular Bells" from The Exorcist is widely considered creepy. So, oddly enough, is the all-bells instrumental version of "Carol of the Bells".
- Funeral bells (small bells rather than the usual deep chimes; rarely heard nowadays).
- While not actually featuring a funeral, "For Whom The Bell Tolls" By Metallica has funeral bells in the intro.
- Zombieland uses the Metallica song above to underscore the Zombie Apocalypse.
- Sleigh Bells of Christmas (and/or Wintertime).
- The Xylophone of:
- Skeletons!
- Little things scurrying around.
- The Powder-Monkeys in the opera Billy Budd.
- The Glockenspiel of:
- Icy wintertime.
- The Trope Maker here might be the "Sinfonia Antartica" by Ralph Vaughan Williams (originally written as movie music), which had many passages with glockenspiel, celesta, and piano playing over eerie harmonies.
- Little girls.
- Innocence/Naiveté.
- Hopes & Dreams.
- Icy wintertime.
- The Celesta of:
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World.
- Childhood Innocence (as in the theme to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood).
- Warped Childhood Innocence (as in a lot of Danny Elfman-scored movies: Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc.; also in Benjamin Britten's operatic version of The Turn of the Screw).
- An Audible Gleam.
- The Presentation of the Silver Rose in Der Rosenkavalier.
- The Crystal Candelabra in The Cat and the Fiddle.
- The Piano of:
- Loneliness.
- The piano theme from The Incredible Hulk (1977) was meant to underscore how sad and lonely David Banner's life was, and that he could never settle and find a home while the Hulk dwelled within him.
- This Mood Motif was given Homage when the Hulk got his own movie, underscoring Bruce Banner's loneliness and sorrow.
- Introspection.
- Nostalgia.
- Family Drama, etc.
- A Time-Passes Montage.
- An Old Time Western Saloon (frequently an out-of-tune upright); played by The Piano Player.
- The ballet Rodeo begins "Ranch House Party" with a piano solo in this spirit.
- An Old Time Damsel in Distress.
- The toy piano of smallness/childishness.
- Lampshaded by the animated version of Charles Schulz's Peanuts. Schroeder plays classical music as if on a normal-sized piano most of the time, but when he's irked at Lucy, he has been known to make the same toy piano sound exactly like the toy that it is.
- Death.
- "Funeral March".
- Heartfelt confession (tinkly).
- The Dead piano is often used in mood pieces in zombie media: examples include Dawn Of The Dead, Resident Evil (particularly the 2nd one) and Left 4 Dead.
- The Player Piano of:
- Silent Movies.
- Old West Whorehouses (so the Madam didn't need a man to play it).
- Piano strings for unease.
- Loneliness.
- The Waterphone of:
- India.
- Mysticism.
- Creepy creepiness.
- Tone percussion played in reverse for creepyness and horror.
- The Saxophone of:
- Hipness.
- Film Noir (especially under the Private Eye Monologue).
- Sex.
- Pick a pornographic soundtrack.
- See Grindhouse.
- Lamentation (e.g. Napoleon's defeat in Háry János, after the flogging in Billy Budd).
- Wackiness.
- "Yakety Sax" by Boots Randolph, as made famous by The Benny Hill Show.
- The Slide-Whistle of Wackiness/Cartoon Falling.
- Flute of:
- Fluttery flying things.
- "Volière" from Saint-Saëns's "Carnival of the Animals."
- The bird in Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" is naturally portrayed by a flute.
- Mischievousness.
- Sadness.
- The senza misura nightingale-call imitations in the last movements of Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony and "Das Lied von der Erde."
- Fluttery flying things.
- The Alto Flute of Tenderness and Tranquility.
- The Oboe of:
- Sneakiness.
- Old cartoons with "Mysterioso Pizzicato" (the musical sting that goes dun dun dun dun DUUUUUUUH duntuntuntun and repeats, rising in pitch for the first four notes, holds, and then quickly descends). Key of A minor: A C E A F EDCBA C E A F etc.
- Sorrow.
- A good way to convey the loneliness of a character is via a mournful oboe solo.
- Tangled has the love theme "Now That I See You" played in a mournful oboe solo as Flynn-becoming-Eugene-Again realizes that his old criminal friends have caught up with him and want the crown from him.
- The English Horn, a cousin of the oboe, is often the king of plaintive melodies, particularly in the lower part of its register; it can out-sorrow the oboe. See e.g. "die alte Weise" from the third act of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
- Despair.
- At the end of Terezi Pyrope's Leitmotif, the oboe represents the "defendant". Taking in the fact that it's Terezi, it doesn't sound very happy at the closing.
"Did you honestly think you could dip your corpulent snout into the imperial beetle coffers like that and get away with it?? Did you think your revolting abuse of the public trust would go unnoticed??? THINK AGAIN, GOOD SENATOR. WHILE THE PROSECUTION MAY BE BLIND, REST ASSURED THE LEAGUE OF LEGISLACERATORS SEES ALL."- J.S. Bach often uses a solo oboe for "sad" movements of his music.
- Sneakiness.
- The Bassoon of Slapstick:
- The bassoon is traditionally viewed as the "clown" of the orchestra.
- Its use in The Sorcerer's Apprentice (used in Fantasia to accompany wacky magical broomsticks carrying buckets of water) helped cement that tradition.
- Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan) is well known for his bassoon jokes.
- The Bamboo Flute of The East:
- Seen in Kill Bill part 2.
- The Native American Flute of The Old West Showdown:
- Most famously in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
- The Clarinet of Klezmer:
- Remember: If it's Jewish, it's accompanied by clarinet in Hijaz scale.
- Bonus points for "Hava Nagila" or "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof.
- The High Clarinet of Cheekiness, preferably a small clarinet in E-flat or D, as used in several Gustav Mahler symphonies, "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" by Richard Strauss and "El Salón México" by Aaron Copland.
- The Kazoo Of:
- Mockery: frequently used to make fun of someone who is self-important or full of themselves.
- Wackiness and Goofiness.
- Frequently used in Wander over Yonder to punctuate what Wander does. A sustained Kazoo blast is the first note of the Theme Tune.
- Smattered throughout the soundtrack of Chicken Run, probably for the sole purpose of reminding you that this overly-epic soundtrack is being used to describe little claymation chickens.
- Violins, Violas, Cellos, etc.
- "Psycho" Strings.
- Heard when the Ax-Crazy is attacking, or about to.
- Psycho is the ur-example.
- Lost works the "Psycho" Strings frequently.
- The Tremolo of Suspense and/or The Sustained Note of Tense Suspense: when there's a moment hanging in the balance, the strings will crescendo and then hold a long note.
- The "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight in the "Sister Sledgehammer" episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot.
- The "Here goes no mercy" moment at the end of "Slipping" in Dr Horribles Sing Along Blog.
- The moment in Deep Impact where Jenny hits the net to find out what ELE is — and discovers it stands for Extinction Level Event, thus making her understand why the White House is willing to go to extremes to keep it secret.
- Creepy violin pizzicato
- A common riff created by string plucking. Often heard in scenes involving swarms of vermin, or themes of infection or madness
- (Examples needed. Search 'Scary Violins Sound Effect' on YouTube to hear a sample.)
- Calm violin pizzicatto for cute animals, innocence or stupidity.
- Romantic Strings:
- That classic sound found now only in old films, complete with the diffuse closeup of our leading damsel
- Also invariably features in the middle portion of any 70s procedural TV show opening theme
- Strings that sound like animals.
- Batman Returns had the Mood Motif of strings evoking cats for Catwoman.
- Flight Of The Bumblebee is the definitive string riff for invoking insects.
- There's a shrieky, staccato violin riff for "ahh, get it off me, get it off me" creepy crawlies.
- When Neo encounters the burrowing thing in The Matrix.
- Seen in the "Dark Heart" episode of Justice League Unlimited.
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has it in the bug chamber.
- Strings of Emotion:
- See also Cherubic Choir, Piano of Tragedy (above).
- The Violin of Woe. More often parodied than played straight nowadays.
- The Devil:
- In The Devil and Daniel Webster, "Mr. Scratch" manages to pick up and play a rather temperamental fiddle.
- The Devil Went Down to Georgia is the modern archetypal example, with numerous homages and parodies (ie: the Robot Devil)
- In Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre," the solo violin's highest string is tuned half a step flat, so it can be played together with the next lower string (the very first thing that it does in the piece) to produce a tritone, the nasty-sounding interval justly termed "diabolus in musica" (the devil in music).
- Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat is another well-known example.
- Theme Music Power-Up:
- Summon The Worms from the Children of Dune miniseries.
- After years and years of being the Red Shirt Army in Doctor Who, UNIT gets to make an impressive comeback with the appropriately named UNIT Rocks.
- The frantic strings of Stuff On Fire.
- Fast back-forward movement with one tone for storms or hostile gusts of wind.
- The Solo Violin of Enthralling Feminine Beauty:
- Exploited heavily in the tone poems "Scheherazade" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and "Ein Heldenleben" by Richard Strauss.
- Touken Ranbu: The attendant themes of Nikkari Aoe and Kashū Kiyomitsu both feature the èrhú, which emphasizes their sensuality.
- "Psycho" Strings.
- The Banjo of:
- Hillbillies.
- "Dueling Banjos", heard in Deliverance, is the ur-example.
- Hillbillies.
- The Electric Guitar of:
- Badassery.
- Bad to the Bone is an oft-used (and parodied) example.
- Battle:
- See 300 for an example.
- The "Shacktron" sequence of Gravity Falls Grand Finale "Weirdmageddon".
- Asskicking:
- Especially if said ass belongs to a final boss.
- Resident Evil Film Series tend to invoke electric guitar when Alice is kicking ass.
- Porn:
- The Wah-wah pedal is an unofficial requirement.
- Hero Under The Gun:
- Spy mysteriousness:
- The James Bond theme (requires baritone guitar and tremolo pedal).
- Kim Possible, given it's an Affectionate Parody of James Bond.
- The Middleman, also an Affectionate Parody of the spy and superhero genres.
- Clarissa Explains It All used a spy guitar motif.
- Badassery.
- The Acoustic Guitar of:
- American Heritage.
- Cowboys.
- Campfires.
- Blues.
- Honky Tonk.
- The Spanish Guitar of:
- Latin Seduction (duh).
- The Dashing Hispanic.
- The Harp of:
- Heaven.
- Out of This World, which begins on Mount Olympus, was one of the few Broadway musicals to employ two harps in the orchestra.
- Flashbacks.
- Heaven.
- The Koto and Shamisen of Japan.
- As heard in Battle Realms.
- The Harpsichord of:
- Ludwig van Beethoven.
- High-class royal parties in the Baroque period.
- Evil Brits and other Blue Bloods in Swashbucklers and Historical Fiction.
- Japanese Gothic Lolitas.
- Snooty rich people/royalty/decadence.
- "Power Hungry Fool" (aka Oliver's Theme) from Fire Emblem has this as the primary instrument.
- Creepiness, especially in modern classical works.
- The Steel Guitar of (That sliding guitar sound, "brrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrnnnnggggg!"):
- Hawaii and Polynesia.
- Cabaret uses this in "It Couldn't Please Me More (A Pineapple)," despite Schultz pointing out that it's from California.
- The vast, expansive Western U.S.
- Hawaii and Polynesia.
- The Walking Bass of Shiftiness.
- Tanpura for heat, specifically the desert heat.
- Ominous Latin Chanting:
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi's respective Requiem masses, and Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" (from Carmina Burana) are a good starter pack.
- Cherubic Choir:
- Opera Singer of:
- Epicness / Artiness.
- Dramatic Death Scenes.
- The Diva Plavalaguna in The Fifth Element manages epic, art, fight scene (Leeloo vs, Mangalore) ending in her own dramatic death scene.
- European Immigrants.
- The Acapella Choir of Whimsy.
- Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry Be Happy.
- The interstitial music on Glee.
- Randy Newman songs.
- The "Quirky Worky Song" and the "Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!" jingle from Phineas and Ferb.
- Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World.
- The Choir of Uplifting Inspiration.
- The Sting.
- Subverted and Lampshaded at the end of Airplane! when the choir gets more and more obvious — louder, higher, and with over articulated vowels, finally ending in a screech.
- The Choir of Weird Whimsy.
- Tim Burton movies are famous for this.
- The "Freaky Fred" episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog has a choir of children singing creepily to underscore everything Fred the freaky barber does.
- One-Woman Wail:
- Flash Gordon: Used in the sequence where Aura resurrects Flash after his execution.
- Gravity Falls: Used in "Sock Opera" for a rather peculiar version of "Ave Maria" to punctuate Gabe's horror at Mabel's puppet show going horribly, horribly wrong.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: A plea to the rocks" begins with the Ominous Latin Chanting, but the second part changes to Disa chanting a haunting One-Woman Wail to the mountain.
- Human Whistling of:
- Warm Childhood Memories.
- In a word: Disney.
- The Andy Griffith Show.
- Innocence, or the lack thereof.
- Utter Creepiness.
- Used to excellent effect in Kill Bill when Elle Driver whistles Twisted Nerve.
- Strangely enough, used in The Walker Papers, because apparently whistling thins the walls between worlds.
- Villain Negan from The Walking Dead and his henchmen, the Saviors, all whistle when they're about to strike, so as to unnerve their targets.
- "Fun" defiance, when done in a march (the Colonel Bogey March was the trope codifier).
- The lone badass.
- Spaghetti Western soundtracks (likely a cowboy in this case)
- Proto Man's Leitmotif from Mega Man 3 onward.
- Warm Childhood Memories.
- Rhythmic Chanting of African Heritage:
- As with Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Paul Simon's "Graceland" album.
- The Lion King.
- Madagascar 2.
- Black Panther
- Gospel Choir of Joyous Celebration/Epiphanies:
- Used for Soundtrack Dissonance in Babylon 5 with And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place...'
- Subverted by The Daily Show: "Go fuck yourselves," Fox News.
- "Brand New Day" from The Wiz
- The Organ of:
- Ominousness.
- Holiness.
- Comical Melodrama.
- Peace:
- An Wasserflüssen Babylon (BWV 653), a chorale prelude by J.S. Bach
- The Theremin of:
- Energy Vibrations (see Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys).
- Outer Space.
- Retro Sci-Fi.
- Ghostly Spookiness:
- The Loud House Uses it in their Halloween episode "Tricked!"
- Lampshaded in Flushed Away — Roddy is frightened in the Absurdly Spacious Sewer, and hears an eerie theremin noise. When he turns around, he sees musical slugs providing the appropriate Mood Motif.
- There's a Pink Panther cartoon in which the titular cat is bedeviled by ghosts. The Pink Panther's theme music is played on theremin to illustrate the spooky ghosts.
- Mad Science.
- Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has the theremin of Mad Scientist in Horrible's theme music.
- The Synthesizer of:
- Impressive echoes.
- Outer Space.
- Ghostly Spookiness.
- The '80s.
- The Synth bass for pre-action scene.
- The Harmonica of:
- Jailhouse Blues.
- Lonesome Cowboy/Hillbilly.
- "Lonesome Polecat" from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
- The Night Before the Battle.
- Ominous Music Box Tune:
- The Woman in Black: all the music boxes in the nursery were creepy and ominous-sounding.
- Twangy Mouth Harp of country.
- Rainstick of Rainforest Situations.
- Didgeridoo and Bull Roarer of Australian Shamanism.
- The rhythmic beeping that opens news programs (which might be a reference to Morse code and telegraphs).
- The Accordion of:
- Gay Paree.
- Wacky whimsy. "Weird Al" Yankovic uses it as one of his trademark instruments.
- Concertina for pirates and sailors.
- Kazoos Mean Silliness
- The Mysterious Fairy Ensemble of Wonder: pizzicato strings, woodwinds, and most importantly, a celesta. It worked for the Sugar Plum Fairies, it can work for you.
- The Secret Agent/Spy riff involves Guitar and Brass.
- The Slap Bass and wah-wah guitar of The '70s.
- Chamber Music of Upper Class Period Pieces.
- The Baroque Ensemble of Ancientness:
- The intro backstory theme for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker uses Baroque instruments, complete with a (obbligato) harpsichord, to emphasize the ancientness of Hyrule.
- String Quartet of Elegance.
- The Waltz of Old-World Nobility.
- The Orchestral Flourish of Swashbuckling:
- Errol Flynn movies, and Pirates of the Caribbean series.
- The Minor Chords of :
- Tragedy.
- Creepiness.
- Insanity.
- Gloom.
- The Middle Ages.
- Animal Soccer World.
- The Porn Groove involves the Sexophone and the Guitar of Porn.
- The Sacred Plagal Cadence:
- Richard Wagner's Parsifal bases a major Leitmotif on an old version of this, the "Dresden Amen."
- The Book of Mormon uses this for the Title Drop in "Hello."
- Danny Elfman
- Mood Motif: Ominous, Spooky, Wacky, Weird and Whimsical (with Choir).
- John Williams:
- Mood Motif: High Adventure.
- Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and... NBC(as well as Channel Seven) News
- Steven Spielberg. Basically, every single movie he has done has been scored by John Williams!
- Mood Motif: High Adventure.
- James Horner:
- Mood Motif: Battle Crescendo, Heroism, Specialization in Brass.
- Randy Newman:
- Mood Motif: Whimsical.
- The Toy Story movies, and several other Pixar vehicles.
- The Princess and the Frog.
- Monk Series 2 onwards.
- Mood Motif: Whimsical.
- Guy Moon:
- Mood Motif: Whimsically Thematic Retro.
- The Fairly Oddparents, retro fifties.
- ChalkZone (for the first two seasons and half of season three before Geoff Levin took over), electronica/techno in ChalkZone itself, retro fifties in the real world (including a few re-used cues from OddParents).
- Danny Phantom, ghostly rock with rap.
- Yin Yang Yo!, Asian Riff with rock.
- Mood Motif: Whimsically Thematic Retro.
- Hans Zimmer:
- Mood Motif: Battle Crescendo, Heroism.
- Nobuo Uematsu:
- Mood Motif: Melancholy, Hope, Defiance, One-Winged Angel.
- Final Fantasy, Lost Odyssey, The Black Mages.
- Mood Motif: Melancholy, Hope, Defiance, One-Winged Angel.
- Howard Shore:
- Mood Motif: Epic Adventure.
- Deltron3030:
- Mood Motif: High-Quality gaming experience.