Film Music: A History

 

Film Music: A History explains 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 ‘machine’ 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.

James Wierzbicki (Autor)

John Barry • The Music Of John Barry

 

Musical Groups in the Movies, 1929-1970

 

 

Hundreds of musical groups have appeared in at least one film from 1929 through 1970. This is a reference book devoted to these groups. Most entries include a brief description of the musical group, a list of the main singers or performers and, when available, a list of the songs performed in each film. One appendix lists popular British groups appearing in at least a single film; another lists groups that, while neither singers nor instrumentalists, made significant contributions to music in film (e.g., dance duos, acrobats, skaters, synchronized swimmers…). Filmographies are included for each entry.

 

 Roy Liebman (Autor)

 

Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film

 

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.

 

 

Film Noir Guide 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940-1959

 

More than 700 films from the classic period of film noir (1940 to 1959) are presented in this exhaustive reference book--such films as The Accused, Among the Living, The Asphalt Jungle, Baby Face Nelson, Bait, The Beat Generation, Crossfire, Dark Passage, I Walk Alone, The Las Vegas Story, The Naked City, Strangers on a Train, White Heat, and The Window. For each film, the following information is provided: the title, release date, main performers, screenwriter(s), director(s), type of noir, thematic content, a rating based on the five-star system, and a plot synopsis that does not reveal the ending. 

 

 

Michael F. Keaney (Author)  

 

 

Hollywood Cartoons American Animation in Its Golden Age

 

 

In Hollywood Cartoons, Michael Barrier takes us on a glorious guided tour of American animation in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, to meet the legendary artists and entrepreneurs who created Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Wile E. Coyote, Donald Duck, Tom and Jerry, and many other cartoon
favorites.
Beginning with black-and-white silent cartoons, Barrier offers an insightful account, taking us inside early New York studios and such Hollywood giants as Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM. Barrier excels at illuminating the creative side of animation--revealing how stories are put together, how
animators develop a character, how technical innovations enhance the "realism" of cartoons. Here too are colorful portraits of the giants of the field, from Walt and Roy Disney and their animators, to Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
Based on hundreds of interviews with veteran animators, Hollywood Cartoons gives us the definitive inside look at this colorful era and at the creative process behind these marvelous cartoons.

 

Michael Barrier (Author)  

When Broadway Went to Hollywood

 

• Features colorful anecdotes from the most beloved Hollywood musicals of the twentieth century, including "The Wizard of Oz," "Gigi," "The Sound of Music," "Chicago," "West Side Story," "The Music Man," and "Grease"
• Includes 24 rare illustrations
• Writing showcases Ethan Mordden's signature verve and flair

 

Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia

 

Noir. A shadow looms. The blow, a sharp surprise. Waking and sleeping, the fear is with us and cannot be contained. Paranoia.Wheeler Winston Dixon's comprehensive work engages readers in an overview of noir and fatalist film from the mid-twentieth century to the present, ending with a discussion of television, the Internet, and dominant commercial cinema. Beginning with the 1940s classics, Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia moves to the "Red Scare" and other ominous expressions of the 1950s that contradicted an American split-level dream of safety and security. The dark cinema of the 1960s hosted films that reflected the tensions of a society facing a new and, to some, menacing era of social expression. From smaller studio work to the vibrating pulse of today's "click and kill" video games, Dixon boldly addresses the noir artistry that keeps audiences in an ever-consumptive stupor.

 

Wheeler Winston Dixon (Author)  

 

movie "Forbidden Planet" [1956] + Extras [mega]

 

Cuando los estudios Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer le propusieron al matrimonio Barron la creación de la banda sonora de una película de ciencia ficción inspirada en la obra de William Shakespeare La Tempestad, tanto los productores como los propios músicos sabían que no se iba a tratar de una película de ciencia ficción más. Forbidden Planet (Planeta Prohibido), que así se llamaba el proyecto, no se preveía que fuera el típico film fantástico de serie B que tanto abundó durante los años 50 en Hollywood.

El propio presidente de MGM, Dore Schary, contactó con el joven matrimonio de músicos Louis y Bebe Barron, que formaban un dúo creativo dedicado a la experimentación electrónica desde que en su boda en 1948, un amigo les regalara un magnetófono. La formación académica de ambos como músicos, la afición previa de Louis por la electrónica y las posibilidades del grabador hicieron que la pareja se volcase en experimentar con él. Establecieron en Nueva York su propio estudio de música electrónica (probablemente el primer home studio de la historia), y allí se codearon con la vanguardia artística de entonces. Por su laboratorio pasaron compositores como John Cage, David Tudor o Morton Feldman entre otros representantes de la llamada New York School. Antes de Forbidden Planet crearon las bandas sonoras electrónicas de dos cortometrajes de Ian Hugo -marido de la escritora Anaïs Nin-, como eran Bells Of Atlantis (1952), y Jazz Of Lights (1954).

Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956), contaba con Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon y Anne Francis como principales estrellas, además de "Robby The Robot," (uno de los primeros robots con personalidad que aparecieron en el cine). El film cosechó un gran éxito, aunque su vanguardista banda sonora no fue nominada para el Oscar, sólo sus efectos especiales, sin obtener el galardón. (*)

En el último momento antes del estreno de la película, la denominación Electronic Music by fue sustituida en los títulos de crédito del film por el ambiguo término Electronic Tonalities (tonalidades electrónicas), para describir el trabajo del matrimonio Barron, que había invadido diversos terrenos como los efectos sonoros y la propia música, y también para evitar susceptibilidades y posibles acciones legales por parte del poderoso sindicato de músicos cinematográficos estadounidenses, al que los Barron no pertenecían. Como su obra no se ceñía a los cánones de lo que entonces se consideraba "música", nunca fueron aceptados en la Musicians' Union, lo que provocó que tras Forbidden Planet nunca más pudieran componer una banda sonora para una película de Hollywood.

De los 70 minutos originalmente compuestos para la banda sonora, la edición en CD del 1989 del sello GNP Crescendo, apenas contiene 40. La eliminación de numerosas escenas de la película conllevó la supresión de la música que las acompañaba, que desgraciadamente no se conservó.

Artículo completo:
http://www.audionautas.com/2010/09/louis-bebe-barron-forbidden-planet-ost.html
(*) Debido a que Louis y Bebe Barron no eran miembros del sindicato de músicos, su banda sonora electrónica no pudo ser nominada para el Oscar.

///////

When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer approached the Barrons to compose the soundtrack for a science fiction film inspired by William Shakespeare's The Tempest, both the producers and the musicians themselves knew it wasn't going to be just another science fiction movie. Forbidden Planet, as the project was called, wasn't intended to be the typical B-movie fantasy film that was so prevalent in Hollywood during the 1950s.

MGM president Dore Schary himself contacted the young married musicians Louis and Bebe Barron, who had formed a creative duo dedicated to electronic experimentation ever since a friend gave them a tape recorder as a wedding gift in 1948. Their academic musical training, Louis's prior interest in electronics, and the possibilities of the recorder led the couple to fully immerse themselves in experimenting with it. They established their own electronic music studio in New York (probably the first home studio in history), where they mingled with the artistic avant-garde of the time. Composers such as John Cage, David Tudor, and Morton Feldman, among other representatives of the so-called New York School, frequented their studio. Before Forbidden Planet, they created the electronic soundtracks for two short films by Ian Hugo—husband of the writer Anaïs Nin—namely Bells of Atlantis (1952) and Jazz of Lights (1954).

Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956) starred Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, and Anne Francis, and featured "Robby the Robot" (one of the first robots with a personality to appear in film). The film was a great success, although its groundbreaking soundtrack was not nominated for an Oscar; only its special effects were, without winning the award. (*)

At the last minute before the film's release, the title "Electronic Music by" was replaced in the film's credits with the ambiguous term "Electronic Tonalities" to describe the work of the Barrons, which had ventured into various fields such as sound effects and music itself, and also to avoid sensitivities and potential legal action from the powerful American Musicians' Union, to which the Barrons did not belong. Because their work did not conform to the standards of what was then considered "music," they were never accepted into the Musicians' Union, which meant that after Forbidden Planet they were never again able to compose a soundtrack for a Hollywood film.

Of the 70 minutes originally composed for the soundtrack, the 1989 CD edition by GNP Crescendo contains only 40. The removal of numerous scenes from the film led to the suppression of the accompanying music, which unfortunately was not preserved.

Full article:
http://www.audionautas.com/2010/09/louis-bebe-barron-forbidden-planet-ost.html
(*) Because Louis and Bebe Barron were not members of the musicians' union, their electronic soundtrack was ineligible for an Oscar nomination.

🔊 Audio: ENG | SPA | FRE | GER | POR

Extras: Featurettes, Documentaries and Bonus Film.

Hollywood Utopia Ecology in Contemporary American Cinema

 

Hollywood Utopia applies a range of interdisciplinary strategies to trace the evolution of ecological representations in Hollywood film from 1950s to the present. Popular science fiction, westerns, nature and road movies are extensively analysed while privileging ecological moments of sublime expression often dramatized in the closing moments of these films. 

 

 

Pat Brereton (Author) 

 

 

Film, Music, Memory

 

Film has shaped modern society in part by changing its cultures of memory. Film, Music, Memory reveals that this change has rested in no small measure on the mnemonic powers of music. As films were consumed by growing American and European audiences, their soundtracks became an integral part of individual and collective memory. Berthold Hoeckner analyzes three critical processes through which music influenced this new culture of memory: storage, retrieval, and affect. Films store memory through an archive of cinematic scores. In turn, a few bars from a soundtrack instantly recall the image that accompanied them, and along with it, the affective experience of the movie.Hoeckner examines films that reflect directly on memory, whether by featuring an amnesic character, a traumatic event, or a surge of nostalgia. As the history of cinema unfolded, movies even began to recall their own history through quotations, remakes, and stories about how cinema contributed to the soundtrack of people's lives. Ultimately, Film, Music, Memory demonstrates that music has transformed not only what we remember about the cinematic experience, but also how we relate to memory itself.

 

 

Contemporary Film Music: Investigating Cinema Narratives and Composition

 

 

The purpose of this book, through its very creation, is to strengthen the dialogue between practitioner and theorist. To that end, a film academic and musicologist have collaborated as editors on this book, which is in turn comprised of interviews with composers alongside complementary chapters that focus on a particular feature of the composer’s approach or style. These chapters are written by a fellow composer, musicologist, or film academic who specializes in that element of the composer’s output. In the interview portions of this book, six major film composers discuss their work from the early 1980s to the present day: Carter Burwell, Mychael Danna, Dario Marianelli, Rachel Portman, Zbigniew Preisner, and A.R. Rahman. The focus is on the practical considerations of film composition, the relationship each composer has with the moving image, narrative, technical considerations, personal motivations in composing, the relationships composers have with their directors, and their own creative processes. Contemporary Film Music also explores the contemporary influence of electronic music, issues surrounding the mixing of soundtracks, music theory, and the evolution of each composer’s musical voice.

 

Hitchcock's Ear: Music and the Director's Art

 

Music is an underexplored dimension in Hitchcock's works. Taking a different view from most works on Hitchcock, David Schroeder focuses on how an expanded definition of music influences Hitchcock's conception of cinema. The structure and rhythm of his films is an important addition to the critical literature on Hitchcock and our understanding of his films and approach to filmmaking.
Alfred Hitchcock liked to describe his work as a director in musical terms; for some of his films, it appears that he started with an underlying musical conception, and transformed that sense of music into visual images. The director's favorite scenes lacked dialogue, and they made their impact through a combination of non-verbal actions and music. For example, the waltz and the piano are used as powerful images in silent films, and this approach carries over into sound films. Looking at such films as Vertigo, Rear Window, and Shadow of a Doubt, Schroeder provides a unique look at the way that Hitchcock thought about cinema in musical terms.

Terror Tracks: Music, Sound and Horror Cinema

 

 

Kevin M J Hayward (Autor)

 

Western Film Series of the Sound Era

 

 

 

The western genre touched on ideals of honor, conquest, and freedom of spirit, and its stories packed cinemas of the early sound era. This volume covers 30 western film series produced from the mid 1930s to the early 1950s. Included are such long-running series as Hopalong Cassidy, The Durango Kid and The Three Mesquiteers as well as those that had moderate or brief runs like The Singing Cowgirl and The Texas Rangers. Major genre stars like John Wayne, Ken Maynard, Tim McCoy, Buck Jones and Johnny Mack Brown headlined the popular Saturday matinee fare. The book contains a plot synopsis and analysis of each series' place in cinema history, many photographs and illustrations and a detailed filmography.

 

 

After the Silents: Hollywood Film Music in the Early Sound Era, 1926-1934

 

Many believe Max Steiner's score for King Kong (1933) was the first important attempt at integrating background music into sound film, but a closer look at the industry's early sound era (1926–1934) reveals a more extended and fascinating story. Viewing more than two hundred films from the period, Michael Slowik launches the first comprehensive study of a long-neglected phase in Hollywood's initial development, recasting the history of film sound and its relationship to the "Golden Age" of film music (1935–1950).

Slowik follows filmmakers' shifting combinations of sound and image, recapturing the volatility of this era and the variety of film music strategies that were tested, abandoned, and kept. He explores early film music experiments and accompaniment practices in opera, melodrama, musicals, radio, and silent films and discusses the impact of the advent of synchronized dialogue. He concludes with a reassessment of King Kong and its groundbreaking approach to film music, challenging the film's place and importance in the timeline of sound achievement. 

 

Universal Terrors, 1951-1955: Eight Classic Horror and Science Fiction Films

 

Universal Studios created the first cinematic universe of monsters--Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and others became household names during the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1950s, more modern monsters were created for the Atomic Age, including one-eyed globs from outer space, mutants from the planet Metaluna, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the 100-foot high horror known as Tarantula.

This over-the-top history is the definitive retrospective on Universal's horror and science fiction movies of 1951-1955. Standing as a sequel to Tom Weaver, Michael Brunas and John Brunas's Universal Horrors (Second Edition, 2007), it covers eight films: The Strange Door, The Black Castle, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, This Island Earth, Revenge of the Creature, Cult of the Cobra and Tarantula. Each receives a richly detailed critical analysis, day-by-day production history, interviews with filmmakers, release information, an essay on the score, and many photographs, including rare behind-the-scenes shots.

Tom Weaver , David Schecter , Robert J. Kiss (Authors)

Eric Winstone • Plays 007

Eric Winstone (born 1 January 1913 in London, died 2 May 1974 in Pagham, Sussex) was an English big band leader, conductor and composer.

Playing piano in his spare time from a job as Westminster Gas and Coke Company led him to form his first band in 1935.[citation needed] He learned the accordion, started an accordion school and formed an accordion quintet, a swing quintet, and a big band orchestra.

During World War II his orchestra entertained the forces, and performed at holiday camps after the war. In 1955 a CinemaScope short of The Eric Winstone Bandshow was made.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Winstone

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Eric Winstone (nacido el 1 de enero de 1913 en Londres y fallecido el 2 de mayo de 1974 en Pagham, Sussex) fue un director de orquesta, director de orquesta y compositor inglés.

Tocar el piano en su tiempo libre de un trabajo en la Westminster Gas and Coke Company le llevó a formar su primera banda en 1935[cita requerida] Aprendió a tocar el acordeón, creó una escuela de acordeón y formó un quinteto de acordeón, un quinteto de swing y una orquesta de big band.

Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, su orquesta amenizó a las fuerzas armadas y actuó en campamentos de vacaciones después de la guerra. En 1955 se realizó un cortometraje CinemaScope de The Eric Winstone Bandshow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Winstone

A Companion to Federico Fellini

 

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Federico Fellini presents new methodologies and fresh insights for encountering, appreciating, and contextualizing the director’s films in the 21^st century. A milestone in Fellini scholarship, this volume provides contributions by leading scholars, intellectuals, and filmmakers, as well as insights from collaborators and associates of the Italian director. Scholarly yet readable essays explore the fundamental aspects of Fellini’s works while addressing their contemporary relevance in contexts ranging from politics and the environment to gender, race, and sexual orientation.

As the centennial of Federico Fellini’s birth in approaches in 2020, this timely work provides new readings of Fellini’s films and illustrates Fellini’s importance as a filmmaker, artist,and major cultural figure. The text explores topics such as Fellini’s early cinematic experience, recurring themes and patterns in his films, his collaborations and influences, and his unique forms of cinematic expression. In a series of “Short Takes” sections, contributors look at specific films that have particular significance or personal relevance. Destined to become the standard research tool for Fellini studies, this volume:

• Offers new theoretical frameworks, encounters, critiques, and interpretations of Fellini’s work
• Discusses Fellini’s creativity outside of filmmaking, such as his graphic art and his Book of Dreams published after his death.
• Examines Fellini’s influence on artists not only in the English-speaking world but in places such as Turkey, Japan, South Asia, Russia, Cuba, North Africa.  
• Demonstrates the interrelationship between Fellini’s work and visual art, literature, fashion, marketing, and many other dimensions of both popular and high culture.
• Features personal testimonies from family, friends and associates of Fellini such as Francesca Fabbri Fellini, Gianfranco Angelucci, Valeria Ciangottini, and Lina Wertmüller
• Includes an extensive appendix of freely accessible archival resources on Fellini’s work

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Federico Fellini is an indispensable resource for students, instructors, and scholars of Fellini, Italian cinema, cinema and art history, and all areas of film and media studies.

 

The Hollywood Film Music Reader

 

A rich and informative look at the experiences of composers working under high pressure in the US film industry, The Hollywood Film Music Reader brings readers from film's earliest days to the modern blockbuster era. Beginning with the origins of movie music in the heyday of silent film, the book traces film music's progress through Hollywood's so-called Golden Age to changes in musical styles and working practices from the 1960s to the present. Also included are vivid first-hand accounts from composers such as George Antheil, Elmer Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Adolph Deutsch, Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Thomas Newman, André Previn, David Raksin, Miklós Rózsa, Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, and John Williams, along with testimonies from composers working in animation and documentary film. The book concludes with a section of criticism and commentary, including an essay on film music by Sidney Lumet and Igor Stravinsky's provocative views on the
subject.