Rhetorical Analysis Downton Abbey Opening Credits

The PBS-Masterpiece Classic show, Downton Abbey has one of the most fitting and memorable opening credits of any television series. Through music and short clips, it appropriately sets up the audience to understand the show as one of a strict social order. It opens with probably the most iconic scene in the credits as a whole (other than the main title of course), a dog walking with his master on a beautiful spanning green field up to a spectacular old British house. With this first glimpse, the creators introduce the top of the food chain, so to speak. The man and his dog on a leisurely stroll represent the people that live in the house, the people that were born into a very wealthy and prominent English family and the lack of responsibilities they hold on a daily basis. During this first moment, the music associated with the series is also presented. Beginning with spicatto violins (the musicians are bouncing their bows up and down on the strings in lieu of moving the bows back and forth smoothly) and a piano playing short low chords, there is no real melody. This creates an immediate attitude of unrest, which continues throughout the entire thirty seconds of this sequence, as this theme does not stop until the title itself is presented. A large French style window, surrounded by ornate curtains, opens with light pouring past the frame. The view outside the window is slightly blurred from the sunlight, but a statue and very green garden are visible outside it. This scene is timed absolutely stunningly with the music; as soon as the window opens, the

violins and piano are joined by a section of cellos beefing up the piece and a singular piano playing the high melody that is the true theme song. Representing the day beginning for everyone in the house, whether a servant or a resident, this scene portrays the splendor of the house itself. It is quite clear that these windows do not belong in the home of a commoner; they surely are in the home of someone important. The third and first really revealing scene is a bell being rung by someone upstairs down to the servants, letting them know that they are awake and ready for the day. This scene is the primary introduction to the class system that existed in the early 1900s in England, as servants were very common (and quite essential) for large homes with prominent families who did not know how to take care of themselves. A chorus of violins enters at the frontend of this display, playing in a legato style a very simple, yet very lovely, arpeggiation that flows easily up and down. The simplicity of this entrance displays the simplicity of the lives of the people who live upstairs, and how they do not realize how good they have it. This arpeggiation combined with the previous melody and other aspects creates a seemingly classical piece that could have been written by any great composer. Introducing the first full body seen in this montage, the fourth scene focuses on a letterbox while a maid walks up a staircase in the background. Oddly, and deliberately, the maid is blurred. This is to hint to the audience that the maid is not the important part of this snippet (although many of the main characters in the show itself are maids). The letterbox in the foreground spilling over with letters is meant to prove how important the people living upstairs are and how seemingly

insignificant the servants are. Also, the music in this catches the tail end of the arpeggio from the previous moment and begins the next melodic section, which is identical to the first except for one note change. This one note change is a higher note in the center of the theme, which suggests that there will be more like it and that the end of the credits will be musically repetitive. After the letter room scene, a shiny copper kettle is shown on a stove. It reaches boiling point, begins to steam, and is quickly taken away by an unidentified hand. This represents the efficiency of the house and how all jobs have to be done quickly and effectively or disaster (disaster meaning not that the forks are not in the right order at the dinner table) will ensue. The musical motifs continue during this segment to help transition from scene to scene smoothly. Also displaying the perfect proficiency of the estate, the next scene is a side pan of a dinner table being set so carefully that a ruler is used to measure the distance from the plate to the many pieces of silverware. But again, the servant is faceless representing their invisibility throughout the house. The only view shown in slow motion, the following sequence is a petal falling down from a vase of white flowers. This fall represents that downward turn that Downton Abbey as an estate will take, and the fact that it falls down in slow motion is to emphasize that this tumble will not happen quickly, the money will dry up gradually, petal by petal. Although the descent is imminent, there is a flicker of hope shown by a lamp turning on. They must try to preserve the house in its pristine condition even though it is falling apart, represented by a chandelier being dusted off. Musically, these moments are also tenser than all prior as they build and build

through the already established melody getting higher and seemingly faster (although there is actually no tempo change). Back to the class system, the title is finally shown with the house being mirrored below it. The house above is in a background of clouds and a blue sky, while the one below is in a solid black abyss. This obviously proves that the upstairs residents live blissful lives with no cares other than who will they marry and what drink they will have with dinner, while the servants living below must deal with all of the wrath of the trivial mistakes that they make. Furthermore, most theme songs for shows end with a resolution down to the tonic chord (the chord that the key is based around), in fact, so do most songs in general. However, this one does not, it moves up instead, leaving the listener wanting more, even though they probably do not even realize it. This strategic move on the composers part leaves room for a new theme for each episode, and in each episode the first few seconds allow for musical interpretation for whatever is happening. It is a brilliant and incredibly effective idea.

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