Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music (Paperback)

by Royal S. Brown (Author) "A key date in the history of the cinema is 28 December 1895, when a pianist apparently provided for the first time musical accompaniment for..." (more)
Key Phrases: nondiegetic score, modern film score, unreal prejudice, Bernard Herrmann, Uncle Charlie, Dofia Maria (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"What distinguishes this groundbreaking work is the thorouhness with which Brown develops his philosophical and theoretical framework to explain the effectiveness and theoretical framework to explain the effectiveness of music in film."--"Choice

Product Description
Since the days of silent films, music has been integral to the cinematic experience, serving, variously, to allay audiences' fears of the dark and to heighten a film's emotional impact. Yet viewers are often unaware of its presence. In this bold, insightful book, film and music scholar and critic Royal S. Brown invites readers not only to "hear" the film score, but to understand it in relation to what they "see." Unlike earlier books, which offered historical, technical, and sociopolitical analyses, Overtones and Undertones draws on film, music, and narrative theory to provide the first comprehensive aesthetics of film music. Focusing on how the film/score interaction influences our response to cinematic situations, Brown traces the history of film music from its beginnings, covering both American and European cinema. At the heart of his book are close readings of several of the best film/score interactions, including Psycho, Laura, The Sea Hawk, Double Indemnity, and Pierrot le Fou. In revealing interviews with Bernard Herrmann, Mikls Rsza, Henry Mancini, and others, Brown also allows the composers to speak for themselves. A complete discography and bibliography conclude the volume.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 396 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (October 18, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520085442
• ISBN-13: 978-0520085442
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #792,180 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, January 3, 2007

By	Sensei (USA) - See all my reviews

This book is one of the most intellectual and in-depth books on specific films I've read. It's focus is mostly on older movies (The Sea Hawk, Double Indemnity), but also extensively explores French film, particularly, Jean-Luc Godard. The Interviews at the back of the book are with some of the greatest film composers, alive and dead, including: Miklos Rozsa, David Raksin, Bernard Herrmann, Mancini, John Barry and Howard Shore. A must for any film music fan or composer!

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars so bad it's bad, May 6, 2008

By	Matheme "rumors of my death are exaggerated" (brooklyn, ny United States) - See all my reviews

This book cannot be summed up. It is too disorganized for that. When arguments become intelligible in it, which is rare, they make "paper thin" an understatement. The first one is that most film music is tonal. A shocking, mind-blowing revelation, without a doubt. The only problem is that the author's explanations of what tonality is are too sophisticated for the initiated, let alone the reader without an academic education in music, who is, ironically enough, his intended audience. In a chapter on Bernard Herrmann, the thesis appears to be that his music for Hitchcock is "irrational." The way in which this reasoned out is astonishingly ridiculous. A minor triad with a major seventh is the defining sonority in many Herrmann scores for Hitchcock (e.g. Vertigo and Psycho). This chord is also common is "Jazz." Jazz is considered irrational, therefore this chord, and by extension all Hermann/Hitchcock music, is irrational. I know, I was totally convinced also. Then in the afterword, things become fully self-parodic. The author imagines a world in the not to distant future where people will be assembling their own movies cum soundtrack from scratch or something close to it, thanks to advances in editing technology and software. Of course, this has come true. But when he says that this will lead, or, at any rate, contribute to collapse of the bourgeois subject, he seriously "misunderestimates" the infinite adaptability of capitalism. It would be better to point to the way all those changes were blessings in the disguise for venture capitalists in the emerging markets of the digital age. "Interacting" with the product is hardly subversive (hello, video games?) nor is it particularly liberating (hello, video games?). Don't read this book, unless you want to understand film music less.