From the neighborhood pianist of silent movie days to the synthesized effects and "music video" sequences of the 1980s: the great and not-so-great moments in film scoring. Scores from countless films, from Birth of a Nation (1915) through Top Gun (1986), are painstakingly analyzed: how does the score relate to onscreen activity? How does it follow or depart from tradition? How does it represent the strengths and foibles of its composer? The book includes discussion of trend-setting work such as Max Steiner's King Kong (1933-an early instance of music carrying a significant portion of onscreen action), Bernard Herrmann's Psycho (1960, with its unusual, high, scraping strings-only support of the famous shower scene), and Alex North's A Streetcar Named Desire (1951-the first essentially jazz-oriented score), as well as remarks on the work that followed within the resulting trends. Discussions are enhanced by musical reproductions of significant themes and motives. Chapters on 14 individual composers working largely within the United States are given perspective by summary chapters on the silent and early sound years, the decades 1930-1980, and the work of composers outside the United States.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
In this hefty survey, the authors, teachers and film music fans, skim the careers of nine of the 11 men so well covered in Christopher Palmer's Composer in Hollywood ( LJ 4/15/90), along with Victor Young, Hugo Friedhofer, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Williams. Some films earn a sentence, others several pages of comment. Scattered musical examples provide thematic incipits (opening notes). Each chapter devoted to a single composer is followed by a filmography, with catchall chapters filling in the gaps (e.g., "Studio arrangements" and "Foreign composers"). An appendix lists Academy Awards for music, and the book has a very well-annotated bibliography. High in price, superficial in parts, but inclusive and nontechnical, this uneven book is necessary only in comprehensive film or music collections as a supplement to Palmer.
- Bonnie Jo Dopp, Dist . of Columbia P.L.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Bonnie Jo Dopp, Dist . of Columbia P.L.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"a major work of reference.... No one interested in film music can afford to be without this book. Recommended" -- Classic Images
"a well-researched and thoroughly documented treatise on the history and development of American movie music. Highly recommend[ed]" -- Soundtrack
"hefty survey...inclusive and nontechnical...necessary" -- Library Journal
"recommended for comprehensive film or music collections" -- Preview
"useful filmographies" -- Choice
"a well-researched and thoroughly documented treatise on the history and development of American movie music. Highly recommend[ed]" -- Soundtrack
"hefty survey...inclusive and nontechnical...necessary" -- Library Journal
"recommended for comprehensive film or music collections" -- Preview
"useful filmographies" -- Choice
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent resource within its limits,
By Phil Freihofner (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: American Film Music: Major Composers, Techniques, Trends, 1915-1990 (McFarland Classics) (Paperback)
This is an excellent reference, especially for the filmographies of the major Hollywood composers. I know of no other resource where one can get such extensive lists of films scored by given composers. Nor do I know of a resource that has this much information about the careers of so many of the classic film composers.The book does restrict itself to composers of the classical style, with the exception of their occasional forays into jazz or pop, rather than look at the film work of actual jazz-based composers such as Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock, Mark Isham, to name a few. A single reference to Duke Ellington is to his influence on Alex North. The only reference to "Young Man with a Horn" is to Max Steiner, no mention or credit goes to Harry James. Nor will you find any mention of the huge influence of MTV on film scoring and film scoring technique, nor any of the rock-based composers. I'd love to see a discussion of, for example, Tangerine Dream's score to "Risky Business," particularly the ride on the elevated train, and follow that trend right on through to the beautiful and perfectly expressive score for "American Beauty" by Thomas Newman, which includes a subtle and masterful rhythmic control that owes next to nothing to any formal classical pedagogy I've ever come across. But the authors can not be faulted for the fact that film music has become much too big a subject for a single book. I confess I was disappointed with what seems to me to be a lack of depth in the analyses of individual films. Some of this is perhaps due to philosophical disagreements I have with authors. In the introduction, they write of there being two broad stylistic categories of scoring techniques: the "motivic" versus "atmospheric," and then come down strongly in favor of the former. But how useful is this distinction? A great film score combines both--these are not mutually exclusive techniques! Perhaps following the faulty logic of this duality, the musical analyses in the book seem to consist mostly of the listing and description of musical motives and themes when they appear as 'leit motifs.' This can be a helpful starting point, but it seems to me one gains little additional insight into either the film itself or the score from such an enumeration. Likewise, there are solid descriptions of various techniques used by the composers. I learned, for example, that Miklos Rozsa often uses the device of carrying a melodic line forward in the strings, followed at a short distance by French horns in imitative counterpoint, and have found myself noticing this in his films. But it would be nice to see more about when and why this or that technique is used, or how the motives are developed and transformed, contributing to the dramatic course of a film. Elsewhere in the introduction the author's write: "The initial and very demanding questions are 'how much music' and 'how prominent should it be.'" To me, the first questions in deciding how to score a film concern understanding the dramatic flow and structure of a film, as well as a sense of the overall "texture" of the experience. One cannot come to solid conclusions about instrumentation or spotting until one gets a feel for the film, and what it is trying to accomplish, and what musical devices or techniques to use in serving those ends. They also subscribe to what I find to be a persistant and annoying notion that if film music should "..sound fully self-sufficient, we can safely assume that it has served the drama badly." Is this necessarily true? Is "Alexander Nevsky" badly served by Prokovieff's wonderful score? "City Lights" badly served by "Smile"? "Gone With the Wind" by "Tara's Theme"? How do we explain the striking commercial success of so many soundtrack CD's? Perhaps Hanns Eisler's "Composing for the Films," with its wonderfully acerbic first chapter, devoted to debunking the myths of conventional Hollywood film scoring, would be a useful companion read. In summary, this book can't be beat as a description of the major film composers, their filmographies and career outlines, and can be highly recommended on that basis alone. No where else have I seen such a thorough description of who worked with who, and the sort of work they did, and when. But the analyses of techniques and trends is limited by a philosophical over-emphasis on the "motivic" approach to scoring, giving us much that is quite good in the way of description but little in the way of insight into the inner workings of a great film and score pairing.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must Read for Students of Film Music,
By Roger Hickman (CSU Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: American Film Music: Major Composers, Techniques, Trends, 1915-1990 (McFarland Classics) (Paperback)
The appreciation of film music as art is a relatively new development. A few pioneer books opened the door, and there has been an increasing number of analytic works since then that have given us insight into this fascinating medium. But, the field grows so quickly that books are quickly out of date. One of the newest works in this field is American Film Music by Darby and Du Bois. It certainly joins the ranks of the very best that has been produced. It would be helpful to have a background in music and film, but there is much valuable information for novices and experts alike. The book can be divided into chapters describing general trends of the periods of film music (from silent film to the 1980s) and chapters devoted to individual composers (from Max Steiner to John Williams). In both cases, general background material is summarized in a succinct, yet thorough manner. But the most impressive contributions are the analyses (with musical quotations) of a remarkable number of individual films. Among the most detailed and valuable discussions are those for Breil's music to D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, Max Steiner's Gone with the Wind, Korngold's Anthony Adverse, Herrmann's Citizen Kane, and Morricone's The Mission. This material is supported by an excellent bibliography, extensive backnotes, and a useful list of Academy Awards in music. The only "weakness" to be seen is that it does end in 1990, and the observations of the 1980s are relatively brief. James Horner, for example, is seen as a rising star rather than the giant that he has become. As with its predecessors, this book already needs to be updated, a situation which the authors will hopefully remedy in a 2nd edition.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A helpful, detailed survey of a neglected field,
By
This review is from: American Film Music: Major Composers, Techniques, Trends, 1915-1990 (Hardcover)
Music written for films does not get the credit it deserves. The best film composers, like the ones discussed in this book, have produced some of the most stirring and enjoyable music of recent times. After an interesting introductory chapter on the transition from silents to sound, Darby and Du Bois discuss fourteen composers in detail, including the main themes they wrote for particular movies. All the scores each composer worked on are listed at the end of the chapter. Other chapters review film music developments by period, briefly discussing other composers. An appendix lists the scores nominated for Academy Awards from the first in 1934 to 1988. Readers with a serious interest in film music will find this book a valuable resource, though it needs to be updated to include the 1990's. Readers with only a casual interest may find that the detailed discussions of themes tell them more than they want to know.
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