Music or Film: Background or Subtext?
This seminar proposes to examine the suggestive role of music in film and how the aesthetic of one impacts the aesthetic of the other. The process of understanding a film script (or its founding novel or play) and the transformative process into film music will be the principal focus. The historical panorama of film music will be traced, from the accompanimental role of music to silent movies through to the present. Particular emphasis will be given to the influence of the emigré generation of composers to Hollywood from Central Europe prior to and during World War II, notably Kurt Weill, Alexandre Tansman, Mikos Rosza, Ernst Korngold, Ernst Toch, and Franz Waxman.