Film Music And Sound

The Soundscape of Hitchcock’s London: Crime, Investigation and the Attraction of the City

by Jasper Aalbers

NECS Conference 2011, King’s College London, June 23-26.

On the various ways in which Hitchcock hides and exposes crime through the use of sound, in his early British sound... more On the various ways in which Hitchcock hides and exposes crime through the use of sound, in his early British sound films.

Sound and Meaning in Film: A Short History of Theory and an Outline for Analysis

by Jasper Aalbers

written for the 'Sounders Meeting' at Maastricht University, November 2008

My intention with this paper is twofold. First of all I wish to offer an introduction in the theory of film sound, as... more My intention with this paper is twofold. First of all I wish to offer an introduction in the theory of film sound, as it has been developed from its very earliest moment until its maturing in the 1980s and 1990s. Second, I will roughly outline what I think is a fruitful approach to researching film sounds, rather than Film Sound with capital F and capital S.

CFP: International Film and Media Studies Journal: Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

by Ágnes Pethő

The International, peer-reviewed, open access journal of the Sapientia University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) invites the submission of original, previously unpublished articles written in English. Articles in all areas of film and media studies are welcome. Deadline for the next issue: June 15, 2012. Previous issue available online here: http://www.acta.sapientia.ro/acta-film/, and here: http://issuu.com/actauniversitatissapientiae/docs/film4_2011

The Lady Vanishes: Aurality and Agency in Cinematic Ophelias

by Kendra Leonard

Published in The Afterlife of Ophelia, ed. Deanne Williams and Kaara L. Peterson, Routledge, 2012.

This is a pre-print.

With the exception of Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet, billed—disingenuously—as the first-ever “full-length” version of the... more With the exception of Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet, billed—disingenuously—as the first-ever “full-length” version of the play on film, major English-language productions of Hamlet intended for the cinema have, over time, reduced the presence, spoken text, and sung materials of Ophelia by nearly half since Laurence Olivier made the first Hamlet with sound in 1948. Increasingly, Ophelia is treated by directors as an object that is only marginally necessary for the plot; in Almereyda’s Hamlet of 2000, her inclusion is both minimal in relation to the full text available to the actor; and minimal in the impact her actions have on the rest of the characters. This escalating eradication of Ophelia’s vocality and the subsequent dismissal of her agency is a radical alteration of the text that provides a window into the dynamics of gender, vocality and agency in cinematic adaptations of the play. Ophelia’s vocality empowers her, particularly in her madness, allowing her to express herself through emotionally powerful references, and the inclusion of Ophelia’s musical materials is equally as important as her spoken words in imbuing her with Foucaultian power of the fool or mad(wo)man as truth-teller. This article examines the phenomenon of the use of music and sound in bringing about Ophelia’s disappearing vocality and agency from filmed Hamlets, mapping the way sound and music in film are used to indicate gender roles and issues of agency over time.

CFP: (Re)Locating the Frontier: International Western Films

by Cynthia Miller

“Sound Shaping and Timbral Justification in the ‘Moral Realist Combat Film’ Black Hawk Down.” EContact! 8.3 <http://cec.concordia.ca/econtact/8_3/gates_rudy.html > (June 2006)

by Philippa Gates

Co-authored with Paul Rudy

Road to Perdition, Literary Analysis of Music

by DARLA JORDAN MILLER

ENGL. Dr. B. Moore; A reader's response and literary analysis of the soundtrack for the film, Road to Perdition, Directed by Sam Mendes, Performances by Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, and Jude Law. DreamWorks, 2002. DVD.

A música no documentário: Um estudo sobre Valsa com Bashir

by Maria Ines Dieuzeide

The studies in portuguese language on the role of music in nonfiction films are still few. Based on some concepts of... more The studies in portuguese language on the role of music in nonfiction films are still few. Based on some concepts of Michel Chion and Anahid Kassabian, in the sound field, in dialog with Bill Nichols’ studies in the field of documentary, the aim of this paper is to discuss the forms and functions of music in documentary discourse, specifically in the recent experiments of animated documentary, from the analysis of the film Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008). We will try to understand the ways in which the music is placed in establishing this kind of narrative, and with whatelements it contributes to the possibles specificities of the animated documentary.


SOUZA, Maria Ines D. S. A música no documentário: Um estudo sobre Valsa com Bashir. In: Ciberlegenda: Revista do Programa de Pós-graduação em Comunicação da Universidade Federal Fluminense, v. 1, n. 24, p. 91-101, 2011.

Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-Existing Music In Film (Review)

by Kendra Leonard

Appeared in Notes 63.3 (March 2007)

Review of Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-Existing Music In Film Review of Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-Existing Music In Film

Frozen Soundscapes in Control (Anton Corbijn) and Radio On (Chris Petit), Journal of British Cinema and Television, 2009, December 9 (1)

by Tom Whittaker

Whittaker, Tom. Mobile soundscapes in the quinqui film. In: Stone R. & L. Shaw ed(s). Screening Songs in Hispanic and Lusophone Cinema. Manchester, University of Manchester Press. 2012

by Tom Whittaker

Frauen - Militaer - Musik. Darstellung und Interpretationen im Spielfilm, in: Paradestueck Militaermusik. Beitraege zum Wandel staatlicher Repraesentation durch Musik, ed. Peter Moormann, Albrecht Riethmueller, and Rebecca Wolf, Bielefeld: transcript, 2012, pp. 151-164

by Linda Maria Koldau

Dead in Tune: Uncanny Muzak in Dawn of the Dead

by Alexander Carpenter

Journal of Popular Culture. Forthcoming.

This essay makes an argument that may be obvious to some, namely that muzak is zombie music. This can be seen in two... more This essay makes an argument that may be obvious to some, namely that muzak is zombie music. This can be seen in two versions of the iconic zombie film Dawn of the Dead, in which muzak is employed as an essential element of the score. The original film, released in 1978 and now a classic of American horror cinema, was directed by George A. Romero and is famously set inside a zombie-infested shopping mall; a big-budget remake was released in 2004, directed by Zack Snyder. In both versions of Dawn of the Dead, muzak—defined here fairly broadly as the kind of piped-in, easy-listening, lightly-orchestrated pop tunes (also known as “environmental,” “mood,” or “elevator” music) used as an aural backdrop in commercial spaces like offices, stores, and especially shopping malls—serves a number of purposes, from pacing to atmosphere to commentary. Most importantly, though, it paradoxically intensifies the horror of the effect of the films by strongly evoking feelings best described by Freudian notions of the uncanny and taboo, and by serving as a near-perfect analogue for, and even embodiment of, the living dead themselves. It is not only the presence of easy-listening pop tunes in these films, but also how they are used—diegetically and non-diegetically, crossing over from the filmic world onto the soundtrack and back again—that is the focus of this essay. These transgressive musical moments/movements are especially meaningful, as they underscore the liminal nature of the apocalyptic zombie and of the subgenre of zombie cinema in general. This essay demonstrates how, in Dawn of the Dead, muzak is zombie music insofar as it is organically connected to the deeply disturbing and problematic figure of the zombie, and is used to delineate and intensify our horrified response to taboo-shattering, boundary-crossing animated corpses.

Dead in Tune: Uncanny Muzak in Dawn of the Dead

by Alexander Carpenter

Journal of Popular Culture. Forthcoming.

This essay makes an argument that may be obvious to some, namely that muzak is zombie music. This can be seen in two... more This essay makes an argument that may be obvious to some, namely that muzak is zombie music. This can be seen in two versions of the iconic zombie film Dawn of the Dead, in which muzak is employed as an essential element of the score. The original film, released in 1978 and now a classic of American horror cinema, was directed by George A. Romero and is famously set inside a zombie-infested shopping mall; a big-budget remake was released in 2004, directed by Zack Snyder. In both versions of Dawn of the Dead, muzak—defined here fairly broadly as the kind of piped-in, easy-listening, lightly-orchestrated pop tunes (also known as “environmental,” “mood,” or “elevator” music) used as an aural backdrop in commercial spaces like offices, stores, and especially shopping malls—serves a number of purposes, from pacing to atmosphere to commentary. Most importantly, though, it paradoxically intensifies the horror of the effect of the films by strongly evoking feelings best described by Freudian notions of the uncanny and taboo, and by serving as a near-perfect analogue for, and even embodiment of, the living dead themselves. It is not only the presence of easy-listening pop tunes in these films, but also how they are used—diegetically and non-diegetically, crossing over from the filmic world onto the soundtrack and back again—that is the focus of this essay. These transgressive musical moments/movements are especially meaningful, as they underscore the liminal nature of the apocalyptic zombie and of the subgenre of zombie cinema in general. This essay demonstrates how, in Dawn of the Dead, muzak is zombie music insofar as it is organically connected to the deeply disturbing and problematic figure of the zombie, and is used to delineate and intensify our horrified response to taboo-shattering, boundary-crossing animated corpses.

The Innocent Diversion on Screen: The Narrative Function Of Film Music in Adaptations Based on the Works of Jane Austen

by Joy Doan

Marcel L'Herbier cinéaste musical ?

by Marguerite Chabrol

in Marcel L'Herbier, l'art du cinéma, dir. Laurent Véray, AFRHC, 2007, pp.217-228.

Música em animação: o mickeymousing está morto?

by Guilherme Maximiano

A paper in portuguese about the origins of mickeymousing and its aplication in contemporaneous animation.

Mickeymousing is a film scoring technique that originated, as the name suggests, in cartoons, namely in American... more Mickeymousing is a film scoring technique that originated, as the name suggests, in cartoons, namely in American cartoons of the 1920s. Building upon the considerations about the relationship of music and image described by different authors, this article reviews the definition of the term and departing from this definition, seeks to identify its use in two recent animations: Presto, produced by Pixar and one episode of the Brazilian series Fishtronaut. To achieve this, a description of the relationships between music and image in excerpts of the two animations will be carried out. This study, choosing a field seldom explored by Brazilian scholarship, aims to answer the question expressed on the title, for the dissemination of dialogue in TV animation (as seen in Hanna-Barbera productions since the 1960s) seems to leave little room to a score abundant in rhythmic inflections, such as mickeymousing. The conclusion shows that examples of mickeymousing can be found in recent productions, more clearly in animations that, in a similar way to early cartoons, use physical comedy: little dialog and a lot of action.     

REMINDER: ABSTRACTS DUE 12 MARCH - CFP Song, Stage and Screen VII: The Musical’s Global Conquest

by Laura MacDonald

2-5 July 2012
Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG)
University of Groningen (The Netherlands)

The New York Times has frequently reported on the increasingly global musical theatre community. Broadway flops are... more The New York Times has frequently reported on the increasingly global musical theatre community. Broadway flops are finding success in Europe and China's economic power is stimulating a musical theatre industry aspiring to enter the global market. This conference invites papers investigating the range of global contexts within which stage and film musicals are created, circulated and consumed. While much growth has occurred in recent decades, musicals have been circulated transnationally for more than a century, and forms such as the American musical developed out of a range of cultural influences. Stage and screen musicals also make the global local, with, for example, Rodgers and Hammerstein choosing foreign settings for their stage musicals, culturally-specific narratives becoming global commodities (Les Misérables, Billy Elliot), and Bollywood films bringing exotic locations to domestic film audiences. Globalization is also a story musicals tell, as demonstrated by one of Broadway's newest musicals, Once, about an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant. With the explosion of media technologies offering ever more platforms and dimensions, musical theatre and film find new expression and distribution, shrinking the global stage onto our cellphones, laptops and Ipads.

Paper topics might include, but are not limited to:
-The American stage and screen musical abroad
-Studies of developing or established domestic musical theatre and film industries
-Intercultural engagement within musical narratives
-International collaborations by musical creators and producers
-American appropriation of foreign styles and narratives
-The global training and circulation of performers
-Domestic reception of foreign musical theatre and films
-The colonial and post-colonial musical
-The musical and national identity
-The global musical marketplace
-Technology's role in the globalization of the musical

Proposals for twenty-minute papers or other presentation formats should be submitted electronically for blind peer review by Monday 12 March 2012 to songstageandscreen7@gmail.com. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words and sent as a Word attachment. For queries, please contact conference organizer, Laura MacDonald, at l.e.macdonald@rug.nl

Song, Stage and Screen is the annual conference of the academic journal, Studies in Musical Theatre, which is published by Intellect Press. Previous Song, Stage and Screen conferences have been held at the University of Portsmouth, UK (2006), University of Leeds, UK (2007), the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (2008), University of Maryland, College Park (2009), University of Winchester, UK (2010) and University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance (2011). It is expected that a selection of papers from this conference will be invited for submission to the journal.

Filmmusik – Film|Musik – Musikfilm. Zum Wechselverhältnis zweier Medien im Schaffen Olga Neuwirths

by Stefan Drees

Wechselwirkungen. Neue Musik und Film, hrsg. von Jörn Peter Hiekel, Wolke: Hofheim 2012, S. 81-97

Olga Neuwirths Wille zur kritischen Bestandsaufnahme medialer Prozesse und Strategien führt dazu, dass die Komponistin... more Olga Neuwirths Wille zur kritischen Bestandsaufnahme medialer Prozesse und Strategien führt dazu, dass die Komponistin das Visuelle als essenzielles Element betrachtet, das, falls die entsprechende Werkkonzeption dies erlaubt, gleichberechtigt neben die übrigen Parameter des künstlerischen Gestaltens treten kann. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Interessenlage untersucht der Aufsatz das Verhältnis zwischen Bild und Klang anhand dreier sehr unterschiedlicher und von ihren Entstehungsbedingungen her divergenter Filmmusikarbeiten: Im Mittelpunkt stehen - als Teilaspekte einer viel weiter reichenden und grundlegenderen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Bild als Ausdrucksträger innerhalb der künstlerischen Arbeit Neuwirths verstanden - die als Beitrag zum Genderdiskurs verstehbare elektronische Musik zu dem Dokumentarfilm "Erik(A)" von Kurt Mayer (2004/05), das gemeinsam mit dem österreichischen Regisseurs Michael Kreihsl realisierte Film-Musik-Projekt "The Long Rain" (1999/2000) auf eine literarische Vorlage von Ray Bradbury sowie Neuwirths eigener, an René Clairs Stummfilm "Paris qui dort" anknüpfender Filmessay "... disenchanted time ..." (2005).

Trends in Contemporary Hollywood Film Scoring: A Synthesised Approach for Hong Kong Cinema

by Robert Ellis-Geiger