Leeds International Summer School STUDY ABROAD OFFICE LISS1015 Music in Film Module leader: Dr Ian Sapiro Email: i.p.sapiro@leeds.ac.uk
Module summary Since the Lumière brothers screened the first moving pictures in Paris in the 1890s music has always played a key role in the presentation of film. Throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries music has helped shape the filmic experience, despite being (traditionally) frequently unheard in the cinema. This module will explore the history and function of music in film from the silent era to the present day. Specifically, it considers the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, the rise of popular music starting in the 1950s, and the more recent use of electronics and innovative sound in the New Hollywood. Key composers include Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Vangelis, John Williams and Hans Zimmer, and in the latter part of the course students will be exposed to different ways of thinking about music in films, including consideration of how scores are created and produced, and the psychology of film music. This module includes a day trip to the National Media Museum. Objectives This module offers an introduction to the history of film music from the silent era through to the present. The function of music in a multimedia context will be discussed and students will be introduced to basic analytical techniques that can be used to interpret the role of music in films. The module will also introduce elements of the processes of film scoring and demonstrate aspects of theory in practice. 2
Learning outcomes On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: - recognise the history of film soundtracks from the silent era through to the present; - recognise the contributions of a range of film composers; - understand and engage with theoretical debates in the history of film music study at an introductory level; - analyse sequences from individual film soundtracks with reference to the ideas and approaches covered in the course. Teaching methods Delivery type Number Length hours Student hours On-line Learning 1 15 15 Seminar 8 3 24 Fieldwork 1 8 8 Visit 1 10 10 Private study hours 43 Total Contact hours 57 Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) 100 Private study Private Study Time might typically break down as follows: - 10 hours Cultural Field Trip - 8 hours preparing for group presentation - 11 hours preparing for individual presentation - 24 reading and film viewing (3 hours per lecture) Methods of assessment Assessment Notes type % of formal assessment Presentation Individual Presentation (c. 10 minutes). This will be an analysis of the use of music in a scene drawn from a film or TV programme not covered in the course, using the techniques covered in the course. 60 Presentation Group presentation (c. 15 minutes). This will be a critical evaluation of a set text, and demonstration of ideas using appropriate audio-visual examples. 40 3
Late Penalties University rules on penalties for late submission of coursework require 5 full marks to be deducted for each calendar day that passes after the date of required submission. If coursework is not submitted by the end of 14 calendar days following the prescribed deadline, a grade/mark of zero will be returned for that component. Module outline Week 1 Day Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Subject Course Introduction; Music in Silent Film The Classical Hollywood Score Popular Film Scores Trip to the National Media Museum Electronic Music; Group Presentations Week 2 Day Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Subject New Hollywood Film-Music Psychology Film-Score Production Processes Individual Presentations Pre-Course Reading Rick Altman, The Living Nickelodeon in The Sounds of Early Cinema, edited by Richard Abel and Rick Altman (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), pp. 232-240. Claudia Gorbman, Classical Hollywood Practice: the model of Max Steiner, in Unheard Melodies (London: BFI Publishing, 1987), pp. 70-98. Kathryn Kalinak, The Hysterical Cult of the Director, in Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), pp. 135-158. Jeff Smith Did they mention the music? Toward a theory of popular film music, in The Sounds of Commerce: Marketing Popular Film Music (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), pp. 1-22. 4
Hilary Lapedis, Popping the question: the function and effect of popular music in cinema, Popular Music, 18:3, (1999), pp.367-379. This article can be accessed online via JStor, which can be accessed through the University library catalogue when you search for Popular Music journal Reading List Abel, Richard, and Rick Altman (eds.), The Sounds of Early Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001) Altman, Rick, Sound theory sound practice (London: Routledge, 1992) Bennett, Andy, Barry Shank, and Jason Toynbee (eds.) The popular music studies reader (London: Routledge, 2006) Brown, Royal S., Overtones and undertones: reading film music (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1994) Bruce, Graham, Bernard Herrmann: film music and narrative (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Books on Demand, 1997) Buhler, J., Flinn, C., and Neumeyer, D. (eds), Music and cinema (London and Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 2000) Chion, Michel, Audio-vision: sound on screen Trans. Claudia Gorbman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994) Cooke, Mervyn, A history of film music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) Cooke, Mervyn (ed.), The Hollywood film music reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) Cooper, David, Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo: a film score handbook (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001) Cooper, David, Trevor Jones s Score for In the Name of the Father, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 25-42 Cooper, David, Christopher Fox & Ian Sapiro, CineMusic? Constructing the Film Score (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008). Davison, Annette, Hollywood theory, non-hollywood practice : cinema soundtracks in the 1980s and 1990s (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004) Dickinson, K. (ed.), Movie music: the film reader (London and New York: Routledge, 2003) Donnelly, K.J. (ed.), Film music: critical approaches (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group Inc., 2001) Donnelly, Kevin, British film music and film musicals (New York: Palgrave, 2007) Flinn, Caryl, Strains of Utopia: gender, nostalgia, and Hollywood film music (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992) Gabbard, Krin, Jammin' at the margins: jazz and the American cinema (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1996) 5
Goldmark, Daniel, Tunes for 'toons: music and the Hollywood cartoon (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005) Goldmark, Daniel, Lawrence Kramer, Richard Leppert (eds), Beyond the soundtrack: representing music in cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007) Gorbman, Claudia, Unheard melodies: narrative film music (Bloomington & Indianapolis, 1987) Kalinak, Kathryn, Settling the score: music and the classical Hollywood film (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992) Kalinak, Kathryn, Film music: a very short introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) Lannin, Steve and Matthew Caley (eds), Pop fiction: the song in cinema (Bristol: Intellect, 2005) Lapedis, Hilary, Popping the Question: the function and effect of popular music in cinema, Popular music. Vol. 18/3 (1989), pp. 367-379 Marks, Martin, M., Music and the silent film : contexts and case studies, 1895-1924 (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) Mera, Miguel, & David Burnand (eds), European film music (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006) Murch, W., Sound design: The Dancing Shadow in Projections: a forum for film-makers (London: Faber and Faber 1985), pp. 237-251 Neale, S. & M. Smith (eds) Contemporary Hollywood cinema (London and New York: Routledge, 1998) Powrie. Phil, & Robynn Stilwell (eds) Changing tunes: the use of pre-existing music in film (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006) Richardson, John, Claudia Gorbman and Carol Vernallis (eds) The Oxford handbook of new audiovisual aesthetics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013) Romney, Jonathan and Adrian Wootton (eds) Celluloid jukebox: popular music and the movies since the 50s (London: BFI, 1995) Sapiro, Ian, Scoring the Score: The Role of the Orchestrator in the Contemporary Film Industry (New York: Routledge, 2016) Smith, Jeff, The sounds of commerce: marketing popular film music (New York, 1998) Stilwell, R. (1997). I just put a drone under him : Collage and subversion in the score of Die Hard, in Music and Letters. Vol. 78, pp. 551-580 Weis, Elizabeth and John Belton, Film sound : theory and practice (Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1985) Winters, Ben, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The adventures of Robin Hood: a film score guide (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2007) Wojcik, Pamela Robertson, and Knight, Arthur (eds.), Soundtrack available: essays on film and popular music (Durham and London, 2001) 6