Music for Martians
Schillinger's Two Tonics and Harmony of Fourths in Leigh Steven's Score for War of the Worlds (1953)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jfm.v1i4.395Keywords:
War of the Worlds, Leith StevensAbstract
After seeing Steven Spielberg’s remake of War of the Worlds on the 4th of July weekend 2005, an old friend who sat with me duringthe screening commented on how effective John Williams’ score for it was, and that it reminded her of film noir scores. An interesting coincidence, I thought, as many years earlier I had been struck by how passages in Leith Stevens’ score for Paramount’s War of the Worlds (1953) reminded me of “crime drama music,” music for gangster or detective movies. Why should Stevens and Williams write music for a science fiction film in a style evocative of another film genre?
References
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Auvil, Adrianne Marie. 1974. A survey of the evolution and use of quartal and quintal sonorities. DMA diss., The University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music.
Barry, Gene and Ann Robinson. 2005. Commentary. War of the Worlds. special collector’s ed. DVD. Directed by Byron Haskins. Hollywood, CA: Paramount Home Video, 053037.
Beynon, George W. 1921. Musical presentation of motion pictures. New York: Schirmer.
Bristiger, Michal. 1985. Webern e Bach, Varèse e Höene Wronski: radici romantiche del pensiero musicale di due musicisti moderni. In Comporre arcano. Webern e Varèse poli della musica moderno. ed. Antonino Fiorenza. Palermo: Sellerio.
Clarens, Carlos. 1967. Illustrated history of the horror film. New York: Capricorn Books.
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Erdmann, Hans, Giuseppe Becce, and Ludwig Brav. 1927. Allgemeines Handbuch der Film-Musik. Berlin: Schlesinger.
Fiegel, E. Todd. 2003. Bernard Herrmann as musical colorist: A musicodramatic analysis of his score for The Day the Earth Stood Still. The Journal of Film Music. 1: 185-215.
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Hamilton, James Clifford. 1976. Leith Stevens: A critical analysis of his works. DMA diss., University of Missouri Kansas City.
Hasan, Mark. 2000. Leith Stevens: Earth vs. Mars: The man who kept the score. Outré. 22: 51, 80-2.
Henry, Charles. 1887. Wronski et l’esthétique musicale. Paris: A. Hermann.
Herrmann, Bernard. 1971-72. The colour of the music: An interview with Bernard Herrmann. Interview by Ted Gilling. Sight and Sound 41 (1): 36-39.
Helmholtz, Hermann von. 1954. On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music. ed. and trans. Alexander J. Ellis. New York: Dover Books.
Hickman, Gail Morgan. 1977. The films of George Pal. South Brunswick, NJ: A.S. Barnes.
Larson, Randall D. 1985. Musique fantastique: A survey of film music in the fantastic cinema. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
Levant, Oscar. 1942. A smattering of ignorance. Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing, Co.
Lucanio, Patrick. 1987. Them or us: Archetypal interpretations of fifties alien invasion films. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Lyons, James. 1958. Lament for Beowulf [Liner notes]. Conducted by Howard Hanson. Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra and Eastman School of Music Chorus. Mercury SRI, 75007.
Mayer, David. 1994. Playing out the empire: Ben-Hur and other toga plays and films. Oxford, New York: Clarendon Press.
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Noble, Hollister. 1940. Character music: Leith Stevens creates music that makes scenery for what is unseen. Radio Life (November 17).
Palmer, Christopher. 1990. The composer in Hollywood. London: Marion Boyars.
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Persichetti. Vincent. 1961. Twentieth-century harmony: Creative aspects and practice. New York: W.W. Norton.
Piston, Walter. 1978. Harmony. Rev. & expanded Mark DeVoto. New York: Norton, 1978.
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New Martian invasion is seen in War of the Worlds, which bows at Mayfair. Review of War of the Worlds, directed by Byron Haskin, New York Times, August 14, 1953.
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———. 1951. The music for Quo Vadis. Film Music Notes 11 (2) (Nov-Dec): 6.
Ruben, Steve. 1977. War of the Worlds. Cinefantastique 5 (4) (Spring): 4-17, 34-46.
Salter, Hans J. 1978. The ghost of Hans J. Salter. Interview by Preston Neal Jones. Cinefantastique 7 (2): 10-25.
———. 1994. An oral history with Hans J. Salter. Interview by Warren M. Sherk, Margaret Herrick Library. Beverly Hills, CA: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Schillinger, Joseph. 1946. The Schillinger system of musical composition. New York: Carl Fischer.
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Starr, June. 1950. Movie music makers. Life with Music (May-June): 15-16.
Taruskin, Richard. 1985. Chernomor to Kashchei: Harmonic sorcery; or, Stravinsky’s ‘Angle’. Journal of the American Musicological Society 38: 72-142.
Thomson, Andrew. 1999. A composer of genius. Music and Vision. http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/1999/10/messiaen.htm (accessed 12/1/2005).
Tiomkin, Dimitri. 1951. Composing for films. Films in Review 2 (9): 17-22.
Ulehla, Ludmila. 1966. Contemporary harmony: Romanticism through the twelve-tone row. New York: The Free Press.
Wellek, Albert. 1962. The relationship between poetry and music. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 21: 149-56.
Wescott, Steven D. 1989. Miklós Rózsa’s Ben-Hur: The musical-dramatic function of the Hollywood Leitmotiv. In Film Music 1. ed. Clifford McCarty. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.
Wierzbicki, James. 2002. Weird vibrations: How the Theremin gave musical voice to Hollywood’s extraterrestrial ‘Others.’ Journal of Popular Film & Television 30: 125-35.
———. 2005. Louis and Bebe Barrons’s Forbidden Planet: A film score guide. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Auvil, Adrianne Marie. 1974. A survey of the evolution and use of quartal and quintal sonorities. DMA diss., The University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music.
Barry, Gene and Ann Robinson. 2005. Commentary. War of the Worlds. special collector’s ed. DVD. Directed by Byron Haskins. Hollywood, CA: Paramount Home Video, 053037.
Beynon, George W. 1921. Musical presentation of motion pictures. New York: Schirmer.
Bristiger, Michal. 1985. Webern e Bach, Varèse e Höene Wronski: radici romantiche del pensiero musicale di due musicisti moderni. In Comporre arcano. Webern e Varèse poli della musica moderno. ed. Antonino Fiorenza. Palermo: Sellerio.
Clarens, Carlos. 1967. Illustrated history of the horror film. New York: Capricorn Books.
Haskin, Byron. 1984. Byron Haskin. Interviewed by Joe Adamson. Hollywood, CA: The Directors Guild of America and Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press.
Erdmann, Hans, Giuseppe Becce, and Ludwig Brav. 1927. Allgemeines Handbuch der Film-Musik. Berlin: Schlesinger.
Fiegel, E. Todd. 2003. Bernard Herrmann as musical colorist: A musicodramatic analysis of his score for The Day the Earth Stood Still. The Journal of Film Music. 1: 185-215.
Hagerty, Jack. 2006. The War of the Worlds: George Pal, theoretical physics, and the invasion from Mars [Part 2]. Filmfax 109 (January-March): 69-70.
Hamilton, James Clifford. 1976. Leith Stevens: A critical analysis of his works. DMA diss., University of Missouri Kansas City.
Hasan, Mark. 2000. Leith Stevens: Earth vs. Mars: The man who kept the score. Outré. 22: 51, 80-2.
Henry, Charles. 1887. Wronski et l’esthétique musicale. Paris: A. Hermann.
Herrmann, Bernard. 1971-72. The colour of the music: An interview with Bernard Herrmann. Interview by Ted Gilling. Sight and Sound 41 (1): 36-39.
Helmholtz, Hermann von. 1954. On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music. ed. and trans. Alexander J. Ellis. New York: Dover Books.
Hickman, Gail Morgan. 1977. The films of George Pal. South Brunswick, NJ: A.S. Barnes.
Larson, Randall D. 1985. Musique fantastique: A survey of film music in the fantastic cinema. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
Levant, Oscar. 1942. A smattering of ignorance. Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing, Co.
Lucanio, Patrick. 1987. Them or us: Archetypal interpretations of fifties alien invasion films. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Lyons, James. 1958. Lament for Beowulf [Liner notes]. Conducted by Howard Hanson. Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra and Eastman School of Music Chorus. Mercury SRI, 75007.
Mayer, David. 1994. Playing out the empire: Ben-Hur and other toga plays and films. Oxford, New York: Clarendon Press.
Morton, Lawrence. 1951. Rózsa’s music for Quo Vadis. Film Music Notes 11 (2) (Nov-Dec): 12.
Nelson, Robert U. 1946. Film music: Color or line? Hollywood Quarterly 2 (1) (October): 57-65.
Noble, Hollister. 1940. Character music: Leith Stevens creates music that makes scenery for what is unseen. Radio Life (November 17).
Palmer, Christopher. 1990. The composer in Hollywood. London: Marion Boyars.
Parks, Anne Florence. 1974. Freedom, form, and process in Varèse: A study of Varèse’s musical ideas, their sources, their development, and their use in his works. PhD diss., Cornell University.
Persichetti. Vincent. 1961. Twentieth-century harmony: Creative aspects and practice. New York: W.W. Norton.
Piston, Walter. 1978. Harmony. Rev. & expanded Mark DeVoto. New York: Norton, 1978.
Plato. 1986. The dialogues of Plato. Trans. Benjamin Jowett, Bantam Classics. New York: Bantam Books.
Rapeé, Erno. 1925. Encyclopedia of music for pictures. New York: Belwin.
Reisberg, Horace. 1975. The vertical dimension in twentieth-century music. In Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. ed. Gary Wittlich. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
New Martian invasion is seen in War of the Worlds, which bows at Mayfair. Review of War of the Worlds, directed by Byron Haskin, New York Times, August 14, 1953.
Rosar, William H. 1994. Film music and Heinz Werner’s theory of physiognomic perception. Psychomusicology 13: 154-65.
———. 1999. Broken Arrow: The score [biographical essay and music notes]. Broken Arrow, CD. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Film Music Archives, FMA-HF105.
Rózsa, Miklós. 1989. A double life. New York: Wynwood Press.
———. 1951. The music for Quo Vadis. Film Music Notes 11 (2) (Nov-Dec): 6.
Ruben, Steve. 1977. War of the Worlds. Cinefantastique 5 (4) (Spring): 4-17, 34-46.
Salter, Hans J. 1978. The ghost of Hans J. Salter. Interview by Preston Neal Jones. Cinefantastique 7 (2): 10-25.
———. 1994. An oral history with Hans J. Salter. Interview by Warren M. Sherk, Margaret Herrick Library. Beverly Hills, CA: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Schillinger, Joseph. 1946. The Schillinger system of musical composition. New York: Carl Fischer.
Siders, Harvey. 1969. Leith Stevens. BMI Magazine (June): 18.
Skiles, Marlin. 1976. Music scoring for TV & motion pictures. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books.
Starr, June. 1950. Movie music makers. Life with Music (May-June): 15-16.
Taruskin, Richard. 1985. Chernomor to Kashchei: Harmonic sorcery; or, Stravinsky’s ‘Angle’. Journal of the American Musicological Society 38: 72-142.
Thomson, Andrew. 1999. A composer of genius. Music and Vision. http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/1999/10/messiaen.htm (accessed 12/1/2005).
Tiomkin, Dimitri. 1951. Composing for films. Films in Review 2 (9): 17-22.
Ulehla, Ludmila. 1966. Contemporary harmony: Romanticism through the twelve-tone row. New York: The Free Press.
Wellek, Albert. 1962. The relationship between poetry and music. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 21: 149-56.
Wescott, Steven D. 1989. Miklós Rózsa’s Ben-Hur: The musical-dramatic function of the Hollywood Leitmotiv. In Film Music 1. ed. Clifford McCarty. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.
Wierzbicki, James. 2002. Weird vibrations: How the Theremin gave musical voice to Hollywood’s extraterrestrial ‘Others.’ Journal of Popular Film & Television 30: 125-35.
———. 2005. Louis and Bebe Barrons’s Forbidden Planet: A film score guide. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Published
2009-06-19
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Rosar, W. H. (2009). Music for Martians: Schillinger’s Two Tonics and Harmony of Fourths in Leigh Steven’s Score for War of the Worlds (1953). Journal of Film Music, 1(4), 395-438. https://doi.org/10.1558/jfm.v1i4.395
