9/12

Epics - gone with the wind (1939)

• epic - grand, usually long story centered around a hero. usually set in the past

• One of the most critically acclaimed films of all time with 10 academy awards

• music by Max Steiner

• love story around central character, scarlett o’hara, during the mid-late 1800s

• listen for:

  • mood of music vs scene

  • Is there diegetic (source) music

  • other standout features

Movie Musicals

• revue/vaudeville - series of unrelated performances. No plot

• operetta - music inserted into a dramatic plot

  • forerunner to the modern Broadway musical

  • generally more serious, compared to the light-hearted and comedic musical

• shall we dance (1937)

  • music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin

  • story of a tap dancer, Peter, pretending to be a russian ballet dancer and falling in love with a tap dancer and singer, Linda

The wizard of oz

• songs by Harold Arlen

• underscoring by Herbert Stothart

  • both won Academy Awards

• “over the rainbow“

  • AABA form

Animation - Disney’s Empire Begins

• Steamboat Willie (1928) - the beginning of Walt Disney’s legacy

• silly symphonies - short cartoon series

  • more like a revue than a musical/operetta

• snow white and the Seven Dwarves (1937)

• Disney’s first full-length feature animation

Citizen Kane - 1941

• often acknowledged as one of the greatest films in American history

• rise and fall of reporter Charles Foster Kane from multiple pov’s

• written, directed, and led by Orson Welles