Commemoration: The Soundtrack of Schindler’s List

This chapter focuses on Schindler’s List, which, I argue, conveys a commemorative attitude. This is particularly evident in the opening and end sequences of the film, which draw on religious as well as secular rituals of commemoration. My analysis of the score, which combines a close reading of the interaction between music and the narrative, the image, and other elements of the soundtrack (i.e., noise and speech), as well as a contextualization in (film) music history, reveals that the music and its interaction with the plot are heavily linked with the protagonist’s emotional life and thus serve to “authenticate” and perform his purification. The film’s performance of commemoration is therefore not dedicated only to the six million murdered Jews but, in particular, to the hero of the film. Within the scope of the book, this analysis serves as a starting and reference point for the comparative perspective of its later chapters. The particular relevance of this analysis is, in a way, prescribed by the crucial role attributed to the film in the process of popularizing the Holocaust, yet the film is similarly significant from the perspective of film music theory.