Modular Structures in Film Music
The Answer to Synchronization Problems?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jfm.v4i2.125Keywords:
composition, film music, modular, module, synchronizationAbstract
Over the course of film music history film composers have been forced to seek and create ways of tackling the issue of mapping the musical score to the film structure and adjustments to the music as a consequence of editing. A number of solutions to this problem have been proposed, ranging from simple ones such as opting for less precise synchronization, to more sophisticated methods based on new musical resources and technology. One such solution has been the application of modular components for the construction of flexible musical structures. The present paper is an overview of selected modular approaches used by composers and indicates potential benefits of modularity that are not limited to the synchronization process.
References
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Karlin, F. 1994. Listening to movies: A film lover’s guide to film music. New York: Schirmer Books.
Karlin, F., and R. Wright. 2004. On the track: A Guide to contemporary film scoring. 2nd edition. New York: Routledge.
Kendrick, W. M. 1992. The thrill of fear: 250 years of scary entertainment. New York: Grove Weidenfeld.
Komeda, K. 1961. Odpowied? na ankiet? “Rola muzyki w dziele filmowym.” Kwartalnik Filmowy 2: 37.
Kostka, S. 2006. Materials and techniques of twentieth-century music. 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Kramer, D. K. 1988. The time of music: New meanings, new temporalities, new listening strategies. New York: Schirmer Books.
Lerner, N. 2001. Copland’s music of wide open spaces: Surveying the pastoral trope in Hollywood. The Musical Quarterly 85, no. 3: 477-515. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/musqtl/85.3.477
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Lexmann, J. 2006. Theory of film music. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Lissa, Z. 1964. Estetyka muzyki filmowej. Kraków: PWM.
London, K. 1936. Film music: A summary of the characteristic features of its history, aesthetics, technique; and possible developments. London: Faber & Faber Ltd.
Lustig, M. 1980. Music editing for motion pictures. New York: Hastings House Publishers.
Manvell, R., and J. Huntly. 1975. The technique of film music. London: Focal Press.
Marks, M. 1983. The well-furnished film: Satie’s score for Entr’acte. Canadian University Music Review 4: 245-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/1013906ar
Marks, M. M. 1997. Music and the silent film: Context and case studies, 1895–1924. New York: Oxford University Press.
Matthews, R. 2011. Symphony by the numbers, The National, February 13, 2011. Accessed July 8, 2012, http://thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/symphony-by-the-numbers/.
McGinney, W. L. 2003. The whole as a result of its parts: Assembly in Aaron Copland’s Score for the Red Pony. Master of Music, University of North Texas.
Mellers, W. H. 1964. Music in a new found land: Themes and developments in the history of American music. London: Barrie & Rockliff.
Miranda, E. R. 2004. Composing music with computers. Sydney: Focal Press.
Moritz, W. 1996. Mary Ellen Bute: Seeing sound. Animation World Magazine 1, no. 2: 29-32.
Murch, W. 1992. In the blink of an eye: A perspective on film editing. Sydney: AFTRS.
Nyman, M. 1999. Experimental music: Cage and beyond. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oja, C. J. 2000. Making music modern: New York in the 1920s. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195058499.001.0001
Orledge, R. 1990. Satie the composer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Podobi?ska, K., and L. Polony. 1997. Ciesz? si? darem ?ycia: Rozmowy z Wojciechem Kilarem. Kraków: PWM Edition.
Pollack, H. 2000. Aaron Copland: The life and work of an uncommon man. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
———. 2001. Copland, Aaron. In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell, 398-406. London: Macmillan.
Polony, L. 2005. Kilar: ?ywio? i modlitwa. Kraków: PWM Edition.
Potter, K. 2002. Four musical minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Prendergast, R. M. 1992. Film music: A neglected art. 2nd edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Previn, C. 1947. Schillinger’s influence on film music. Music News: 13-16.
Reay, P. 2004. Music in film: Soundtracks and synergy. New York: Wallflower Press.
Rona, J. 2002. Flex: With film music, your most valuable muscle is invisible. Keyboard 28, no. 317: 126.
———. 1999. The reel world: Scoring for pictures. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books.
———. 2000. Reel world: Making the cut. How to keep up with recuts, rating changes and fader fingers. Keyboard 26, no. 6: 130.
Rosar, W. H. 2003. Bernard Herrmann: The Beethoven of film music? The Journal of Film Music 1, no. 2/3: 121-50.
———. 2006. Music for Martians: Schillinger’s two tonics and harmony of fourths in Leith Stevens’ score for War of the Worlds (1953). The Journal of Film Music 1, no. 4: 395-438.
Sabaneev, L. 1935. Music for the films: A handbook for composers and conductors. London: Pitman.
Schillinger, J. 1978 [1941]. The Schillinger system of musical composition. 2 volumes. New York: Da Capo Press.
Silva, J. 2007. David Shire: All the President’s Men. MusicTech Magazine 56: 114.
Skinner, F. 1963. Underscore. New York: Criterion Music Corp.
Smith, S., C. 2002 [1991]. A heart at fire’s center: The life and music of Bernard Herrmann. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Snyder, B. 2000. Music and memory: An introduction. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Steiner, F. 1974. Herrmann’s “Black-and-White” music for Hitchcock’s Psycho (Part 1). Film Music Notebook 1, no. 1: 29-36.
———. 1974. Herrmann’s “Black-and-White” music for Hitchcock’s Psycho (Part 2). Film Music Notebook 1, no. 2: 26-46.
Stephani, A. F. 2011. Schillinger and Shamanism: A synthesis for music therapies. The University of Minnesota.
Stevens, L. 2006 [1960–65]. Film scoring: The UCLA lectures. The Journal of Film Music 1, no. 4: 341-88.
———. 2006 [1948]. Radio versus movie underscoring. The Journal of Film Music 1, no. 4: 333-36.
Taruskin, R. 2010. Music in the late twentieth century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tetaz, F., and L. Carrik. 2008. Welcome to the territory: Scoring rogue. Audio Technology 59: 63.
Thomson, V. 1971. American music since 1910. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Tyson-Chew, N. 2003. Beyond the music: Film composer’s challenges. Sounds Australian 61: 1-3.
Van Vechten, C. 1916. Music and bad manners. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Watts, S. 1933. Hitchcock on music in films. Cinema Quarterly 2, no. 2: 80-83.
Antheil, G. 1938. On the Hollywood front. Modern Music: A Quarterly Review 15, no. 4: 251-54.
Arden, J. 1996. Focussing the musical imagination: Exploring in composition the ideas and techniques of Joseph Schillinger. City University.
Baird, T. 1961. Odpowied? na ankiet? “Rola muzyki w dziele filmowym.” Kwartalnik filmowy 2: 29.
Borneman, E. J. 1934. Sound rhythm and the film. Sight and Sound 3: 65-67.
Brodsky, W. 2003. Joseph Schillinger (1895–1943): Music Science Promethean. American Music 21, no. 1: 45-73. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3250556
Brown, R. 1994. Overtones and undertones: Reading film music. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bruce, G. 1985. Bernard Herrmann: Film music and narrative. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press.
Cacavas, J. 1993. The art of writing music: A practical book for composers and arrangers. Los Angeles: Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.
Carl, R. 2009. Terry Riley’s in C (Studies in musical genesis, structure and interpretation). New York: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195325287.001.0001
Chanan, M. 1991. American Rapsodies. Sight and Sound 1, no. 7: 32.
Chion, M. 1994. Audio-vision: Sound on screen. Trans. C. Gorbman. New York: Columbia University Press.
Collins, K., ed. 2008. From Pac-Man to pop music: Interactive audio in games and new media. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Cooke, M. 2008. A history of film music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cooper, D. 2001. Herrmann, Bernard. In The New Grove dictionary of music and musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell, 439-41. London: Macmillan.
Copland, A. 1960. Copland on music. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc.
———. 1941. Our new music: Leading composers in Europe and America. New York, London: Whittlesey House/McGraw-Hill Books.
Copland, A., and V. Perlis. 1984. Copland: 1900 through 1942. New York: St. Martin’s/Marek.
Cross, J. 1998. The Stravinsky legacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dahl, I. 1946. Da Capo: Igor Stravinsky on film music. The Film Music Society, http://www.filmmusicsociety.org. Accessed August 16, 2008.
Darby, W., and J. Du Bois. 1990. American film music: Major composers, techniques, trends, 1915–1990. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc.
Davis, R. 1999. Complete guide to film scoring. Boston: Berklee Press.
Eaton, R. M. 2008. Unheard minimalisms: The functions of the minimalist technique in film scores. PhD, The University of Texas.
Elder, R. B. 2008. Harmony and dissent: Film and avant-garde art movements in the early twentieth century. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Fairservice, D. 2001. Film editing: History, theory and practice. Looking at the invisible. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Fiegel, E. 2012. John Barry: A sixties theme, from James Bond to Midnight Cowboy. London: Faber & Faber.
Forte, A. 1992. Concepts of linearity in Schoenberg’s atonal music: A study of the Opus 15 song cycle. Journal of Music Theory 36, no. 2: 285-382. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/843934
Gallez, D. 1976. Satie’s “Entr’acte”: A model of film music. Cinema Journal 16, no. 1: 36-50. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1225448
Gillmore, M. A. 1988. Erik Satie. Boston: Twayne Publishers.
Hedges, S. A. 1978. Dice music in the eighteenth century. Music & Letters 59, no. 2: 180-87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ml/59.2.180
Helman, A. 1964. Rola muzyki w filmie. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Artystyczne i Filmowe.
Hibberd, S., and N. Nielsen. 2002. Music in Melodrama: “The Burden of Ineffable Expression”? Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film 29, no. 2: 30. http://dx.doi.org/10.7227/NCTF.29.2.4
Hill, P. 2000. Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Horlacher, G. 2011. Building blocks: Repetition and continuity in the music of Stravinsky. New York: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195370867.001.0001
Johnson, T. 1994. Minimalism: Aesthetic, style, or technique? Musical Quarterly 78, no. 4: 742-73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mq/78.4.742
Kalinak, K. 2010. Film music: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780195370874.001.0001
Karlin, F. 1994. Listening to movies: A film lover’s guide to film music. New York: Schirmer Books.
Karlin, F., and R. Wright. 2004. On the track: A Guide to contemporary film scoring. 2nd edition. New York: Routledge.
Kendrick, W. M. 1992. The thrill of fear: 250 years of scary entertainment. New York: Grove Weidenfeld.
Komeda, K. 1961. Odpowied? na ankiet? “Rola muzyki w dziele filmowym.” Kwartalnik Filmowy 2: 37.
Kostka, S. 2006. Materials and techniques of twentieth-century music. 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Kramer, D. K. 1988. The time of music: New meanings, new temporalities, new listening strategies. New York: Schirmer Books.
Lerner, N. 2001. Copland’s music of wide open spaces: Surveying the pastoral trope in Hollywood. The Musical Quarterly 85, no. 3: 477-515. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/musqtl/85.3.477
Lewis, George E. 2008. Power stronger than itself: The AACM and American experimental music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226477039.001.0001
Lexmann, J. 2006. Theory of film music. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Lissa, Z. 1964. Estetyka muzyki filmowej. Kraków: PWM.
London, K. 1936. Film music: A summary of the characteristic features of its history, aesthetics, technique; and possible developments. London: Faber & Faber Ltd.
Lustig, M. 1980. Music editing for motion pictures. New York: Hastings House Publishers.
Manvell, R., and J. Huntly. 1975. The technique of film music. London: Focal Press.
Marks, M. 1983. The well-furnished film: Satie’s score for Entr’acte. Canadian University Music Review 4: 245-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/1013906ar
Marks, M. M. 1997. Music and the silent film: Context and case studies, 1895–1924. New York: Oxford University Press.
Matthews, R. 2011. Symphony by the numbers, The National, February 13, 2011. Accessed July 8, 2012, http://thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/symphony-by-the-numbers/.
McGinney, W. L. 2003. The whole as a result of its parts: Assembly in Aaron Copland’s Score for the Red Pony. Master of Music, University of North Texas.
Mellers, W. H. 1964. Music in a new found land: Themes and developments in the history of American music. London: Barrie & Rockliff.
Miranda, E. R. 2004. Composing music with computers. Sydney: Focal Press.
Moritz, W. 1996. Mary Ellen Bute: Seeing sound. Animation World Magazine 1, no. 2: 29-32.
Murch, W. 1992. In the blink of an eye: A perspective on film editing. Sydney: AFTRS.
Nyman, M. 1999. Experimental music: Cage and beyond. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oja, C. J. 2000. Making music modern: New York in the 1920s. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195058499.001.0001
Orledge, R. 1990. Satie the composer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Podobi?ska, K., and L. Polony. 1997. Ciesz? si? darem ?ycia: Rozmowy z Wojciechem Kilarem. Kraków: PWM Edition.
Pollack, H. 2000. Aaron Copland: The life and work of an uncommon man. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
———. 2001. Copland, Aaron. In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell, 398-406. London: Macmillan.
Polony, L. 2005. Kilar: ?ywio? i modlitwa. Kraków: PWM Edition.
Potter, K. 2002. Four musical minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Prendergast, R. M. 1992. Film music: A neglected art. 2nd edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Previn, C. 1947. Schillinger’s influence on film music. Music News: 13-16.
Reay, P. 2004. Music in film: Soundtracks and synergy. New York: Wallflower Press.
Rona, J. 2002. Flex: With film music, your most valuable muscle is invisible. Keyboard 28, no. 317: 126.
———. 1999. The reel world: Scoring for pictures. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books.
———. 2000. Reel world: Making the cut. How to keep up with recuts, rating changes and fader fingers. Keyboard 26, no. 6: 130.
Rosar, W. H. 2003. Bernard Herrmann: The Beethoven of film music? The Journal of Film Music 1, no. 2/3: 121-50.
———. 2006. Music for Martians: Schillinger’s two tonics and harmony of fourths in Leith Stevens’ score for War of the Worlds (1953). The Journal of Film Music 1, no. 4: 395-438.
Sabaneev, L. 1935. Music for the films: A handbook for composers and conductors. London: Pitman.
Schillinger, J. 1978 [1941]. The Schillinger system of musical composition. 2 volumes. New York: Da Capo Press.
Silva, J. 2007. David Shire: All the President’s Men. MusicTech Magazine 56: 114.
Skinner, F. 1963. Underscore. New York: Criterion Music Corp.
Smith, S., C. 2002 [1991]. A heart at fire’s center: The life and music of Bernard Herrmann. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Snyder, B. 2000. Music and memory: An introduction. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Steiner, F. 1974. Herrmann’s “Black-and-White” music for Hitchcock’s Psycho (Part 1). Film Music Notebook 1, no. 1: 29-36.
———. 1974. Herrmann’s “Black-and-White” music for Hitchcock’s Psycho (Part 2). Film Music Notebook 1, no. 2: 26-46.
Stephani, A. F. 2011. Schillinger and Shamanism: A synthesis for music therapies. The University of Minnesota.
Stevens, L. 2006 [1960–65]. Film scoring: The UCLA lectures. The Journal of Film Music 1, no. 4: 341-88.
———. 2006 [1948]. Radio versus movie underscoring. The Journal of Film Music 1, no. 4: 333-36.
Taruskin, R. 2010. Music in the late twentieth century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tetaz, F., and L. Carrik. 2008. Welcome to the territory: Scoring rogue. Audio Technology 59: 63.
Thomson, V. 1971. American music since 1910. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Tyson-Chew, N. 2003. Beyond the music: Film composer’s challenges. Sounds Australian 61: 1-3.
Van Vechten, C. 1916. Music and bad manners. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Watts, S. 1933. Hitchcock on music in films. Cinema Quarterly 2, no. 2: 80-83.
Published
2014-09-19
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Walus, B. P. (2014). Modular Structures in Film Music: The Answer to Synchronization Problems?. Journal of Film Music, 4(2), 125-154. https://doi.org/10.1558/jfm.v4i2.125
