A History of Film Music
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 9/25/2008
EAN 9780521811736, ISBN10: 0521811732
Hardcover, 586 pages, 24.4 x 17 x 3.2 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This book provides a comprehensive and lively introduction to the major trends in film scoring from the silent era to the present day, focussing not only on dominant Hollywood practices but also offering an international perspective by including case studies of the national cinemas of the UK, France, India, Italy, Japan and the early Soviet Union. The book balances wide-ranging overviews of film genres, modes of production and critical reception with detailed non-technical descriptions of the interaction between image track and soundtrack in representative individual films. In addition to the central focus on narrative cinema, separate sections are also devoted to music in documentary and animated films, film musicals and the uses of popular and classical music in the cinema. The author analyses the varying technological and aesthetic issues that have shaped the history of film music, and concludes with an account of the modern film composer's working practices.
List of illustrations
Preface and acknowledgements
1. The 'silent' cinema
2. Sound on track
3. Hollywood's Golden Age
narrative cinema and the classical film score
4. Stage and screen
5. The mainstream divides
postwar horizons in Hollywood
6. 'Never let it be mediocre'
film music in the United Kingdom
7. Defectors to television
8. Film music in France
9. Global highlights
10. Popular music in the cinema
11. Classical music in the cinema
12. State of the art
film music since the New Hollywood
Bibliography
Index of film titles
General index.
'Written in a clean, clear prose shot through with a lightly-worn, concisely-argued scholarship, this is a considerable achievement and an essential read for anyone interested in this vital and still developing genre.' Classical Music Magazine