Within Five Notes
In Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Steven Spielberg and John Williams accomplished something that remains unusual in mainstream cinema: they transformed film music from commentary into action. The famous five-note motif is often discussed as an iconic theme, but its greater significance lies elsewhere. It operates inside the story world.
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Introduction
In Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Steven Spielberg and John Williams accomplished something that remains unusual in mainstream cinema: they transformed film music from commentary into action. The famous five-note motif is often discussed as an iconic theme, but its greater significance lies elsewhere. It operates inside the story world. Scientists play it, aliens answer it, and the success of first contact depends upon it. Rather than serving as emotional accompaniment, music becomes the mechanism through which the narrative advances.
This distinction matters because film scores are normally non-diegetic—they are heard by the audience but not by the characters. Close Encounters deliberately collapses that boundary. The same musical material that functions as score also functions as language, signal, protocol and dialogue. By the climax at Devils Tower, the audience is not merely listening to music about communication; it is watching communication occur through music. As the Los Angeles Philharmonic notes in its programme materials on the film, music is presented as “the key to communication between humans and benign aliens,” with the five-note motif serving as the central non-verbal link between the two species. [LA Phil]laphil.comA five-note motif serves as this non-verbal link and appears in various guisesLA PhilExcerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, John…Music is presented as the key to communication between humans and benign…
What Diegetic Music Means in Close Encounters
In film theory, diegetic music is music that exists within the fictional world and can be heard by the characters. A song playing from a radio, a pianist performing in a nightclub, or musicians appearing on screen are all examples of diegetic sound. Traditionally, orchestral film scores occupy the opposite category: they guide audience emotion from outside the story.
Spielberg’s innovation was not merely to include diegetic music. Films had done that for decades. The innovation was to make diegetic music the central engine of the plot.
Throughout Close Encounters, the audience gradually learns that music is not simply describing the mystery of the UFOs. It is becoming the method through which the mystery will be solved. The five-note phrase appears first as a recurring musical idea, but later emerges as a practical communication system shared by humans and extraterrestrials. The distinction between soundtrack and story therefore dissolves. [The Listeners' Club]thelistenersclub.comjohn williams close encounters of the third kind a cinematic tone poemThe Listeners' ClubJohn Williams' “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”3 Jan 2020 — Spielberg described the score's iconic five-note “Comm…
Film scholar Tom Schneller’s analysis of the score argues that the musical architecture of Close Encounters is deeply tied to narrative progression rather than functioning merely as thematic decoration. The score’s motifs develop alongside the story’s movement toward intelligibility and contact. [ResearchGate]researchgate.netResearch Gate Sweet FulfillmentSweet Fulfillment - Close Encounters of the Third KindPDF | On Sep 15, 2014, Tom Schneller published Sweet Fulfillment: Allus…
The result is a rare example of a film where understanding the music is effectively the same thing as understanding the narrative.
Why Spielberg Needed Music Instead of Language
The film’s first-contact scenario creates a practical storytelling problem. Human speech is culturally specific. English, French or any other terrestrial language would be meaningless to an extraterrestrial civilisation.
Spielberg therefore sought a communication medium that could plausibly cross biological and cultural boundaries. Music offered several advantages:
- It is pattern-based rather than vocabulary-based.
- It can be represented mathematically.
- It can be translated into light, colour and gesture.
- It allows call-and-response interaction without requiring shared grammar.
The film’s communication system combines tones, coloured lights and hand signals into a structured language-like exchange. The audience sees scientists responding to alien signals through musical phrases rather than spoken words. According to analyses of the film’s climax, this system explicitly links pitch relationships with visual and mathematical correspondences, suggesting that both sides are using patterns as a shared foundation for meaning. [The Listeners' Club]thelistenersclub.comjohn williams close encounters of the third kind a cinematic tone poemThe Listeners' ClubJohn Williams' “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”3 Jan 2020 — Spielberg described the score's iconic five-note “Comm… [Music Tales]musictales.clubfive tones spielbergs alien languageFive tones of Spielberg's alien languageAug 23, 2018 — The most iconic Close Encounters sequence is perhaps the five tones — a simple mus…
This choice fundamentally alters the dramatic stakes. The question is no longer whether humans can translate alien speech. The question becomes whether two intelligences can recognise and continue a pattern.
Scientists Become Performers
The climactic sequence at Devils Tower resembles a concert as much as a diplomatic meeting.
Human scientists stand before banks of synthesisers, consoles and signalling equipment. Instead of preparing speeches, they prepare musical responses. Their role is closer to that of performers in an orchestra than negotiators at a conference table.
This transformation is crucial because it places characters directly inside the musical process.
In a conventional science-fiction film, music might swell in the background while scientists make important decisions. In Close Encounters, the scientists themselves create the sounds that determine the outcome of events. Every note becomes an action. Every phrase becomes a decision.
The dramatic structure unfolds through successive musical exchanges:
- Humans initiate contact.
- The mothership replies.
- Humans recognise the reply as meaningful.
- The exchange becomes increasingly sophisticated.
- Mutual understanding emerges through repetition and variation.
The scene therefore generates suspense through musical interaction rather than physical conflict. The audience watches a conversation unfold in real time. The participants happen to be separated by species, but the mechanics resemble improvisational dialogue. [The Listeners' Club]thelistenersclub.comjohn williams close encounters of the third kind a cinematic tone poemThe Listeners' ClubJohn Williams' “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”3 Jan 2020 — Spielberg described the score's iconic five-note “Comm…
What makes the sequence remarkable is that narrative progression occurs through musical performance itself. If the exchange stopped, the plot would stop.
The Five Notes Were Designed to Function Like Dialogue
The famous motif succeeds because it is neither a complete song nor a random signal.
John Williams has repeatedly described the challenge of creating a phrase that could plausibly function as communication. Spielberg required a five-note structure, and Williams reportedly generated hundreds of possibilities before arriving at the final version. Sources associated with the film’s production place the number at roughly 300–350 variants. [PBS]pbs.orgJohn Williams' Great Performances Theme Song and…David Horn: Can you tell me a little bit about what you did together on Close Enco… [MOVIE MUSIC UK]moviemusicuk.usclose encounters of the third kind john williamsMOVIE MUSIC UKCLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND28 May 2018 — I speak of the now iconic five-tone Communication Motif used to communicate… [SBIFF]sbiff.orgclose encounters of the third kind16 Apr 2020 — The famous five note theme (D-E-C-C-G) used… Williams wrote over 300 examples of the iconic five-tone motif for Clo… The motif’s simplicity is deceptive.
According to Spielberg’s later recollections and Williams’s own comments, the phrase works because it feels conversational. Williams explained that it contains both a statement and a question. The melodic shape does not feel finished; it appears to request continuation. Spielberg himself famously compared it to a “doorbell,” a signal intended to provoke a response rather than deliver a complete message. [Vanity Fair]vanityfair.comVanity Fair John Williams Is Not Retiring on Steven SpielbergThis event, hosted by the American Cinematheque, took place in front of a packed theater. Williams, who recently turned 90, and Spielberg…
This unfinished quality is essential to its narrative function.
A traditional heroic theme announces identity. The Star Wars main title tells audiences who the heroes are. The Jaws motif announces danger. The Close Encounters motif does something different: it invites participation.
The phrase only achieves its purpose when another intelligence answers it.
Because of this design, every repetition advances the story. The motif is not attached to communication as a symbol; it performs communication as an action.
The Mothership Becomes a Musical Character
Another reason the score becomes plot is that the alien craft effectively acquires a musical voice.
Rather than speaking through translated dialogue, the mothership expresses itself through musical replies. Williams and Spielberg experimented with different sonic approaches during production, initially trying more futuristic synthesised responses before deciding that a richer orchestral voice worked better dramatically. Williams later recalled that both he and Spielberg disliked the earliest electronic responses and revised the approach. [Vanity Fair]vanityfair.comVanity Fair John Williams Is Not Retiring on Steven SpielbergThis event, hosted by the American Cinematheque, took place in front of a packed theater. Williams, who recently turned 90, and Spielberg…
The consequence is that the mothership behaves almost like a performer in a duet.
Its responses display variation, timing and personality. The craft does not merely echo human signals. It elaborates on them. The audience interprets those elaborations much as it would interpret a human speaker’s tone of voice.
This is a significant shift from standard science-fiction representations of alien intelligence. Many films portray communication through machines that translate language after contact has already been established. Close Encounters instead makes the communicative process itself the centrepiece of the drama.
The aliens become understandable not because they reveal information but because they participate in musical exchange.
How the Film Gradually Trains the Audience
One reason the climax works so effectively is that the audience has been prepared for it throughout the film.
The five-note motif does not appear suddenly at Devils Tower. Williams embeds related musical ideas throughout the score. By the time the communication sequence arrives, viewers already recognise the phrase subconsciously.
This strategy creates a remarkable reversal.
At first, audiences assume they are hearing a conventional film theme. Later, they discover that the theme has been functioning as a signal all along. Music that seemed to belong exclusively to the soundtrack turns out to belong to the story world as well.
Critics and scholars frequently point to this dual function as one of the score’s most distinctive achievements. The motif serves simultaneously as a narrative device, a musical theme and a communication system. [LA Phil]laphil.comA five-note motif serves as this non-verbal link and appears in various guisesLA PhilExcerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, John…Music is presented as the key to communication between humans and benign… ResearchGate Because the audience already knows the phrase when the scientists begin performing it [researchgate.net]researchgate.netResearch Gate Sweet FulfillmentSweet Fulfillment - Close Encounters of the Third KindPDF | On Sep 15, 2014, Tom Schneller published Sweet Fulfillment: Allus…, viewers effectively become participants in the exchange. They recognise the musical vocabulary at the same moment the characters deploy it.
Why the Soundtrack Literally Becomes the Story
Many films feature memorable music. Far fewer films make music indispensable to narrative causation.
In Close Encounters, remove the musical communication sequence and the plot’s central problem becomes unsolved. The encounter cannot occur as presented. The five-note motif is therefore not ornamental. It is functional.
The score ceases to be background material and becomes a narrative technology.
As commentators on the film have observed, few major studio productions have ever assigned such structural importance to a musical idea. The five-note motif is not merely the film’s most recognisable sound; it is the mechanism that allows humans and aliens to recognise one another as intelligences capable of dialogue. JWFan [John Loomis]johnloomis.orgJohn Loomis Close Encounters of the Third KindThe aliens communicate though lights, colours and notes. The…Read more…
Within Spielberg’s broader UFO vision, this choice carries thematic significance. The unknown is not conquered through weapons, political authority or scientific domination. Instead, first contact succeeds through listening, response and mutual pattern recognition.
That is why the climactic exchange remains so distinctive. The audience is not watching characters communicate while music plays underneath. It is watching music become communication itself. The soundtrack does not accompany the story. For a crucial stretch of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the soundtrack is the story. [LA Phil]laphil.comA five-note motif serves as this non-verbal link and appears in various guisesLA PhilExcerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, John…Music is presented as the key to communication between humans and benign… [The Listeners' Club]thelistenersclub.comjohn williams close encounters of the third kind a cinematic tone poemThe Listeners' ClubJohn Williams' “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”3 Jan 2020 — Spielberg described the score's iconic five-note “Comm…
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Endnotes
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Source: researchgate.net
Title: Research Gate Sweet Fulfillment
Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274149978_Sweet_Fulfillment_Allusion_and_Teleological_Genesis_in_John_Williams%27s_Close_Encounters_of_the_Third_KindSource snippet
Sweet Fulfillment - Close Encounters of the Third KindPDF | On Sep 15, 2014, Tom Schneller published Sweet Fulfillment: Allus...
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Source: sbiff.org
Title: close encounters of the third kind
Link: https://sbiff.org/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind/Source snippet
16 Apr 2020 — The famous five note theme (D-E-C-C-G) used... Williams wrote over 300 examples of the iconic five-tone motif for Clo...
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Source: pbs.org
Link: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/john-williams-great-performances-theme-song-and-interview/4075/Source snippet
John Williams' Great Performances Theme Song and...David Horn: Can you tell me a little bit about what you did together on Close Enco...
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Source: jwfan.com
Title: close encounters of the third kind 1977 album reviews expanded edition
Link: https://jwfan.com/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-1977-album-reviews-expanded-edition/Source snippet
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)25 Jan 2003 — Williams uses high notes on strings, sharp piano hits. The five note motif (A...
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Title: Close Encounters 5 note sequence?
Link: https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?%2Ftopic%2F13365-close-encounters-5-note-sequence%2F=Source snippet
General Discussion12 Jul 2007 — If my memory is correct Spielberg wanted a 5 note sequence, Williams thought it might be better with 7. T...
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Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2bTXPKTc7ASource snippet
Close Encounters: The Five-Note Conversation...
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Title: How Stranger Things 5 gives away the plot with music
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind | 5-Note Sequence | GarageBand...
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Source: youtube.com
Title: Close Encounters of the Third Kind | 5-Note Sequence | Garage Band
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Source: laphil.com
Title: A five-note motif serves as this non-verbal link and appears in various guises
Link: https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/1314/excerpts-from-close-encounters-of-the-third-kindSource snippet
LA PhilExcerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, John...Music is presented as the key to communication between humans and benign...
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Source: thelistenersclub.com
Title: john williams close encounters of the third kind a cinematic tone poem
Link: https://thelistenersclub.com/2020/01/03/john-williams-close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-a-cinematic-tone-poem/Source snippet
The Listeners' ClubJohn Williams' “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”3 Jan 2020 — Spielberg described the score's iconic five-note “Comm...
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Source: johnloomis.org
Title: John Loomis Close Encounters of the Third Kind
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The aliens communicate though lights, colours and notes. The...Read more...
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Title: five tones spielbergs alien language
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Five tones of Spielberg's alien languageAug 23, 2018 — The most iconic Close Encounters sequence is perhaps the five tones — a simple mus...
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MOVIE MUSIC UKCLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND28 May 2018 — I speak of the now iconic five-tone Communication Motif used to communicate...
Published: May 2018
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Title: Vanity Fair John Williams Is Not Retiring on Steven Spielberg
Link: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/01/steven-spielberg-john-williams-50-years-movie-collaborationSource snippet
This event, hosted by the American Cinematheque, took place in front of a packed theater. Williams, who recently turned 90, and Spielberg...
Additional References
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John Williams' Close Encounters of the Third KindWilliams wrote over 300 examples of the iconic five-tone motif for "Close Encounters"—th...
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Link: https://www.ars-nova.com/Theory%20Q%26A/Q35.html -
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Communicating with musicHumans and aliens try to communicate with each other with music. Kind: Commun...
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score for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," emphasizing the concept of...Read more...
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Dunphy takes a deep dive into the often overlooked score for Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind from John Williams...
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Title: A five-note motif in some ways may not be a melody
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If you've ever seen Maestro Williams conduct a selection from “Close Encounters” in concert, he always mentions the 5-note motif was mean...
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Title: Does this scene mean anything musically?
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[Close...Close encounters of the third kind have aliens that seem to talk using music. When the first make contact with the government t...
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Suite. Boston... Movie CLIP - Communicating with the Mothership (1977) HD...
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Boyish Worlds: John Williams and Child Gaze - Prairialby M Kempna-Pieniążek · 2026 — The sonic atmosphere created in this way precedes th...
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