"A Brilliant New Symphonic Effect"
The "New" Early Music in Stothart's Score for Romeo and Juliet (1936)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jfm.v4i1.27Keywords:
Agnes de Mille, early music, film music, Herbert Stothart, historical films, MGM, Romeo and Juliet, ShakespeareAbstract
This article provides a historical context for this MGM score and a discussion of important primary sources associated with it. It also argues that the score was a contribution to the Early Music movement in the United States—something rarely associated right now with film scores of the 1930s.
References
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Adamson, Danette Cook and Mimi Tashiro. 1992. Servants, scholars, and sleuths: Early leaders in California music librarianship. MLA Notes (March): 806-19.
American Film Institute catalogue for motion pictures produced in the United States: 1931-1940. 1993. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Campbell, Margaret. 2009. Dolmetsch. (1) (Eugene) Arnold; (4) Rudolph (Arnold), and (5) Carl (Frederick). In Grove music online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed October 22, 2009. www.grovemusic.com
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Day, Timothy, Gwendolyn Tietze, and Hannah Vl?ek. 2004. Histories in sound: Disseminating medieval music. In Proceedings of the Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology, Graz, Austria, April 15-18, 2004. Accessed March 10, 2005. www.uni-graz.at/richard.parncutt/cim04/CIM04_paper_pdf/Day_Vlcek_Tietze_CIM04_proceedings.pdf
de Mille, Agnes. 1952. Dance to the piper. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
Easton, Carol. 1996. No intermissions: The life of Agnes de Mille. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Flamini, Roland. 1994. Thalberg: The last tycoon and the world of MGM. New York: Crown Publishers.
Gillies, Malcolm and David Pear. 2009. Grainger, (George) Percy (Aldridge). In Grove music online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed October 22, 2009. www.grovemusic.com
Haar, James. 2009. Reese, Gustave. In Grove music online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed October 22, 2009. www.grovemusic.com
Hay, Peter. 1991. MGM: When the lion roars. Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 1940. RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. Cue sheet #428, Interim #2, February 2, 1940 (also includes earlier date of December 22). Original score composed by Alfred Newman.
Lambert, Gavin. 1990. Norma Shearer: A life. New York: Knopf.
Maitland, J. A. Fuller/Raymond Hockley. 2009. Naylor, Edward (Woodall). In Grove music online ed. L. Macy. Accessed October 22, 2009. www.grovemusic.com
Marx, Samuel. 1975. Mayer and Thalberg: The make-believe saints. New York: Random House.
Montgomery, Elizabeth Miles. 1986. The best of MGM. New York: Gallery Publishers.
Musical illustrations for history of recording: Columbia history of music by eye and ear. 2005. University of Dublin. Accessed March 11, 2005. www.tcd.ie/Music/Recording%20Events_Examples.htm
Ovitz, Delia G., ed. 1916. Directory of graduates: State Normal School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee, WI: Wisconsin State Normal School.
Parish, James Robert and Gregory W. Mank, with Richard Picchiarini. 1981. The best of MGM: The golden years (1928-59). Westport, CT: Arlington House Publishers.
Quirk, Lawrence J. 1988. Norma: The story of Norma Shearer. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Rapée, Erno. 1925. Encyclopaedia of music for pictures. New York: Belwin; repr. New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1970.
Riesenfeld, Hugo. 1926. Music and Motion Pictures. The motion picture in its economic and social aspects, issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (November): 58-62. Reprinted in Silent film bookshelf. Music and Motion Pictures. Accessed Jan. 1, 2008. www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/1_hreis1.htm
Romeo and Juliet. 1936. MGM. Cue sheet, Production #879. September 2. Original score composed by Herbert Stothart.
Rosar, William H. 1984. Herbert Stothart: A biographical sketch. The Cue Sheet 1, no. 1 (January): 3-5.
Rothwell, Kenneth S. and Annabelle Henkin Melzer. 1990. Shakespeare on screen: An international filmography and videography. New York/London: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
Shakespeare, William. 2005. The Tempest. In The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Accessed April 25, 2005. www.shakespeare_literature.com/The_Tempest/8.html
Smith, Barry. 2009. Warlock, Peter [Heseltine, Philip (Arnold)]. Grove music online ed. L. Macy. Accessed October 22, 2009. www.grovemusic.com Stanley, Fred. 1947. Film Tune Sleuths. New York Times (August 17), part II: 4.
Stothart, Herbert. 1938. Film Music. In Stephen Watts, ed., Behind the screen: How films are made. New York: Dodge Publishing Co.
Thomas, Bob. 1969. Thalberg: Life and legend. New York: Doubleday and Co., Inc.
Van Der Lek, Robbert. 1991. Diegetic music in opera and film: A similarity between two genres of drama analysed in works by Eric Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), trans. Mick Swithinbank. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Willson, Jr., Robert F. 2000. Shakespeare in Hollywood, 1929-1956. Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
Wisconsin State Normal School, Milwaukee. 1908-12. Bulletin of the State Normal School, Milwaukee, Wis. Milwaukee, WI: Board of Regents of Normal Schools.
Wisconsin State Normal School, Milwaukee. 1907. The Echo senior annual. Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee Normal School.
Adamson, Danette Cook and Mimi Tashiro. 1992. Servants, scholars, and sleuths: Early leaders in California music librarianship. MLA Notes (March): 806-19.
American Film Institute catalogue for motion pictures produced in the United States: 1931-1940. 1993. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Campbell, Margaret. 2009. Dolmetsch. (1) (Eugene) Arnold; (4) Rudolph (Arnold), and (5) Carl (Frederick). In Grove music online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed October 22, 2009. www.grovemusic.com
Carroll, Brendan G. 1997. The last prodigy: A biography of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press.
Daubney, Kate, with William H. Rosar. 2001. Stothart, Herbert. In New Grove dictionary of music and musicians, 2nd edition, ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan.
Day, Timothy, Gwendolyn Tietze, and Hannah Vl?ek. 2004. Histories in sound: Disseminating medieval music. In Proceedings of the Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology, Graz, Austria, April 15-18, 2004. Accessed March 10, 2005. www.uni-graz.at/richard.parncutt/cim04/CIM04_paper_pdf/Day_Vlcek_Tietze_CIM04_proceedings.pdf
de Mille, Agnes. 1952. Dance to the piper. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
Easton, Carol. 1996. No intermissions: The life of Agnes de Mille. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Flamini, Roland. 1994. Thalberg: The last tycoon and the world of MGM. New York: Crown Publishers.
Gillies, Malcolm and David Pear. 2009. Grainger, (George) Percy (Aldridge). In Grove music online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed October 22, 2009. www.grovemusic.com
Haar, James. 2009. Reese, Gustave. In Grove music online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed October 22, 2009. www.grovemusic.com
Hay, Peter. 1991. MGM: When the lion roars. Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 1940. RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. Cue sheet #428, Interim #2, February 2, 1940 (also includes earlier date of December 22). Original score composed by Alfred Newman.
Lambert, Gavin. 1990. Norma Shearer: A life. New York: Knopf.
Maitland, J. A. Fuller/Raymond Hockley. 2009. Naylor, Edward (Woodall). In Grove music online ed. L. Macy. Accessed October 22, 2009. www.grovemusic.com
Marx, Samuel. 1975. Mayer and Thalberg: The make-believe saints. New York: Random House.
Montgomery, Elizabeth Miles. 1986. The best of MGM. New York: Gallery Publishers.
Musical illustrations for history of recording: Columbia history of music by eye and ear. 2005. University of Dublin. Accessed March 11, 2005. www.tcd.ie/Music/Recording%20Events_Examples.htm
Ovitz, Delia G., ed. 1916. Directory of graduates: State Normal School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee, WI: Wisconsin State Normal School.
Parish, James Robert and Gregory W. Mank, with Richard Picchiarini. 1981. The best of MGM: The golden years (1928-59). Westport, CT: Arlington House Publishers.
Quirk, Lawrence J. 1988. Norma: The story of Norma Shearer. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Rapée, Erno. 1925. Encyclopaedia of music for pictures. New York: Belwin; repr. New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1970.
Riesenfeld, Hugo. 1926. Music and Motion Pictures. The motion picture in its economic and social aspects, issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (November): 58-62. Reprinted in Silent film bookshelf. Music and Motion Pictures. Accessed Jan. 1, 2008. www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/1_hreis1.htm
Romeo and Juliet. 1936. MGM. Cue sheet, Production #879. September 2. Original score composed by Herbert Stothart.
Rosar, William H. 1984. Herbert Stothart: A biographical sketch. The Cue Sheet 1, no. 1 (January): 3-5.
Rothwell, Kenneth S. and Annabelle Henkin Melzer. 1990. Shakespeare on screen: An international filmography and videography. New York/London: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
Shakespeare, William. 2005. The Tempest. In The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Accessed April 25, 2005. www.shakespeare_literature.com/The_Tempest/8.html
Smith, Barry. 2009. Warlock, Peter [Heseltine, Philip (Arnold)]. Grove music online ed. L. Macy. Accessed October 22, 2009. www.grovemusic.com Stanley, Fred. 1947. Film Tune Sleuths. New York Times (August 17), part II: 4.
Stothart, Herbert. 1938. Film Music. In Stephen Watts, ed., Behind the screen: How films are made. New York: Dodge Publishing Co.
Thomas, Bob. 1969. Thalberg: Life and legend. New York: Doubleday and Co., Inc.
Van Der Lek, Robbert. 1991. Diegetic music in opera and film: A similarity between two genres of drama analysed in works by Eric Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), trans. Mick Swithinbank. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Willson, Jr., Robert F. 2000. Shakespeare in Hollywood, 1929-1956. Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
Wisconsin State Normal School, Milwaukee. 1908-12. Bulletin of the State Normal School, Milwaukee, Wis. Milwaukee, WI: Board of Regents of Normal Schools.
Wisconsin State Normal School, Milwaukee. 1907. The Echo senior annual. Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee Normal School.
Published
2012-12-07
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Schubert, L. K. (2012). "A Brilliant New Symphonic Effect": The "New" Early Music in Stothart’s Score for Romeo and Juliet (1936). Journal of Film Music, 4(1), 27-43. https://doi.org/10.1558/jfm.v4i1.27
