How to Write a Radio Serial Drama for Social Development- PDF

Chapter Seven: Writing for the Ear 115
4. Mood music. Some writers like to use mood music to help put the
audience into an appropriate emotional frame of mind for a particular
scene. Mood music must be handled extremely carefully. Modern films
and television soap operas use music almost continuously in the
background, and it is tempting to think that it would be equally effective
on radio. This is not necessarily true. Television engages two of the
senses, hearing and vision, while radio engages only one, hearing. A
television audience can view the action, while hearing the music as
background. A radio audience, in contrast, must concentrate on hearing
the action through the dialogue. Bringing in a second layer of sound—
namely music—can be very distracting. Radio writers should remember
that “silence, not music, is the proper background of speech, and second
only to speech itself, [silence] is the finest of dramatic effects” (Bentley,
1968).
Mood music can be used, sparingly, at the opening of a scene, but
most experienced radio writers prefer to depend on powerful dialogue to
set the emotional tone. Dramatic music all too easily can add a sense of
melodrama to a radio serial. While melodrama is certainly entertaining,
its exaggerated presentation of life is not necessarily believable. Enter-
Educate dramas are successful because they offer, in a somewhat
heightened but not over-exaggerated form, a portrait of real life.
Additional trappings, like bridge music or mood music, frequently add
little but production costs to a radio drama. The focus of a serial is on the
story, and a writer who can produce a gripping story need not be overly
concerned with music. If including music is believed to be a necessity in a
particular culture, it is best either to create a character who is a musician or
to add a separate musical interlude halfway through the episode.
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