|
DESCRIPTION
This course will explore the technical, narrative, emotional, and cultural
synesthesia of sound and narrative film. In addition to the Monday / Wednesday
classes, a Thursday evening screening (8-10 P.M.) will be offered. Although
attendance at this screening is preferred, it is not required as students
may elect to rent movies on their own or check out library copies when
available. Films must be viewed before the Monday discussion. Topics covered
will include the rhetoric of film music, film music techniques (synchronization,
orchestration, etc.), associative listening, and the analysis of select
influential soundtracks, such as Toy Story (R. Newman), The Birth of a
Nation (Breil), City Lights (Chaplin), King Kong (Steiner), Fantasia,
Of Mice and Men (Copland), Citizen Kane and Vertigo (Herrmann,) To Kill
A Mockingbird (E. Bernstein), Anatomy of a Murder (Ellington), Koyaanisqatsi
(Glass), Star Wars (Williams), The Red Violin (Corigliano), and Illuminata
(Bolcom). Previous experience in music history or film studies is recommended.
Course materials will include three texts and online musical examples.
Students will be expected to keep up with readings, participate in discussion
(online and in-class), take regular quizzes, present a group introduction
to a film, and complete a rich analytical graph of a music cue, as well
as develop a final term project. Students who are filmmakers or musicians
will have the option of collaborating to produce music for an original
production project. Registration by permission of instructor only.
Course
Materials:
Required Texts: are currently available at Shaman Drum Bookstore in downtown
Ann Arbor (313 S. State, 2nd Fl. / 662�7407). Please inform instructor
if you have problems purchasing them.
- Larry Timm, "The Soul of Cinema," ca.
$40
- Michel Chion, "Audio-Vision," ca. $20
- Aaron Copland, "What to Listen For
in Music," ca. $6
- Selected readings available through
CourseTools site
|