ABSTRACT
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |2 pages
Part 1 MUSIC AND THE “SILENT” FILM (1894–1927)
part |2 pages
Part 2 MUSIC AND THE EARLY SOUND FILM (1894–1933)
part |2 pages
Part 3 MUSIC IN THE “CLASSICAL-STYLE” HOLLYWOOD FILM (1933–60)
part |2 pages
Part 4 FILM MUSIC IN THE POST-CLASSIC PERIOD (1958–2008)