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"Brown brings music theory to bear upon film theory, and the result is startling. . . . An extremely important work."—William Van Wert, Temple University
"Royal S. Brown has contributed a major resource on film music. Overtones and Undertones is an outstanding in-depth exploration of the relationship between music and motion picture."—Fred Karlin, composer
"Royal Brown's book on film music, Overtones and Undertones, is a remarkable document: an enormous amount of information assembled and made sense of by a fine intellect. Prof. Brown demonstrates that it is indeed possible for an academic—and a professor of Romance Languages at that—to deal intelligently with our esoteric art."—David Raksin,composer
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Narrative/Film/Music
2 Actions/Interactions: "Classical" Music
3 Actions/Interactions: Historical Overview
4 Actions/Interactions:
The Source Beyond the Source
5 Styles and Interactions: Beyond the Diegesis
Interlude I: Erich Wolfgang Komgold: The Sea Hawk (1940)
Interlude II: Miklos Rozsa: Double Indemnity (1944)
Interlude III: The Eisenstein/Prokofiev Phenomenon
6 Herrmann, Hitchcock, and the Music of the Irrational
7 New Styles, New Genres, New Interactions
Interlude IV: Jean-Luc Godard: Vivre sa vie (1962)
Interlude V: Jean-Luc Godard: Pierrot lefou (1965)
8 Music as Image as Music: A Postmodern Perspective
A Brief (Postmodern) Conclusion
lnterviews
Miklos Rozsa
David Raksin
Bernard Herrmann
Henry Mancini
Maurice Jarre
Lalo Schifrin
John Barry
Howard Shore
Appendix: How to Hear a Movie: An Outline
Notes
Discography
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Royal S. Brown is Professor and Chair of the Film Studies Program at Queens College, and editor of Focus on Godard.
Summary
Draws on film, music, and narrative theory to present a comprehensive aesthetics of film music. This book traces the history of film music from its beginnings, covering both American and European cinema. It features readings of several of the best film/score interactions, including "Psycho", "Laura", "The Sea Hawk", and "Double Indemnity".
