Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music

200 Pages·2000·1.061 MB·English

by  Anahid Kassabian

Hearing Film

Hearing Film
Tracking Identifications in Contemporary
Hollywood Film Music
Anahid Kassabian
Routledge
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Published in 2001 by
Routledge
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
Published in Great Britain by
Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
Copyright © 2001 by Routledge
An imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known
or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kassabian, Anahid.
Hearing film : tracking identifications in contemporary Hollywood film music /
Anahid Kassabian
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0–415–92853–2 (Print Edition)— ISBN 0–415–92854–0 (pbk.)
1. Motion picture music—United States—History and criticism. 2. Motion
pictures and music. I. Title.
ML2075 .K39 2000
781.5'42—dc21 00–044636
ISBN 0-203-90080-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-90084-7 (Glassbook Format)
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Listening for Identifications 1
A Prologue
1 How Film Music Works 15
2 How Music Works in Film 37
3 A Woman Scored 61
4 At the Twilight’s Last Scoring 91
5 Opening Scores 117
Tracking Identifications 141
An Epilogue
Appendices 149
Works Cited 157
Videos Cited 167
Notes 173
Index 181

Acknowledgments
Incomplete though these thanks are, they go to:
The ones who hung in from beginning to end: Iris Kassabian,
Elizabeth Kazanjian, Patricia Clough. And the ones who read
drafts—sometimes many—much to the benefit of the final prod-
uct: Shaleen Brawn, Alex Chasin, Simon Frith, Regenia Gagnier,
Barbara Gelpi, Miranda Joseph, David Kazanjian, Kelly Mays, Amit
Rai, David Schwarz, Ola Stockfelt, Philip Tagg, and the anony-
mous readers of both articles and the final book.
The organization: the International Association for the Study
of Popular Music, which always welcomed this work, and whose
members helped me refine it over the years. The institutions that
financed and supported the research: Fordham University;
Stanford University; the Kaltenborn Foundation; the American-
Scandinavian Foundation; Musikvetenskapliga Institutionen,
Göteborgs Universitet; the Whiting Foundation.
The researchers: John Acquaviva, Prudence Hill, Jane Mc-
Gonigal,andJenniferWeeks,whofoundimages,permissions,box
office receipts, and typos with amazing charm and alacrity.The
music magicians: David Gottlieb and Robert Bowen, who tran-
scribed and/or checked, then typeset, every music example in
thisbook.
The ones who intervened at crucial moments: Soo Mee Kwon,
Routledge’s former music editor, and disability specialists Sandy
viii Acknowledgments
Cohen, Fern Geschwind, Ray Grott, George Symkiewicz, Bob
Tellería, and Monica Worline.
The many friends and colleagues, too numerous to list, who
encouraged me and held my hand at various stages, including:
Robin Andersen, David Brackett, Paul Chan, Norman Cowie,
Nicole Fermon, Linda Garber, Reebee Garofalo, Larry Grossberg,
Lisa Hogeland, Gwenyth Jackaway, Steve Jones, Mary Klages, Eline
Maxwell, Leerom Medovoi, Monica Moore, Sue Pavy, Brian Rose,
Josefina Saldaña, Dave Sanjek, Eva Stadler, Elizabeth Stone, and
Scott Walker.
And, most importantly, the partners: Leo G. Svendsen and
Maral Kassabian Svendsen. Without you, no book would matter.
Portions of chapter 4 appeared in Studies in Symbolic Interaction, vol.
15, Norman Denzin, ed. (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1994).
Portions of chapter 5 appeared in Keeping Score: Music, Disciplinarity,
Culture, Schwarz, Kassabian, and Siegel, eds. (Charlottesville, VA:
University Press of Virginia, 1997).
Parts of this manuscript were written with Dragon Dictate and
Dragon Naturally Speaking voice-recognition programs. My
thanks to Dragon Systems and its programmers for making writ-
ing possible for so many of us.
Hearing Film