Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info
When Music Takes Over in Film
Edited by Anna K. Windisch, Claus Tieber and Phil Powrie
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
This open access collection deals with musical moments in film as one of the most pivotal and compelling issues of current film music research. Musical moments as defined by Amy Herzog occur when a musical number inverts the normal relationship between the image track and the soundtrack in a film in such a way that what we see is determined by what we hear. As one potential approach, this definition provokes a variety of perspectives to investigate the disruptive potential of these moments and numbers as a creative device in the production of audiovisual narratives. In this sense, the book responds to a need for an anthology that introduces students as well as scholars of cinema, musicology, media studies and cultural studies more broadly, to recent discourses in film music scholarship. The volume includes contributions by early career researchers as well as by established experts in the fields of musicology, film studies, media studies, and cultural studies, promoting cross-disciplinary collaboration in film music research.
About the authors:
Anna K. Windisch is a film scholar who gained her PhD in Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, and completed a postdoctoral position at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.Claus Tieber is Principal Investigator of the research project “Screenwriting musical numbers” in the Department of Theater, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria.Phil Powrie is Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Surrey, UK, where he was Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences 2010-2015.
Press Reviews:
"This book is a significant addition to the literature of song in film. The scholars in this collection dig deep into musical moments when affect overwhelms the image, revealing new insights into what happens when music is unconstrained by narrative, emotionally unleashed, and powerfully disruptive. Attuned to the ontological, ideological, affective, and political dimensions of such moments, the scholars in this collection bring fresh theoretical perspectives, as well as an international scope and interdisciplinary focus. The introduction crystallizes the core issues involved in the performance of song in film with clarity and vision. Taken collectively, the scholars here offer a thought-provoking revision, a brilliant read on what we thought we knew."
― Kathryn Kalinak, Professor, Rhode Island College, USA
"The editors of this inspiring collection speak of the musical moments that are its focus as offering ‘a kaleidoscope of intensities’, and the phrase could equally apply to the collection itself. Taking off from the very special and cherishable feelings evoked when music and song themselves take off from spoken and acted narrative in film, the collection is wonderfully rich in its range, reaching back to silent and early sound film and on to the most recent works. It is globally generous and revealing, equally at home with classic as with contemporary theory, and astonishing in its revelation of the joyous and disturbing things musical moments can do."
― Richard Dyer, Professor, King’s College London, UK
"This is an eclectic and wide-ranging collection that offers an interesting addition to the field of study. The disciplinary focus is broad, with writers drawing on post-structuralist theory as well as more historicist frameworks for their thinking, and there are some highly original analyses of hitherto marginalised film texts. I particularly like the way Phil Powrie’s useful model of the ‘crystal song’ is developed across the contributing essays alongside the idea of the ‘musical moment’, since both concepts express the way music can pull together, hold in tension, and intensify a film’s meaning and affective power. The essays here will appeal to film scholars and music specialists alike."
― Estella Tincknell, Associate Professor, UWE Bristol, UK
See the publisher website: Palgrave MacMillan
> From the same authors:
Pierre Batcheff and Stardom in 1920s French Cinema (2009)
by Phil Powrie and Eric Rebillard
Subject: Actor > Pierre Batcheff
Composing for the Screen in Germany and the USSR (2007)
Cultural Politics and Propaganda
Dir. Robynn J. Stilwell and Phil Powrie
The Trouble with Men (2005)
Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema
Dir. Phil Powrie, Ann Davies and Bruce Babington
Subject: Sociology
> On a related topic:
Music for Superheroes (2025)
Film and Television Scores Since 1940
Haunted Soundtracks (2025)
Audiovisual Cultures of Memory, Landscape, and Sound
Dir. Kevin J. Donnelly and Aimee Mollaghan
The Music of Space (2024)
Scoring the Cosmos in Film and Television
Musical Composition and Digital Technology in Hollywood (2024)
Dir. Chloé Huvet
(in English and French)
Transmitting Opera in Movie Theatres (2024)
Dir. Marie-Odile Demay and Andre Gaudreault
(in English and French)
Back
