A Night at the Movies A Work in 3 Movements to accompany 3 silent films By Alexander Boostrom Supervisory Committee: Paul Richards, Chair Paul Koonce, Member Project in lieu of thesis presented in the College of Fine Arts of the University of Florida in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music University of Florida
Abstract of Project in Lieu of Thesis Presented to the College of Fine arts of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Music in Music Composition Chair: Paul Richards Major: Music A Night at the Movies By Alexander Boostrom April 2014 A Night at the Movies is a suite of film scores tying seemingly unrelated films together through unified motivic ideas. I intend for the music to act as a commentary on the films. Each film portrays women in dominant and leading roles. However, because all the movies are from either 1904 or 1909, this portrayal is incredibly rare. I wish to highlight this unusual portrayal of women throughout the films and add strength to the female protagonists, making them seem like real heroes in their respective stories. This often villainizes male protagonists, but sets a tone for the importance and value of women in general, as well as of the women in these three films.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Alexander Boostrom was born on November 20, 1986 in Chicago, Illinois. The youngest of three boys, he lived in Chicago until he was 6. The Boostrom family settled in Evansville, Indiana in 1993. In Evansville, Alexander attended Signature High School. During his time there, he began composing as part of an independent study using the school s music technology (Sibelius) software. After months of studying scores and transcribing music, Alexander finished his first orchestral score that won honorable mention in the National Federation of Music competition. After graduating high school in 2001, Alexander attended Lawrence University and received a Bachelor s degree of Music in Piano Performance. At Lawrence, he studied piano with Anthony Padilla and also studied composition with Joanne Metcalf, David Dies, John Benson, and the late Jennifer Fitzgerald. In his senior piano recital, Alexander finished the concert with a composition to accompany a George Melies silent film titled Le Locataire Diabolique. The piece met with positive responses from his professors, noticing how well Alexander matched the action in the film with musical gestures that amplified the humorous nature of the film. After graduating from Lawrence University in 2009, Alexander realized that his interest in piano was dwarfed by his love for composition. So he studied composition with Dr. Theresa Martin in Appleton, Wisconsin. With her instruction, Alexander prepared graduate school applications for music composition departments. While improving his skill with film music, Lawrence University produced a commercial for which Alexander composed the music. While in Wisconsin, Alexander became music director of the St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church in Little Chute, Wisconsin. Taking advantage of his compositional skill, he arranged music for the choirs to sing, which was a fantastic opportunity to try different
compositional techniques and to hear what worked and what did not. These years were a period of real growth, compositionally, for Alexander. In 2012, Alexander was accepted to the University of Florida in the composition department. He saw this as an opportunity to really focus his attention on composition and music study in the academic realm. He studied with professors Dr. Paul Richards, Dr. Paul Koonce, and Dr. James Paul Sain. Alexander was also a Teaching Assistant for the introductory music theory courses under Dr. Jennifer Smith. During the two years of his Master s program, Alexander became more and more involved in writing music for movies, and studied many films and film scores. In 2013, Alexander received hands-on experience in the musical side of the entertainment industry when he took a summer internship at National Geographic in New York City. He worked in the music licensing department, getting to interact both with music production teams and film production companies that hired out the music production teams. At the end of 2013, Alexander began his Master s Thesis project by writing three film scores with the intent of making them a suite of pieces loosely tied together by musical motives. After watching hours of film, Alexander decided on three movies from different genres (action, drama, comedy) that all portrayed women in leading roles with equal importance to their male counterparts. Alexander completed all three movements for full orchestra in April of 2014. Alexander graduated from the University of Florida in April 2014 and is now looking forward to beginning a new chapter by getting more directly involved with the music side of the entertainment industry.