ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the workings of the glissando in the soundtrack to the U.S. TV series Lost (2004–2010). Glissando violins frequently accompany the transition to or appearance of different realities in fantasy and science fiction TV. The fact that Lost made this motif its single opening tune is the result of a rich history of violin glissandos in the genre; The X-Files, in particular, increasingly deployed this brief musical movement over its duration (1992–2002) as an underscoring of narrative references to an alternate reality that is as present as it is intangible. Musically the glissando is a forceful destabil ization that takes away all tonal grounding, which certainly contributes to the glissando’s alienating connotations in fantasy and SF TV. The motif’s philosophical implications, however, reach far beyond the scope of musical deterritorialization alone. This chapter engages in critical dialogue with Martin Heidegger and explores the ontological and metaphysical dimensions of the “other worlds” of Lost and its soundtrack. The notion of “diagonal time” will be introduced to conceptualize the workings of the Lost glissando motif. The series, the soundtrack and the glissando itself seem to share an important characteristic—a question: What Being can exist outside time, within Nothing?
