film music film & composer

Captain Blood 1935

Michael Curtiz
Erich Korngold
Peter Blood has 3 leitmotifs
Collapse of "Love theme" and "Arabella" into a single theme
Examples: Action Scoring, Lietmotif function
Set the trend for symphonic scores modeled on 19th century Romanticism
themes reflect the character's transformation in the drama

Rebecca 1940

Hitchcock
Franz Waxman
Two-theme overture "Rebecca" leitmotif
Use of special instrumentation: Novachord
Underscoring that accentuates shifting dialogue
"Rebecca" leitmotif

Wuthering Heights 1939

William Wyler
Alfred Newman
Two-theme overture

Singin' in the Rain 1952

Freed Unit
Roger Edens & Lennie Hayton
Integrated + Backstage
Self reflexive- song content references other musicals
Production process is the plot
Characters juxtaposed to reflect authenticity and aritifice
Bricolage: using whatever's new to integrate in the film (using the set/props to turn into scene of movie)
Underscoring: soft music playing in the background beneath dialogue

High Noon 1952

Fred Zinneman
Dimitri Tiomkin
Original title song
Breaks conventions
Collapses boundaries of diegetic and nondiegetic
"Do not forsake me my darling"
- It started the trend of using original songs in Westerns
- The song was used to blur diegetic and non-diegetic space
- The song "speaks" for the main character

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly 1966

Sergio Leone
Spaghetti Westerns

Dances with Wolves 1990

Kevin Costner
John Barry
Scoring avoids some stereotypes while reinforcing others
Lush orchestration for Sioux & white men
Ominous percussive scoring for Pawnee

North by Northwest 1959

Hitchcock
Bernard Herrman
Music conveys narrative issue of Identity 3 vs. 2 Rhythmic ambiguity of "Fandango" Verticality

The Man with the Golden Arm 1955

Otto Preminger
Elmer Bernstein
Jazz used to represent protagonist's addiction/high Diegetic and non-diegetic blurring

The Cobweb 1955

Vicente Minelli
Leonard Rosenman
First significant use of 12-tone serialism

Planet of the Apes 1968

Franklin J. Schaffner
Jerry Goldsmith
Traditional orchestra augmented with expanded instrumentation
Dissonances and rhythms reflecting Bartok & Stravinsky

Shaft 1971

Gordon Parks
Isaac Hayes
Criticized for unflattering and stereotypical association of Black Americans with sex, violence, and drugs
Soul & Funk - Hi Hat Cymbals & Wah Wah Guitars

The Graduate 1967

Mike Nichols
Dave Grusin
diegetic until very end
Tunes already well-known upon film's release

2001: A Space Odyssey 1968

Stanley Kubrick
Rejected original score from Alex North in favor of his temp track
Music and Visuals could co-exist
Music no longer needed to be tailored to film
Retains mood-setting function, but detached from drama

Star Wars 1977

George Lucas
John Williams
Neo-classical composition for emotionally familiar music
Leitmotif pairing Force theme & Leia theme

Tron 1982

Steven Lisberger
Wendy Carlos
Real world: string orchestra • Computer world: blended electronic with orchestral scoring

Blade Runner 1982

Ridley Scott
Vangelis
Score composed entirely on the Yamaha CS80 Synthesizer
Used the Lexicon 224 synthesizer for reverb giving the film a characteristic timbre
Musical textures blur into the realm of sound effects design
Music/soundtrack expresses human/nonhuman relationships

Parasite 2019

Bong Joon Ho
Jung Jae Il
pseudo-Baroque: elegant but comical
Metrical contrast (duple vs. triple)
Piano & orchestra textures recorded through electronic/computer sounds
A-V Counterpoint- anempathy, asynchrony

Get Out 2017

Jordan Peele
Michael Abels
Gospel Horror
Instrumentations & Motifs

Black Panther 2018

Ryan Coogler
Ludwig Goransson
Music features influences and performances of Senegalese music, notably Baaba Maal and original songs by Kendrick Lamar

Joker 2019

Todd Phillips
Hildur Guonadottir
Inspiration from Martin Scorsese character studies of the 1970s (Taxi Driver, The King of Comey)
Combines original scoring with preexisting popular and instrumental music
Music intimately tied to character development
Mood of pre-existing and diegetic music provides counterpoint to underscore via cello, minimalistic pitch, elongated phrases, low string textures

The Graduate 1967

Mike Nichols

Birth of a Nation 1915

D.W. Griffith
Joseph Carl Breil
"Musical scoring"
combined compilation w/ original scores
leitmotif
symphonic & operatic
new arrangements to popular tunes

Metropolis 1927

Fritz Lang
Gottfried Huppertz
Original score was the intention
Symphonic score
Character themes developed while observing the filming
Often accompanied filming with works in progress to help actors get into character
Primary source material
Historical practices
Improvisation
Cue sheets
Multiple reconstructed scores

Don Juan 1926 & The Jazz Singer 1927

Warner Bros. Films using Vitaphone Directed by Alan Crosland

Blackmail 1929

Hitchcock
Herbert Bath & Harry Stafford from Jimmy Campbell & Reg Connelly
blend of realism & expression
first All-Talkie
montage, action film sequence

Casablanca 1942

Michael Curtiz
Max Steiner
Two main themes of
Oriental (Morocco colonized by France): exotic/mystery/dark
French Anthem: triumphant/heroic
Nightlife contenders
Rick's: American, illegal but defensible
Blue Parrot: oriental, last resort, black market

The Wizard of Oz 1939

Victor Fleming
Herbert Stothart
Musical episode must motivate a detail of the plot (integrated)

Stormy Weather 1943

Andrew Stone