Film Music [antikvár]

Introduction The Hidden Heritage of Film Music: History and Scholarship K. J. Donnelly Anyone who has seen films has heard film music in copious amounts. I am not simply referring to songs in film musicals, but more to the music heard in the background in almost every film. Much of the time people have hardly noticed it, and this is perhaps why writers and scholars have paid it such scant attention. On closer inspection, however, film music not only displays a rich breadth and diversity, but it also encompasses some of the most interesting and affecting music produced in the twentieth century. Although it is a central component of cinema, the way it works is a mystery and is little understood. This volume of essays elucidates the operation of film music, celebrating its richness and its fascinating characteristics and provides a number of studies that span the history of music in the cinema. This introductory chapter provides a rundown of the scholarly approaches to film music, going on to supply a general history of film music in mainstream Western cinema, which will include an overview of all the chapters in this collection. The study of film music has taken place in the margins of academia. While film scholarship has largely ignored film music as a problem it would rather not face, music scholarship has persisted in the prejudice that film music is somehow below the standard of absolute music ('pure', non-functional music, written specifically for the 'respectable' concert hall). It is precisely against attitudes such as these that this book militates. Film music is invariably more than it seems to be. It is often far from simply aural wallpaper: it is vibrant and affecting, a central pillar of cinema's power and charm. So how can we go about discussing film music? It is by no means easy. There is no solid tradition or single accepted approach. The two principal descriptive tools that have so far been used are semiotics and !.