c o u r s e s

l i s t e n i n g   t o   f i l m s :
f i l m   m u s i c ’ s   r o l e   i n   m e a n i n g   c o n s t r u c t i o n
w i t h i n   t h e   c i n e m a t i c   e x p e r i e n c e

Course Description
During the filming of Lifeboat, composer David Raksin was told that Hitchcock had decided against using any music. Since the action took place in a boat on the open sea, where would the music come from? Raksin reportedly responded by asking Hitchcock where the cameras came from.
This course examines classical Hollywood as well as more resent film scoring practices, and focuses on the interpretation of film music relative to ‘expectancy’ models of meaning, musical or otherwise. We will be tackling the following questions:
• How and why does music work in films?
• How did it come to be paired with the motion picture?
• How did film music conventions develop and what are their theoretical, socio-cultural, and cognitive bases?
• How does music contribute to a film’s narrative and how can such contribution be creatively explored?

Sample Syllabus (.pdf - 94KB)

Text
A series of articles, book chapters, and on-line notes are compiled for the course.