Hollywood Film Music and Society

elective courses

The course will trace the early history of film music before charting the growing eclecticism of Hollywood’s musical sound from the 1960s onwards. Students will learn how to articulate both what they are hearing when they listen to a film’s soundtrack and how what they hear in the soundtrack shapes the meaning of the film as a whole. Analyses of Hollywood film music in the class will take a cultural lens, focusing on how ideas about national identity, class, gender, race, global relations, health and nature relate to different styles of music used in various genres of film. The course will also introduce students to important film composers, their film soundtracks, and critical writing that analyses this music and film music history more generally.

Music has been central to the filmic experience since the medium’s origins at the end of the 19th century. “Silent” films, despite their name, were never actually silent: live musicians were usually employed to accompany the moving pictures projected on the screen. With the advent of early sound cinema, live music was eventually replaced by recorded sound, leading to the “Golden Age” of Hollywood film music from the 1930s through to the end of the 1950s. This course will trace the early history of film music before charting the growing eclecticism of Hollywood’s musical soundtracks from the 1960s onwards. Students will learn about the changing techniques and technologies of film music composition and production, the relationship between music, sound, visuals and narrative in Hollywood cinema, and the transformations of film music’s sound over the 20th and 21st centuries. Classes will also help students to articulate both what they are hearing when they experience a film and how what they hear in the soundtrack shapes the meaning of the film as a whole. Nonetheless, the course’s primary focus is on the analysis of film music through a cultural lens. Students will be asked to consider how Hollywood film music has been shaped by ideas associated with national identity, class, gender, race, global relations, health and nature and even how film music contributes to the articulation of these ideas. Topics will include the incorporation of popular music into film (e.g., rock, pop, rap, etc.); Hollywood film’s use of world, jazz and classical music; movie musicals; horror film music and sound; music in animated film; the return of late-19th century orchestral scoring; and Hollywood film music beyond America. Composers featured in the course include Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, John Williams, Vangelis, Rachel Portman, Hans Zimmer, Tan Dun and Alan Menken, amongst others. Students will be introduced to a variety of soundtracks from different eras and genres of film as well as critical writings on Hollywood film music and its history that will be set as assigned reading.

Altman, Rick. Silent Film Sound. Film and Culture Series. New York, NY: Columbia Univ. Press, 2004.

Barrios, Richard. Dangerous Rhythm: Why Movie Musicals Matter. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Bartkowiak, Mathew J., ed. Sounds of the Future: Essays on Music in Science Fiction Film. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2010.

Donnelly, Kevin J. The Spectre of Sound: Music in Film and Television. London: BFI Publ, 2005.

Gabbard, Krin. Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 2004.

Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. London: British Film Inst, 1987.

Kalinak, Kathryn Marie. Film Music: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Kassabian, Anahid. Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Neumeyer, David. The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Wierzbicki, James Eugene. Film Music: A History. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Winters, Ben. ‘The Non-Diegetic Fallacy: Film, Music, and Narrative Space’. Music and Letters 91, no. 2 (1 May 2010): 224–44.

Knowledge

Students will be able to:

- K_W02 - Understand key terminology, well established methods and theories within film music studies

- K_W04 - Describe the relation between film music and historical and cultural processes on an advanced level

- K_W07 - Explain principles of designing cultural studies of film, with special focus on selecting appropriate methods and tools in formulating research questions in the field of film music studies

- K_W09 - Identify on an advanced level the multiplicity of styles within Hollywood film music, including their complexity, cultural codes, as well as structural and institutional background of culture

- K_W10 - Describe on an advanced level the geography, history, politics, economy, as well as cultural and societal problems in America as they pertain to Hollywood film music and sound.

Abilities

Students will be able to:

- K_U01 - Employ the terminology and methodological tools from film music studies and culture studies

- K_U03 - Analyze musical and cultural phenomena within American films and draw generalizations on their basis with respect to the social, historical and economic context

- K_U04 - Implement knowledge to describe a problem and identify means to solve it, thereby completing a project in film music and cultural studies

- K_U07 - Employ modern technology for the sake of obtaining information and using various communication channels and techniques

- K_U08 - Plan and organize working alone and in a team to attain goals

Social competences

Students will be ready to:

- K_K02 - Undertake life-long learning and personal development, applying skills and competences to select subjects and projects optimally suiting one’s personal interests in the realm of film music studies

- K_K04 - Apply the skills to critically assess film content and to think and act independently in various social situations

- K_K05 - Function effectively in social and cultural interactions, through various forms and media, thanks to the ability to express oneself in a cohesive and lucid manner (e.g., through a written text or a debate/discussion)

- K_K06 - Value cultural heritage and cultural diversity as they are exemplified in the medium of film music

Education at language level B2+

- Attendance and class participation/being active

- Mid-semester and end of semester quizzes based on lecture material and assigned readings and listening

- Final essay

Quizzes will include listening exercises and multiple choice and short response questions.

The final essay will respond to one of several prompts given by the instructor.

3 absences are allowed.