Books in the Film Score Guides series

Regarded as one of the greatest film composers of all time, Bernard Herrmann was responsible for some of the most memorable music in film. His work with Alfred Hitchcock produced a slew of classics including Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). Several years before collaborating with Hitchcock, however, Herrmann composed the brilliant score for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), which remained a personal favorite of the composer's. Herrmann's score reinforces the film's romantic theme, and much of the music has an appropriately elegiac quality. In mood, orchestration, and even to some extent thematic identity, it seems to prefigure his music for Vertigo.In this latest addition to the Scarecrow Film Score Guide series, author David Cooper examines Herrmann's career in general, as well as the specific elements that went into the creation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir's score. Cooper traces the development of Herrmann's craft as a film composer, especially through his radio work, where he made contact with many of the great artists of the age, most notably Orson Welles. This association was to give him a passport to Hollywood and led to the scoring of his first film, Citizen Kane. Herrmann's subsequent film scores of the 1940s included The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Magnificent Ambersons, and Jane Eyre. In this guide, Cooper considers Herrmann's musical technique and offers a theorization of some of the ways in which music can be "e;meaningful"e; in film. He also explores non-musical contexts of the film, including the screenplay's relationship to the popular novel from which it was adapted, as well as the contribution of director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the performances of Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison, and the editing of Dorothy Spencer. Cooper also provides a quantitative, evidence-based study of the score. In doing so, he discusses the extent to which Herrmann adopted screenwriter Philip Dunne's suggestions for music in

This examination of Max Steiner's Academy Award winning score for the 1942 film "Now, Voyager" combines a full and detailed analysis of the score with critical and historical perspectives on the film. The study also discusses Steiner's musical background and his technique of film scoring.

This in-depth musicological and critical study examines how Bernard Herrmann's score for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo plays a crucial role in the articulation and development of the film's narrative and how it affects readings of the film.

Anthony Minghella's 1996 film The English Patient won nine Academy Awards(TM), including one for Best Original Score. Though Gabriel Yared had previously composed scores for several films, including Betty Blue, Camille Claudel, and Vincent & Theo, his work on The English Patient launched him into international public consciousness. His score for this film testifies to the continued appeal of a classical, noncommercial style of scoring, eschewing the use of contemporary pop music for a more 'timeless' sound.In Gabriel Yared's The English Patient: A Film Score Guide, author Heather Laing offers the most in-depth examination to date of the work of the composer. Laing examines Yared's approach to film scoring, his compositional techniques and the impact of his partnership with Minghella before and after The English Patient-through an exploration of such films as The Moon in the Gutter, Betty Blue, Tatie Danielle, IP5, The Lover, City of Angels, and The Talented Mr. Ripley.The integral role of music in The English Patient is contextualized within a detailed analysis of the film's narrative construction, themes, and motifs. The soundtrack is examined as a whole, and the specific 'soundworlds' of each character, location, and relationship are drawn out as the basis for the overall style and construction of the score. Musical themes are viewed in both musical and narrative terms, and musical connections between the themes are identified. A close analysis of the placement and development of musical themes throughout the film reveals the complex musical journey that forms a unique and integral element of the characters.

Alex Norths A Streetcar Named Desire: A Film Score Guide examines the acclaimed score for Elia Kazans much-celebrated adaptation of Tennessee Williamss A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Situating the score within the context of Alex Norths life and career, the book begins with an overview of Norths musical training and his works up to his first scores for Hollywood in 1950, demonstrating how his experience in writing music for stage, concert hall, dance, and documentaries each contributed to the skills necessary for film composition. Annette Davison uses examples from Norths film career to identify and describe his scoring techniques.Using manuscript and archival research, Davison explores both the plays debut stage production and the films production process, with a particular emphasis on the genesis and development of the music heard in the film. Considering the influence and changes imposed by the films studio (Warner Bros.), the Production Code Administration, and the Catholic Legion of Decency on the film, Davison explores the impact of these changes on the interpretation of this finely balanced drama, comparing the different versions of the film and its scores. The book concludes with a full and detailed analysis of the jazz-inflected score, taking a holistic approach and using both musicology and film studies to investigate the ways it gives a dynamic shape to the film as a whole.

Director Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy-Blue (1993), White (1993), and Red (1994)-is one of the great achievements of European film. A meditation on liberty, equality, and fraternity, these three films marked the culmination of the director's career, as well as the zenith of one of the most important creative collaborations in 20th-century cinema-between Kieslowski, scriptwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz, and composer Zbigniew Preisner. Thanks to their close working relationship, music for the Three Colors trilogy achieves both a focal narrative and philosophical function. At times, Preisner's music advances the narrative independently of the films' other codes; at other times, it creates a metaphorical space into which the audience is invited in order to read for "e;deeper"e; messages.As the first major scholarly treatment of Preisner's music, Nicholas Reyland's Zbigniew Preisner's Three Colors Trilogy: A Film Score Guide fills an important void in film score scholarship. In this guide, Reyland analyzes the historical context of the film scores, the life of the composer, the hermeneutic and narrative role of the music within the film, and the musical scoring techniques used for the trilogy.This volume also draws on an interplay of established "e;classic"e; approaches to analyzing film music and more recent approaches in the exploration of its themes and readings. In addition, the composer's willingness to be interviewed by Reyland enhances the musicological scholarship of this book, giving the reader privileged access into the process of scoring. A significant contribution to both film studies and musicological literature, this book celebrates one of the great cinematic achievements of the last few decades.

Upon his arrival in Hollywood, Alfred Hitchcock began work on his first American film, an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's best-selling novel. Produced by David O. Selznick and featuring compelling performances by Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, and Judith Anderson, Rebecca became one of Hitchcock's most successful films. It was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and received the Oscar for Best Picture, the only Hitchcock work to be so honored. Without question, one of the reasons for the film's success is its ninety minutes of dramatic musical underscoring by Franz Waxman.In Franz Waxman's Rebecca: A Film Score Guide, David Neumeyer and Nathan Platte situate the score for this classic work within the context of the composer's life and career. Beginning with Waxman's early training and professional experience as a jazz musician and film-music arranger-orchestrator in Berlin, the authors also recount the composer's work in the music department at MGM between 1936 and 1942. During this period, Waxman was loaned out to Selznick International Pictures and wrote the music for Rebecca. Through manuscript and archival research, Neumeyer and Platte untangle the threads of the film's complicated music production process, which was strongly influenced by Selznick's habit of micromanaging music choices and placement. This volume concludes with a thematic analysis and reading of the score that incorporates commentary on scenes and cues.The first book devoted to the music of a single film by this great composer from Hollywood's golden age, Franz Waxman's Rebecca: A Film Score Guide will be of interest to musicologists and film scholars, as well as fans of Alfred Hitchcock and Franz Waxman.