Film Music : A History

by Wierzbicki, James

• ISBN13: 9780203884478
• ISBN10: 0203884477
• Copyright: 2008-11-26
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

Film Music: A Historyexplains the development of film music by considering large-scale aesthetic trends and structural developments alongside socioeconomic, technological, cultural, and philosophical circumstances. The book'¬"s four large parts are given over to Music and the "Silent" Film (1894--1927), Music and the Early Sound Film (1895--1933), Music in the "Classical-Style" Hollywood Film (1933--1960), and Film Music in the Post-Classic Period (1958--2008). Whereas most treatments of the subject are simply chronicles of "great film scores" and their composers, this book offers a genuine history of film music in terms of societal changes and technological and economic developments within the film industry. Instead of celebrating film-music masterpieces, it deals'¬ ;logically and thoroughly'¬ ;with the complex '¬Ümachine'¬" whose smooth running allowed those occasional masterpieces to happen and whose periodic adjustments prompted the large-scale twists and turns in film music'¬"s path.

Table of Contents

Music and the "Silent" Film (1894û1927)

Origins, 1894û1905

The Nickelodeon, 1905û1915

Feature Films, 1915û1927

æClassicÆ Film Music (1927û1950)

The Coming of Sound (1927û1929)

transition: EdisonÆs ideas

Early technologies (pre-1927) (Edison, De Forester, etc.)

Anticipations of a great future (Carl Van Vechten, George Antheil, etc.)

Problems of amplification, synchronization

Vitaphone: "Don Juan," "The Jazz Singer," etc

Other systems and their costs, usefulness, adaptations, etc

The immediate effect on the industry (cite numbers of installations, but also note persistence of æsilentÆ films in Japan, etc.)

Transition: the lines/scene from 1953 "SinginÆ in the Rain"

Early Sound Films (1929û1933)

Transition: the original "SinginÆ in the RainÆ

The fad for musicals (cite the numbers)

"Steamboat Willie" (the Disney innovations)

Anti-musical, pro-musical industry shifts ca. 1931 (draw from all the extra research done for the Gershwin article in JAMS)

Approaches/aesthetics: wall-to-wall music vs. no music at all vs. only diegetic music (mention the various approaches in USSR, England, France, Germany, Italy, etc.)

Early commentary in the trade press (on sound in general, on musicals, on music, on ætheme songsÆ)

Transition: negative commentary on "theme songs"

Music in the Classical-Style Hollywood Film (1933û1950)

Transition: the reference to ætheme songÆ in "King Kong"

Max Steiner and "King Kong," "The Informer" (biographical info; earlier efforts) (info on how the "KK" score came about)

Definitions of "classical" style (cite Gorbman, Kalinak, Bordwell, Flinn, etc.); then offer a better definition/discussion of the idea of the æclassicalÆ film; lead up to the idea of æclassicalÆ = standardization

Standardization of genres

Standardization of gestures

Standardization of production

The composers (individuals, certainly, but holding to a standardized approach nevertheless): Stothart, Waxman, Korngold, Kaper, Carl Stallings, Newman, Rozsa, Webb, Donan, Herrmann, etc. (their early accomplishments; their backgrounds; studio-director affiliations; basic approaches/styles à)

Standardization of distribution

Transition: post-war troubles for the æstudio systemÆ (the coming of television, the Supreme Court decision for divestiture, the gross revenue tax ca. 1952)

Film Music in the Post-Classic Period (1950û2000)

Post-War Innovations; Struggle for Survival (1950û1960)

transition: disastrous economic effects on the studio system

Hollywood reaction: breakdown of æstudio systemÆ; epics, musicals, Technicolor, 3-D, Cinerama

The first "soundtrack albums" in the early 1950s (LPs)

The close relationship between Hollywood and Broadway

The rise of inexpensive scores (Ronald Stein for the Roger Corman films, etc. à)

Introduction of pop music and jazz ("Blackboard Jungle," teen rock movies, Elvis films, etc.)

The sci-fi genre and electronic music ("Forbidden Planet," "Them!", "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and many more) (but back up and deal with "Spellbound" (1945), "The Lost Weekend" (1945) and other theremin scores à)

Best-selling songs ("High Noon" (1952); Henry Mancini à)

Jazzy scores like "On the Waterfront" (1954), "Baby Doll" (1956), "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), "The Man with the Golden Arm" (1955)

Hitchcock-Herrmann: "Vertigo" (1958), "North by Northwest" (1959), "Psycho" (1960)

Epics: "Ben-Hur" (1959), "The Alamo," "Spartacus" (1960) : epic scores, w. overture, entrÆacte, exit music

Transition: budget considerations vs. a need to compete with television

Eclecticism (1960û1980)

Transition: restrictions = opportunity ???

Big themes, big songs: "Dr. No" (1962) (certainly this features a "big" song in the main titles à); "Born Free" (1966), "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "The Way We Were" (1973) (the first film to feature a "big" song in the end credits????)

Weird stuff: "The Birds" (1963), "The Andromeda Strain" (1971) "THX 1138: (1971)

Kubrick and eclecticism: "Lolita" (1962), "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), "A Clockwork Orange" (1971)

"To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962)

Compilation scores: "The Graduate" (1967), "Easy Rider" (1969), "American Graffiti" (1973)

Mixture scores (i.e., pop with classic style): "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969)

æModernistÆ scores: "Jaws" (1975), "Apocalypse Now" (1979), "Planet of the Apes" (1968)

Rebirth of the classic-style score: "Star Wars" (1977), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), "Superman" (1978), "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), "E.T. û the Extraterrestrial" (1982) [of course, these are all by John Williams; what about the other composers who jumped on the neo-classic bandwagon?]

Issues: the compilation score, the re-birth of the classic-style score

Transition: on to the postmodern age

(1980û2000) New Definitions and New Uses of Film Music

Transition: define the "postmodern" as eclectic, non-linear, referential, etc

Raises the question: what, exactly, is film music, anyway? What is a film score?

Mention the rise of technology that allows a composer to concoct a quasi-full score in a home studio (MIDI, sequencers, sound modules, ProTools, etc.)

Note rising interest in sound effects as music à

Note the new role of the æmusic supervisorÆ (i.e., the acquirer of licensed materials à)

"The Terminator" (1984)

"Die Hard" (1988)

Michael Kamen, James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman

Diverse examples: "The Terminator" (1984), "Die Hard" (1988), "Dirty Dancing" (1987), "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), "Thelma and Louise" (1991), "The Thin Red Line" (1998), "The Gladiator" (2000)

Transition: so, where are we heading?

Epilogue: (the twenty-first century)

On the one hand, films like "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" suggest a return to tradition

On the other hand, things, like "Moulin Rouge" (2001), "Run, Lola, Run" (1998), "Kill Bill" (2003) suggest an embrace of the "postmodern condition" by the film audience (at least, by the younger members thereof)

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