Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film

by Kathryn Kalinak

Overview

Beginning with the earliest experiments in musical accompaniment carried out in the Edison Laboratories, Kathryn Kalinak uses archival material to outline the history of American music and film. Focusing on the scores of several key composers of the sound era, including Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Captain Blood, Max Steiner’s The Informer, Bernard Herrmann’s The Magnificent Ambersons, and David Raksin’s Laura, Kalinak concludes that classical scoring conventions were designed to ensure the dominance of narrative exposition. Her analyses of contemporary work such as John Williams’ The Empire Strikes Back and Basil Poledouris’ RoboCop demonstrate how the traditions of the classical era continue to influence scoring practices today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299133634
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	12/01/1992
Series:	Wisconsin Studies in Film
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Kathryn Kalinak is professor of English and film studies at Rhode Island College and has published many articles on film sound.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1: Film Music and the Classical Hollywood Film Score
Chapter 1: The Language of Music A Brief Analysis of Vertigo
Chapter 2: A Theory of Film Music
Chapter 3: The Silent Film Score A Structural Model
Chapter 4: The Classical Hollywood Film Score Captain Blood: A Working Model
Part 2: Textual Analyses
Chapter 5: “Every character should have a theme” The Informer: Max Steiner and the Classical Film Score
Chapter 6: The “hysterical cult of the director” The Magnificent Ambersons: Music and Theme
Chapter 7: “Not exactly classical, but sweet” Laura: New Directions
Chapter 8: John Williams and “The Empire” Strike Back The Eighties and Beyond: Classical Meets Contemporary
Conclusion
Notes
Illustration Credits
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

An introduction to the study of the classical Hollywood film score as a historical practice. The volume is divided into two sections: the first treats musical, theoretical, structural, and historical questions about film music in general and the classical score in particular, and the second offers extended analyses of representative texts. The first chapter serves as an introduction to the film score as music and is intended for those readers who consider themselves "nonmusical." Paper edition (13364-8), $17.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

A strong original contribution that manages to convey a great deal of information about film music to readers with relatively little knowledge of music. It is likely to be one of the small number of books on sound track issues that will be found on the shelves of anyone seriously interested in cinema.”—Alan Williams, Rutgers University

From the Publisher