Full title: Film music. History, analysis, theory

Film and music belong together – as they have done throughout the history of the movie. But what exactly is music used for? Why is it there at all? Film Music answers these and a number of other questions related to the use of music in movies.

Peter Larsen describes the development of film music from the first silent films up until the modern talkies. Along the way he goes through the basic functions of film music, using close analyses of classics like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Howard Hawks’s The Big Sleep, Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest as illustrations. These analyses demonstrate certain general observations concerning soundtracks as well as practical devices which can form the basis for other analyses of film music. In the final chapters of the book he discusses central theoretical questions regarding to the psychological functions of the soundtrack.

Contents:

1: Silent films, expressive music

2: Analysing film music

3: Back to the future: Metropolis, 1927

4: Musical meanings

5: The talkie conquers the screen

6: Soundtracks from the golden age: The Big Sleep, 1946

7: Other ways: North by Northwest, 1959

8: A new ring. Film music after the golden age

9: Necessity or possibility? The psychology of the soundtrack

10: Musical functions