1st Edition
The Routledge Film Music Sourcebook
The Routledge Film Music Source Book is an annotated, thematically organized collection of approximately eighty source readings pertaining to film music dating from its beginnings to the present, from the US and other select countries around the globe. The documents represent a wide variety of music-related issues that were heatedly debated during cinema’s early decades and which by and large remain of concern today.
Each document is prefaced by a brief introduction that gives details on both the author and the particular issue at hand. Also, each group of documents is prefaced by a longer introduction that puts into historical context the collective information and opinions that follow. The organizational scheme is at the same time chronological and thematic in a pattern that alternates between aestehetic and practical considerations.
Part I: “Silent” Film 1. Early Approaches to Film Accompaniment 1.1 Music for the Picture Clarence E. Sinn 1.2 Playing the Pictures Clyde Martin 1.3 Jackass Music Lou Reeves Harrison 2. Dreams of the Future 2.1 Music for the Movies Carl Van Vechten 2.2 The Surveys of Le Film: Music and the Cinema 3. Practical Advice in the Heyday of the Silent Film 3.1 Musical Accompaniment to the Feature Picture Erno Rapee 3.2 Scoring a Motion Picture Victor Wagner 3.3 The Artistic Feature Film and Music: Its Genres Hans Erdmann Part II: Early Sound Film 4. Transitional Concerns 4.1 Music and the Cinema Edwin Evans 4.2 About the Music to New Babylon Dmitry Shostakovich 4.3 Experimenting with Sound Films Darius Milhaud 5. Accounts of the Sound Film’s Early Years 5.1 Musical Picture Quietly Undergoes Renaissance Philip K. Scheurer 5.2 Musical Pictures Are Here Again Helen Louise Walker 5.3 Film Experiences Its Sanest Development Edwin Schaller 6. Debates on the Future of Music in Sound Films 6.1 A Little about Movie Music Virgil Thomson 6.2 Music and the Synchronized Film Clarence Raybould 6.3 Musical Surprises Azary Azarin 6.4 The Experience of the Composer Nikolai Krykov Part III: Music in the Classical-Style Film 7. Practical Advice as Film Music’s “Classical Style” Takes Shape 7.1 Film Music Arthur Benjamin 7.2 On the Hollywood Front George Antheil 7.3 History of Motion Picture Music Franz Waxman 7.4 Memoranda David O. Selznick 8. Aesthetic Squabbles 8.1 Music and Cinema: An Impossible Marriage Gianandrea Gavazzeni 8.2 Music and Cinema: A Difficult Marriage Fedele d’Amico 8.3 Music and the Screen Erich Leinsdorf 8.4 Music in Films—A Rebuttal Bernard Herrmann 8.5 Heard Melodies Bosley Crowther Part IV: The Postwar Years 9. European vs. American Attitudes 9.1 Music: Congress at Florence Antony Hopkins 9.2 Film Music of the Quarter Lawrence Morton 9.3 Hollywood Orchestrators: The Dragon Shows Its Teeth Hans Keller 9.4 How Film Music Was Born and How It Is Made Today Georges Auric 10. Foreign Ideas 10.1 A Few Ideas about Music and Film John Cage 10.2 Concrete Music Pierre Schaeffer 10.3 On Using Musical Instruments in Film Music Wang Yunjie 11. Stylistic Novelties 11.1 Scorers Skip Classics, Seek New Approach Philip K. Sheurer 11.2 Three Movie Scores Issued on LP Disks John S. Wilson 11.3 British Rattled by Rock ’n’ Roll Thomas P. Ronan 11.4 Reviews of The Girl Can’t Help It and Rock, Pretty Baby Mae Tinee 11.5 The First Electronic Filmscore—Forbidden Planet Jane Brockman 11.6 Electronic Reinforce Andromeda Film Score Martin Bernheimer Part V: Changing Times 12. Gloom and Doom 12.1 What Ever Happened to Great Movie Music? Elmer Bernstein 12.2 Whatever Became of Movie Music? David Raksin 13. Plenty of Optimism 13.1 Sound and Fury over Film Music Charles Champlin 13.2 Notes from a Subculture Leonard Rosenman 13.3 You May Not Leave the Movie House Singing Their Songs, But … Charles Higham Part VI: The Business of Film Music 14. Labor Pains 14.1 The 1958 Strike 14.2 The 1980 Strike 14.3 Newer Developments 15. Soundtrack Albums 15.1 Music Is Now Profit to the Ears of Filmmakers Vincent Canby 15.2 The Sound of (Movie) Music: Re-Releases of Soundtracks Past Tom Shales 15.3 Movie Music: Is It Becoming Hit or Miss? Steven Smith Part VII: A Whole New World 16. New Instruments 16.1 Synthesizer Upstarts Conquer Hollywood Jeff Burger 16.2 Computers in the Movies: How Desktop PCs Help Create Hollywood’s Amazing Music and Sound Effects Lachlan Westfall 16.3 The Unreal Orchestra, Part 1: The Virtual Film Score Michael Prager 16.4 Sound for Picture: Hans Zimmer’s Scoring Collective—Composer Collaboration at Remote Control Productions Matt Hurwitz 17. New Methods 17.1 Making Soundtracks Jeff Rona 17.2 Music in Movies and TV: Filling the Bill Nick Krewen 17.3 Music Business Insider: Q&A: Jack Rudy Mike Levine Part VIII: Today, Tomorrow 18. Fin de siècle 18.1 Film Music Has Two Masters Donal Henahan 18.2 In Hollywood, Discord on What Makes Music David Mermelstein 18.3 Keeping Scores: Good Old-Fashioned Movie Music Is as Healthy as It Ever Was James Hunter 18.4 Many Ways to Score Catherine Applefeld Olson 19. Onward and Upward? 19.1 Taking Movie Music Seriously, Like It Or Not David Schiff 19.2 The Soundtrack Game Is Attracting Fresh and Edgy Artists Dylan Callaghan 19.3 When Is Film Music Classical? Jed Distler 19.4 Hollywood Composers Tune In for Rare Gathering Kevin Cassidy 19.5 127 Hours and Other Films Take Experimental Turns in Music Todd Martens
Biography
James Wierzbicki teaches Musicology at the University of Sydney.
Nathan Platte teaches Musicology at the University of Iowa.
Colin Roust teaches Music History at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of the Performing Arts.
"A useful resource for the history of film music as well as the composers' perspectives on the subject and their own creative purposes in scoring films. Summing Up: Recommended."
--CHOICE, March 2012 (M. Goldsmith, Nicholls State University)
