100 Greatest Film Scores

100 Greatest Film Scores
Author: Matt Lawson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2018-09-15
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1538103680

The background music on a film can make or break the audience experience. Imagine the shower scene in Psycho without the shrieking violins or Jaws without the ominous notes thatportend the shark’s attack! Musical accompaniment helps create atmosphere for the viewer, from subtle undertones to compositions that heighten the drama. In 100 Greatest Film Scores, authors Matt Lawson and Laurence E. MacDonald consider the finest music produced for cinema since the development of motion picture sound. Each entry includes background details about the film, biographical information about the composer, a concise analysis of the score, and a summary of the score’s impact both within the film and on cinematic history. Among the many films cited here are iconic scores for The Adventures of Robin Hood, A Beautiful Mind,The Big Country, Chariots of Fire, Citizen Kane, Edward Scissorhands, Fargo, Gonewith the Wind, The Great Escape, Jurassic Park, King Kong, Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter, North by Northwest, On the Waterfront, Out of Africa, The Pink Panther, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Vertigo, and Up. Arranged alphabetically and featuring a photo of each movies, the entries in this volume give the reader insight into how music functions across a wide spectrum of film genres. Representing some of the greatest composers in the history of cinema including Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, John Williams, and Hans Zimmer, 100 Greatest Film Scores will be of interest to fans of movie music everywhere.

Aaron Copland's Hollywood Film Scores

Aaron Copland's Hollywood Film Scores
Author: Paula Musegades
Publisher: Eastman Studies in Music
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1580469914

A pioneering study of how American composer Aaron Copland helped shape the sound of the Hollywood film industry and introduced the moviegoing public to modern musical styles.

Complete Guide to Film Scoring

Complete Guide to Film Scoring
Author: Richard Davis
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2010-05-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1495032264

(Berklee Guide). Essential for anyone interested in the business, process and procedures of writing music for film or television, this book teaches the Berklee approach to the art, covering topics such as: preparing and recording a score, contracts and fees, publishing, royalties, copyrights and much more. Features interviews with 21 top film-scoring professionals, including Michael Kamen, Alf Clausen, Alan Silvestri, Marc Shaiman, Mark Snow, Harry Gregson-Williams and Elmer Bernstein. Now updated with info on today's latest technology, and invaluable insights into finding work in the industry.

Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979
Author: Kristopher Spencer
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0786452285

Hollywood film scores underwent a supersonic transformation from the 1950s through the 1970s. This genre-by-genre overview of film and television soundtrack music covers a period of tremendous artistic and commercial development in the medium. Film and television composers bypassed the classical tradition favored by earlier screen composers to experiment with jazz, rock, funk and avant-garde styles. This bold approach brought a rich variety to film and television productions that often took on a life of its own through records and CDs. From Bernard Herrmann to Ennio Morricone, the composers of the "Silver Age" changed the way movie music was made, used, and heard. The book contains more than 100 promotional film stills and soundtrack cover art images.

Torn Music

Torn Music
Author: Gergely Hubai
Publisher:
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2012
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9781935247050

A film is finished and almost ready to make its way into theaters, but one or more of its prime movers (producer, director, studio brass) contends that it doesn't feel right. What can be almost instantaneously changed to give it a new "feel"? The last element that was added--its music! So, often regardless of whether a film actually needs a new score, a new composer is hired at the last minute to quickly replace a previous composer's often-heartfelt work. In Hollywood and around the world, scores have been rejected and replaced for every conceivable reason--style, quality, composer's name recognition, test-audience's reaction, a picture's reediting, etc. Sometimes new music improves a film; sometimes it doesn't. Such score replacements, which are more common than one might imagine, affect the work of the most famous and respected composers in the business as much as they do novice and unknown composers. In Torn Music (which takes its title from one of the most famous score replacements, the film Torn Curtain, which put an end to the long and fruitful collaboration of director Alfred Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann), author Gergely Hubai presents the often strange, and sometimes wild, stories behind 300 rejected and replaced film scores from the 1930s through the 2000s. In these pages are behind-the-scenes tales about the music for popular films and forgotten films, high cinema art and lowbrow exploitation movies, as well as television programs and even a video game.

Case history of a film score

Case history of a film score
Author: Henry Mancini
Publisher: Alfred Music Publishing
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2004
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780757922664

This text, designed as a tool for the college classroom, gives the reader insight into the creative process used by master film composer Henry Mancini. Edited by Roy Phillippe, the book provides 16 musical examples and includes a CD with recordings from the original soundtrack. The text provides detailed analysis of the ideology and technique behind Mancini's creation of music to be paired with the film's storyline and its images. A must for any aspiring film composer, film music buff, or Mancini fan!

A History of Film Music

A History of Film Music
Author: Mervyn Cooke
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 627
Release: 2008-09-25
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1316264866

This book provides a comprehensive and lively introduction to the major trends in film scoring from the silent era to the present day, focussing not only on dominant Hollywood practices but also offering an international perspective by including case studies of the national cinemas of the UK, France, India, Italy, Japan and the early Soviet Union. The book balances wide-ranging overviews of film genres, modes of production and critical reception with detailed non-technical descriptions of the interaction between image track and soundtrack in representative individual films. In addition to the central focus on narrative cinema, separate sections are also devoted to music in documentary and animated films, film musicals and the uses of popular and classical music in the cinema. The author analyses the varying technological and aesthetic issues that have shaped the history of film music, and concludes with an account of the modern film composer's working practices.

Film Score

Film Score
Author: Tony Thomas
Publisher: South Brunswick [N.J.] : A.S. Barnes
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1979
Genre: Music
ISBN:

An introduction to the most important film composers.

Miklós Rózsa's Ben-Hur

Miklós Rózsa's Ben-Hur
Author: Roger Hickman
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2011-03-15
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1461669685

In 1925, MGM produced a screen version of Lew Wallace's best-selling novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, which became a classic of silent cinema. Nearly 25 years later, the biblical epic was remade by William Wyler and received an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards, including one for Miklós Rózsa's music. Indeed, the score for Ben-Hur is one of the greatest achievements in Hollywood film music. In this book, Roger Hickman focuses on the confluence of traditions, trends, and innovations that shaped Rózsa's score. Hickman provides an overview of Rózsa's music into the 1960s, looks at the composer's musical influences and the development of his distinctive style, and examines how Rózsa applied these compositional techniques to film scoring. The author then explores the Ben-Hur phenomenon and traces the development of the story and its musical traditions from the original novel into the 21st century. Hickman also examines the conventions of epic films and ties these influences together with a detailed analysis of the score. Miklós Rózsa's Ben-Hur pays tribute to not only one of the great film scores but also to one of Hollywood's most influential composers.