A History of Film Music

From silent cinema to the modern Hollywood blockbuster - a lively and international perspective on the history of film music.

Mervyn Cooke (Author)

9780521010481, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 September 2008

586 pages, 27 b/w illus.
24.6 x 17.4 x 3.5 cm, 1.13 kg

'… this is a wonderful and important book, and its comprehensive, encyclopedic scope makes it a valuable resource especially for upper-level courses beyond the general education curriculum.' Blake Howe, Journal of Music History Pedagogy

This book provides a comprehensive and lively introduction to the major trends in film scoring from the silent era to the present day, focussing not only on dominant Hollywood practices but also offering an international perspective by including case studies of the national cinemas of the UK, France, India, Italy, Japan and the early Soviet Union. The book balances wide-ranging overviews of film genres, modes of production and critical reception with detailed non-technical descriptions of the interaction between image track and soundtrack in representative individual films. In addition to the central focus on narrative cinema, separate sections are also devoted to music in documentary and animated films, film musicals and the uses of popular and classical music in the cinema. The author analyses the varying technological and aesthetic issues that have shaped the history of film music, and concludes with an account of the modern film composer's working practices.

List of illustrations
Preface and acknowledgements
1. The 'silent' cinema
2. Sound on track
3. Hollywood's Golden Age: narrative cinema and the classical film score
4. Stage and screen
5. The mainstream divides: postwar horizons in Hollywood
6. 'Never let it be mediocre': film music in the United Kingdom
7. Defectors to television
8. Film music in France
9. Global highlights
10. Popular music in the cinema
11. Classical music in the cinema
12. State of the art: film music since the New Hollywood
Bibliography
Index of film titles
General index.

Subject Areas: Music: styles & genres [AVG], Music [AV], Films, cinema [APF]