The Art of Film Music - Hardcover

Burt, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1555531938 ISBN 13: 9781555531935

Publisher: Northeastern Univ Pr, 1994

Synopsis

Music is a key element in narrative cinema. The film score offers important clues about characters and situations and gives the illusion of continuity to otherwise disparate images. The Art of Film Music draws on conversations with Hollywood's leading composers as well as author George Burt's own experience composing for the screen to provide a useful, fascinating guide to creating music for dramatic films.
Burt explores music's significant role and powerful effect by analyzing several scenes in classic films produced from the 1930s through the 1980s. His thorough examination of the practical and aesthetic aspects of scoring a film is richly illustrated by the personal perspectives of such renowned composers as Hugo Friedhofer, Alex North, David Raksin, and Leonard Rosenman.
The volume features a penetrating discussion of the landmark scores from key scenes in The Best Years of Our Lives, Laura, and East of Eden. It also offers a technical guide to composing film music, explaining the spotting process, timing, synchronization, and general approaches to composition. In addition, numerous musical examples from films as far-ranging as High Noon and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, as well as a glossary of musical terms, are included.

About this title

About the Author:

George Burt is Professor of Music at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

From Booklist:

Burt, a music professor with extensive film scoring experience, offers what amounts to a textbook for aspiring film composers, one that employs many musical examples from film scores by composers ranging from Erich Wolfgang Korngold, biggest gun among 1930s Hollywood composers, to John Williams, the most successful contemporary exponent of the trade. Burt especially emphasizes, however, the work of four other composers--Hugo Friedhofer, Alex North, David Raksin, and Leonard Rosenman--and uses their work to illustrate topics ranging from creating character through music to how to pace action with music. Particularly useful are extended discussions on how specific sequences in such famous movies as East of Eden, Laura, and The Best Years of Our Lives were scored. Burt concludes with a chapter emphasizing such practical details as timing, synchronization, use of the synthesizer, and mixing and dubbing. Although fairly technical, Burt's effort will interest, besides budding film composers, those interested in the nuts and bolts of film scoring. Libraries with hefty film collections can safely add this. John Shreffler

About this edition

• Publisher: Northeastern Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 1555531938
• ISBN 13: 9781555531935
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288