SC243 MUSIC RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A Study on the Role of Music in Films

Kay Stephanie
1001439213

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

Semester: May August 2017

Lecturer: Dr Chan Wei Tuck
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Monographs . 1
Journal Articles 3
 Monographs

Cooke, Mervyn. A History of Film Music. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2008.

This book not only contains an encomposing explaination on the major trends in
mainstream film scoring in Hollywood from the silent era to the present day, but
also includes other national cinemas, such as France, the UK, Italy, India, Japan
and the Soviet Union. A detailed study and analysis on film scoring from an
international perspective can be found in this book as well. The book covers a
rather diversified film genres, methods of production and critical reception with
in-depth but simple explanations of the interaction between cinematic track and
soundtrack in each individual films. On top of the central focus on narrative
cinema, there are also chapters dedicated to film musicals, music in
documentary and animated films, and the uses of contemporary and classical
music in films.

Dubowsky, Jack Curtis. Intersecting Film, Music, and Queerness. Basingstoke, UK:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

"Intersecting Film, Music, and Queerness uses musicology and queer theory to
uncover meaning and message in canonical American cinema. This study
considers how queer readings are reinforced or nuanced through analysis of
musical score. Taking a broad approach to queerness that questions
heteronormative and homonormative patriarchal structures, binary relationships,
gender assumptions and anxieties, this book challenges existing interpretations
of what is progressive and what is retrogressive in cinema. Examined films
include Bride of Frankenstein, Louisiana Story, Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer, Blazing Saddles, Edward Scissorhands, Brokeback Mountain, Boys
Don't Cry, Transamerica, Thelma & Louise, Go Fish and The Living End, with
special attention given to films that subvert or complicate genre. Music is
analyzed with concern for composition, intertextual references, absolute musical
structures, song lyrics, recording, arrangement, and performance issues. This
multidisciplinary work, featuring groundbreaking research, analysis, and theory,
offers new close readings and a model for future scholarship [Palgrave
Macmillan]

Meyer, Stephen C. Music in Epic Film: Listening to Spectacle. New York: Routledge,
2017.

This book explores various topics involving film music that include the purpose
of music in epic narratives, the socio-political relations of film music, and the

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 setting of pre-existing music in epic films. Overall, the author covers a wide
range of topics and diverse style of the film music.

Prendergast, Roy M. Film Music: A Neglected Art. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.

This book explores how film music is an art of its own as well as also is an
inherent element of cinematic manifestation. The book begins with a detailed
historical overview of film music. The author walks through the process of how
film composers develop the form for a scene. The author examined the various
techniques and accomplishments of filmmakers from the silent and early sound
film eras to the 1990s. This includes the specific music needed to accompany the
moving images of cartoons and animated films. There is also a chapter that
contains a very informative discussion on music for television. The chapter
mainly covers the techniques for synchronization of music to picture. The author
also included information on the latest advances in teachnology dealing with
modern-day methods and tools, such as cinematic post-production, digital audio,
and the growing influence of the music synthesizer. This book contains a
number of musical examples extracted from actual film scores.

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai. Principles of Orchestration. New York: Dover Publications,

1964.

In this book, the author aims to provide the reader with the fundamental
principles of modern orchestration from the standpoint of brilliance and
imagination, and he devotes considerable space to the study of tonal resonance
and orchestral combination. In his course, he demonstrates such things as how to
produce a good-sounding chord of certain tone-quality, uniformly distributed;
how to detach a melody from its harmonic setting; correct progression of parts;
and other similar problems.

The first chapter is a general review of orchestral groups, with an instrument-by-

instrument breakdown and material on such technical questions as fingering,
range, emission of sound, etc. There follows two chapters on melody and
harmony in strings, winds, brasses, and combined groups. Chapter IV,
Composition of the Orchestra, covers different ways of orchestrating the same
music; effects that can be achieved with full tutti; tutti in winds, tutti pizzicato,
soli in the strings, etc.; chords; progressions; and so on. The last two chapters
deal with opera and include discussion of solo and choral accompaniment,
instruments on stage or in the wings, technical terms, soloists (range, register,
vocalization, vowels, etc.), voices in combination, and choral singing.

Immediately following this text are some 330 pages of musical examples drawn
from Rimsky-Korsakov's works. These excerpts are all referred to in the text

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 itself, where they illustrate, far better than words, particular points of theory and
actual musical practice. [Dovers Publications]

Slowik, Michek. After the Silents: Hollywood Film Music in the Early Sound Era,
1926-1934. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.

This book is an encompasing study on the film industry's early sound era (1926
1934) is . The author walks the reader through the initial development of film
music, the history of film sound and its relation to the "Golden Age" of film
music (19351950). The filmmakers' changing combinations of sound and
image with the variety of film music strategies that were tested, abandoned, and
kept are also explored by the author. The book also include a close examination
on early experimental film music and compositional practices in opera,
melodrama, musicals, radio, and silent films are examined in the book.

Titus, Joan. The Early Film Music of Dmitry Shostakovich. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2016.

This book mainly covers on Dmitry Shostakovich who was well-known as one
of the earliest film composers from the Soviet Union. The book states that
Shostakovish was placed in a position to discover and take part in the changing
politics of the motion picture industry and negotiate the post of the film
composer after his score for New Babylon (1928-29) and the other scores that
followed. The author studies the connection between musical narrative, viewer,
filmproducer, and composer in Shostakovich's early film scores, from 1928
through 1936. The book also explores the Soviet perception, the various
filmmaking and scoring techniques, and the politics of scoring music for Soviet
films. This helps the listeners to understand Shostakovichs music better. The in-
depth treatment of the scores are heighten by the composer's own writing on film
music, along with other supporting materials and newly discovered musical
manuscripts that shed light on the collective processes of the film makers, the
studios, and the composer.

Journal Articles

Mathieson, Muir. Aspects of Film Music. Tempo, no. 9 (December 1944): 7-9.
Accessed June 26, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable943648.

An article that explores the appreciation of film music by the general public and
how it affects the composers. Due to the lack of appreciation and understanding
of film as a whole, film music was never taken seriously by film-goers. Many
people were unaware of the important role played by music in films. However,

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in recent years, the public has slowly been educated to appreciate the details in
films as a whole leading to film music gaining more attention. As the
understanding of film grows, film-goers nowadays are demanding for the best
stars, directors, producers, cameramen, stories, and of course same goes to
music. On the other hand, through composing music for films, composers left an
impact on the musical taste of the public. Film composers also find themselves
deeply influenced by the dramatic picture. Films serve as a stimulus to creavity
as well as challenge the composers imagination. Composing for films is
somewhat like a return to the olden days when Haydn and Mozart composed
music on commission but on a grand scale.