On HĂ©ctorâs leitmotifs, and their use in the film
Disclaimer: I am not a musicianâI learned to play piano mainly by ear, never learned to read music properly, and donât really know how to analyze music in a professional manner.
However, I do know some things about music, and those things include the fact that musicâwithout wordsâcan be used to tell a story or to aid a story, and the latter is what Iâll be discussing here.
Thereâs several different recurring themes in the music of Coco, and Iâm not just talking about âRemember Me.â One is the one you hear during âMuch Needed Adviceâ thatâs also played when Miguel crosses the bridge. Characters have their own themes as wellâPepita has a loud, blaring fanfare of trumpets whenever she takes center stage.
And as you can probably guess, HĂ©ctor has a theme, too.
This shady little leitmotif is what introduces us to HĂ©ctor, and it makes itself clear whenever heâs doing something related to his âconmanâ persona. We hear it first when heâs trying to sneak across the bridge, when heâs trying to bribe the corrections officer, and several times when heâs scheming with Miguel.
This aids the story in the way it presents HĂ©ctor to the viewers. He first shows himself as a shady conman, running from security, trying to illegally cross a bridge, bribing officials, and even working a little kid into his schemes, so he can cross the bridge for unknown reasons.
And his leitmotif emphasizes that. Itâs shady, slinky, and untrustworthy, much like HĂ©ctor himself.
And its main instrument is a guitar.
But it doesnât play every time HĂ©ctor appears. In fact, itâs only heard in, oh, maybe a third of the movie or so. Guess when we stop hearing this theme?
Yeah. This shady theme of his is never heard again after the visit to Shantytown, when HĂ©ctor must pick up a guitar for the first time in a long time.
But, wait! Does that mean HĂ©ctor doesnât have a theme anymore, after that leitmotif disappears from the soundtrack?
When HĂ©ctorâs conman persona theme stops playing, we stop seeing that part of him, mostly (I mean, thereâs the bit where he sneaks into Ernestoâs party, but thatâs about it). But his conman persona isnât all there is to him.
When I said that HĂ©ctorâs shady leitmotif is what introduces us to his character? That was a lie.
Because we hear HĂ©ctorâs true theme much earlier in the filmâŠ
âŠlong before we realize who it really belongs to.
The very first song we hear in the film introduces us to HĂ©ctorâs true self: a father that loves his his family.
But we donât really see that after the prologue, because HĂ©ctor left, and never returned. In fact, unless Iâm missing something, Iâm pretty sure that leitmotif doesnât come back until late in the movieâŠ
âŠduring HĂ©ctorâs flashback, when he tries to go homeâŠ
âŠduring the cenote scene, when heâs revealed to be Cocoâs fatherâŠ
âŠduring the rooftop scene, when he apologizes to ImeldaâŠ
âŠand during the sunrise scene, as he gives Miguel his final blessing.
All moments tied to HĂ©ctor showing his love for his family.
Oh, and the instrument that tends to be used for this leitmotif?
A guitar thatâs been properly tuned.
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