No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Constructed Melodies: Building the Score into the Set
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2016
Abstract
The article introduces the topic of film music's relationship to the built environment of cinema. The discussion springboards from James Sanders's analysis of New York City sets, based on the architecture of selected movies (mostly from the 1930s and 40s), as presented in his Celluloid Skyline. The focus is on four locations: the brownstone façade, the working-class street, the enclosed courtyard, and the construction site. The argument is that two key components of American cinema's structure—music and architecture—are sometimes in direct dialogue, as composers and filmmakers both render New York ethnographically accurately and offer sometimes a mythic imagining of a particular place.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Society for American Music 2016
References
References
Books and Articles
Albrecht, Donald. Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.Google Scholar
Bergfelder, Tim, Harris, Sue, and Street, Sarah. Film Architecture and the Transnational Imagination: Set Design in 1930s European Cinema. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chion, Michel. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Copland, Aaron and Perlis, Vivian. Copland Since 1943. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Levy, Beth. Frontier Figures: American Music and the Mythology of the American West. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Lochner, James. “‘You Have Cheated Me’: Aaron Copland's Compromised Score to The Heiress.” Film Score Monthly 10, no. 3 (May 2005): 36–39.Google Scholar
Neuman, Dietrich, ed. Film Architecture: Set Designs from Metropolis to Blade Runner. Munich and New York: Prestel, 1996.Google Scholar
Ramirez, Juan Antonio. Architecture for the Screen: A Critical Study of Set Design in Hollywood's Golden Age. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland, 2004.Google Scholar
Slobin, Mark, ed. Global Soundtracks: Worlds of Film Music. Middletown CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Films
Castle, Nick, dir. Tap. Music by James Newton Howard. TriStar, 1989. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2006, DVD.Google Scholar
Clair, René, dir. Sous les toits de Paris (Under the Rooftops of Paris). Music by Bernard, Armand, Moretti, Raoul, and Nazelles, René. Filmsonor, 1930. Home Vision Entertainment, 2002, DVD.Google Scholar
Curtiz, Michael, dir. Life with Father. Music by Steiner, Max. Warner Bros., 1947. Alpha Video, 2002, DVD.Google Scholar
Hitchcock, Alfred, dir. Rear Window. Music by Franz Waxman. Paramount, 1954. Universal, 2012, DVD.Google Scholar
Mamoulian, Rouben, dir. Love Me Tonight. Music by Rodgers, Richard. Paramount, 1932. Kino Video, 2003, DVD.Google Scholar
SmithJames, H. James, H., dir. Mighty Manhattan, New York's Wonder City. Music by Kirk, Lesley. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 1949.Google Scholar
Vidor, King, dir. Street Scene. Music by Newman, Alfred. Samuel Goldwyn, 1931. GI Studios, 2012, DVD.Google Scholar
Wyler, William, dir. Dead End. Music by Alfred Newman. Samuel Goldwyn, 1937. HBO Home Video, 2014, DVD.Google Scholar
Wyler, William, The Heiress. Music by Aaron Copland. Paramount, 1949. Universal Studios, 2007, DVD.Google Scholar