Chapters with Listening Guide Repertoire, CW Links, and Quizzes:

Chapter 12

Chapter Goals

To explore ways that music defines cinematic characters and communicates action, mood, and emotion.
To provide a brief overview of the history of music in film.

12.1 – Flying scene from E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, musicby John Williams

12.2 – Opening of Metropolis, music by Gottfried Huppertz

12.3 – Opening sequence from The Day the Earth Stood Still, music by Bernard Herrmann

12.4 – The Hidden Fortress, fire festival scene[excerpt begins at 1:44:02]

CW12.1 General Resources

Here are several resources about film music and film composers:

Trailer for SCORE: A Film Music Documentary. You can often find copies of the full movie on the internet. The Guardian: “The 50 Greatest Film Soundtracks” American Composer’s Orchestra: From Scene to Shining Screen: A Short History of Film Music AMC filmsite

There is a very good bibliography of film music resources by James Wierzbicki (Oxford Bibliographies): http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199757824/obo-9780199757824-0113.xml. Your university’s library may have a subscription to the Oxford Bibliographies that would allow you to access the entire document.

CW12.2 Silent Film

Here is the Library of Congress’s American Silent Feature Film Database: http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/silentfilms/silentfilms-home.html See also the National Film Preservation Foundation.

CW 12.3 The Golden Age of Hollywood

NPR podcast: When Hollywood Had a Song in Its Heart (aired July 12, 2010). Hollywood’s Golden Age. A database of movies, directors, actors, and actresses. The American Film Institute’s 25 Greatest Movie Musicals.

CW 12.4 Race Films

In “Classic Black Films Stand as History, Art” NPR’s All Things Considered film critic Bob Mondello talks about race films: Hallelujah (1920), The Green Pastures (1930s) and Cabin in the Sky (1943). (Aired on Jan. 13, 2006.) The UCLA Digital Humanities project on early African-American (before 1930) films provides an excellent overview, a database, and lists of sources and further reading: http://dhbasecamp.humanities.ucla.edu/afamfilm/whatis/history/ See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTpyPkxPVsg

CW 12.5 The Hidden Fortress

The full movie can be found here: The Hidden Fortress. Or search YouTube for a copy of the film.

CW12.6 King Kong (1933 Version)

http://www.filmsite.org/kingk.html https://michaelpratt.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/the-film-music-of-max-steiner-with-emphasis-on-king-kong-1933-and-gone-with-the-wind-1939/ (scroll down for King Kong) http://cuebycue.blogspot.com/2016/02/king-kong-steiner-1933.html https://www.npr.org/2011/08/04/138953014/the-making-of-king-kong-screams-score-and-more

Quizzes