Film Music---What's in a Name?

Abstract

Picture music-a new art form-is coming into its own. George Antheil, Modern Music (1937) encouraged within the academic community, the study of film music has become a burgeoning multidisciplinary if not transdisciplinary endeavor. Today writers utilize not only the concepts and technical vocabularies of music and film making, but variously terms and concepts from musicology, film theory, media and communication studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, literary criticism, critical theory, philosophy, semiotics, psychology, cognitive science, sociology, feminist theory, gender studies, and marketing researchand that is probably not an exhaustive list of all the disciplines and areas represented. With the resulting profusion of technical language there is the potential for a veritable Babel. Like different languages, two disciplines may, for instance, have different terms for the same thing, and writers may 1

A cinemusicaliterary analysis of the American dream as represented by biographical jazz comedepictions in the golden age of Hollywood biopics: Blow, Horatio, Blow; O, Jakie, O; Go,Tommy, Go; No, Artie, No

“…) In my own work, I have defined ambi-diegetic film music as that in which a character performs a tune or song on-screen (as in diegetic music) in a way that furthers the film's dramatic development by adding depth to that character through persona-related associations, by elaborating on thematic aspects of the plot, or by advancing relevant symbolic identifications so as to enrich the meaning of the scene (as in non-diegetic music). (For the development and applications of this definition, please see Holbrook, 2003Holbrook, , 2004Holbrook, , 2005aHolbrook, , 2005bHolbrook, , 2005dHolbrook, , 2006aHolbrook, , 2007a; also Altman, 1987;Atkins, 1983;Biancorosso, 2001;Chion, 1994;Hagen, 1971;Kassabian, 2001;Rosar, 2002;Smith, 1998. ) In short, ambi-diegetic film music is performed on-screen but plays an important role in the film's dramatic development.…”

Cinemusical meanings in motion pictures: commerce, art, and Brando loyalty … or … De Niro, My God, To Thee

“…In this connection, the broad relevance of film music for issues of concern to marketing and consumer researchers has been described elsewhere (Holbrook, 2003(Holbrook, , 2004a in terms of four main Second, film music plays a role as one key component in the product design of a motion picture (Holbrook, 2003(Holbrook, , 2004a. From this perspective, film scholars, musicologists, and other commentators have traditionally distinguished between two major types of music in films -namely, diegetic source music (onscreen performances that enhance the realism of the mise-en-scène) and nondiegetic film scores (background music or underscoring performed off-screen to advance a film's dramatic development of character, plot, or some other cinematic theme) (Metz, 1974;Monaco, 1981;Gorbman, 1987;Kalinak, 1992;Chion, 1994;Gabbard, 1996;Tan, 1996;Smith, 1998;Buhler et al, 2000;Kassabian, 2001;Rosar, 2002;Stilwell, 2002). Other sorts of music in film fall in between these diegetic and nondiegetic categories (Hagen, 1971;Atkins, 1983;Altman, 1987;Chion, 1994;Smith, 1998;Buhler et al, 2000;Kassabian, 2001), tending to blur the traditional boundaries and including a type that we might call ambi-diegetic film music (performed on-screen like diegetic music but designed to advance the dramatic development in a manner similar to nondiegetic music) (Holbrook, 2003(Holbrook, , 2004a(Holbrook, , 2004b(Holbrook, , 2005a(Holbrook, , 2005b(Holbrook, , 2005d(Holbrook, , 2006a(Holbrook, , 2006bcf.…”

“…Other sorts of music in film fall in between these diegetic and nondiegetic categories (Hagen, 1971;Atkins, 1983;Altman, 1987;Chion, 1994;Smith, 1998;Buhler et al, 2000;Kassabian, 2001), tending to blur the traditional boundaries and including a type that we might call ambi-diegetic film music (performed on-screen like diegetic music but designed to advance the dramatic development in a manner similar to nondiegetic music) (Holbrook, 2003(Holbrook, , 2004a(Holbrook, , 2004b(Holbrook, , 2005a(Holbrook, , 2005b(Holbrook, , 2005d(Holbrook, , 2006a(Holbrook, , 2006bcf. Marks, 2000;Biancorosso, 2001;Rosar, 2002). In the latter connection, Rosar (2002) comments that ''composers and film makers alike .…”

“…Marks, 2000;Biancorosso, 2001;Rosar, 2002). In the latter connection, Rosar (2002) comments that ''composers and film makers alike . .…”

Cognitive psychology meets art: exploring creativity, language, and emotion through live musical improvisation in film and theatre

“…,91 The 1940s to 1960s were a golden age for original scored orchestral music, Bernard Herrmann (e.g. 1958: Vertigo) and Ennio Morricone (e.g.…”