ABSTRACT

Film Music: Cognition to Interpretation explores the dynamic counterpoint between a film’s soundtrack, its visuals and narrative, and the audience’s perception and construction of meaning.

Adopting a holistic approach covering both the humanities and the sciences—blending cognitive psychology, musical analysis, behavioral neuroscience, semiotics, linguistics, and other related fields—the author examines the perceptual and cognitive processes that elicit musical meaning in film and breathe life into our cinematic experiences. A clear and engaging writing style distills complex concepts, theories, and analytical methodologies into explanations accessible to readers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, making it an indispensable companion for scholars and students of music, film studies, and cognition.

Across ten chapters, extensive appendices, and hundreds of film references, Film Music: Cognition to Interpretation offers a new mode of analysis, inviting readers to unlock a deeper understanding of the expressive power of film music.

chapter |5 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|17 pages

Empathy

chapter 2|14 pages

Container Schema

chapter 3|13 pages

Linearity Schema

chapter 4|14 pages

Source-Path-Goal & Container Schemas

chapter 5|21 pages

Affordances

chapter 6|15 pages

Memory & Auditory Perception

chapter 7|16 pages

Archetypes

chapter 8|9 pages

Associations

chapter 9|21 pages

Categorization

chapter 10|19 pages

Interpretive Transformations