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Composing for the Screen in Germany and the USSR
Cultural Politics and Propaganda
Edited by Robynn J. Stilwell and Phil Powrie
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Book Presentation:
Despite the long history of music in film, its serious academic study is still a relatively recent development and therefore comprises a limited body of work. The contributors to this book, drawn from both film studies and musicology, attempt to rectify this oversight by investigating film music from the vibrant, productive, politically charged period before World War II. They apply a variety of methodologies—including archival work, close readings, political histories, and style comparison—to this under explored field.
About the authors:
Phil Powrie is Professor of French Cultural Studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Most recently, he is co-author (with Bruce Babington, Ann Davies, and Chris Perriam) of Carmen on Film: A Cultural History (IUP, 2007).Robynn Stilwell is Assistant Professor of Music in the Department of Art, Music and Theatre at Georgetown University. She is co-editor (with Phil Powrie) of Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film.
Press Reviews:
". . . [an] interesting collection of essays . . . ."
-Anselm C. Heinrich, Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, University of Glasgow, H-German
"Composing for the Screen in Germany and the USSR offer[s] the first scholarly discussion of German and Soviet film music under a single cover, foregrounding numerous social and aesthetic parallels between these two countries at a time when movies were beginning to talk. Vol. 4, No. 3"
-Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema
". . . a valuable contribution to the growing body of film-music scholarship.Vol 32.2 May 2009"
-Stephen Meyer, Syracuse University
"Sampling a wide range of cinematic time and space, Composing for the Screen in Germany and the USSR leave no doubt that we have yet much to discover about the complex relationship between film music and 'cultural politics' and that the expertise and point of view which musicologists and, particularly, film music scholars bring to the discourse is invaluable. 54.3 Fall 2010"
-Slavic and East European Journal
"Music became a key ingredient in the propaganda machines developed by the National Socialists and Stalin, an art both to regulate and exploit. Indeed, it is impossible to speak of film music in these countries during the early sound era without considering the political implications of compositional choice and the relationship between music and image."
-from the introduction
See the publisher website: Indiana University Press
> From the same authors:
When Music Takes Over in Film (2023)
Dir. Anna K. Windisch, Claus Tieber and Phil Powrie
Bicultural Literature and Film in French and English (2019)
Dir. Peter L. Barta and Phil Powrie
Subject: Film Analysis
Pierre Batcheff and Stardom in 1920s French Cinema (2009)
by Phil Powrie and Eric Rebillard
Subject: Actor > Pierre Batcheff
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:
Cinematically Transmitted Disease (2024)
Eugenics and Film in Weimar and Nazi Germany
Composing for the Red Screen (2014)
Prokofiev and Soviet Film
by Kevin Bartig
Subject: Countries > Russia / USSR
Haunted Soundtracks (2025)
Audiovisual Cultures of Memory, Landscape, and Sound
Dir. Kevin J. Donnelly and Aimee Mollaghan
Hearing Eyes, Seeing Ears (2025)
Collected Writings on Music in Audiovisual Culture
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