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The Sounds of the Silents in Britain
Edited by Julie Brown and Annette Davison
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Book Presentation:
• Features essays by leading experts on early British cinema
• Provides a mix of historical and analytical perspectives
• Fills major gap in scholarship on film music in British silent film
The Sounds of the Silents in Britain explores the sonic dimension of film exhibition in Britain, from the emergence of cinema through to the introduction of synchronized sound. Edited by Julie Brown and Annette Davison, the volume includes original scholarship from many highly-regarded experts on British silent film from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, such as film history, theatre studies, economic history, and musicology. The essays provide an introduction to diverse aspects of early film sound: vocal performance, from lecturing and reciting, to voicing the drama; music, from the forerunners of music for visual spectacle to the impact of legislation and the development of film music practice; and performance in cinemas more generally, from dancing and singalong films, to live stage prologues, and even musical performances captured in British Pathé's early sound shorts. Other topics include the sonic eclecticism of performances at the Film Society, British International Pictures' first synchronized sound films, and the role of institutions such as the Musicians' Union and the Performing Right Society in relation to cinema music and musicians.
In addition to tackling these familiar topics from surprising new angles, The Sounds of the Silents in Britain also debunks some of the myths about the sonic dimension of film exhibition. For example, the book reveals that local venue licensing decisions had a profound effect on whether music could even be performed with film in some British performances spaces and cities, and that the same was true of live acts alongside film - even into the late 1920s. The books also bring to light the fact that, in terms of special film presentation and orchestral accompaniment, practices in London were arguably more sophisticated than those in New York before the onset of World War I; that lecturing to film in Aberdeen, Scotland had almost as long a life as Japanese benshi; and that the London Film Society was as eclectic in its approach to sound as it was in programming the films themselves. Filled with both archival research and sound musicological analysis, The Sounds of the Silents in Britain represents an important addition to early film and film music scholarship.
About the authors:
Edited by Julie Brown, Reader in Music, Royal Holloway, University of London, and Annette Davison, Senior Lecturer in Music, University of Edinburgh Julie Brown is Reader in Music at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has written on early twentieth-century music (especially Schoenberg and Bartók), television music and film music. Her publications include Bartók and the Grotesque: Studies in Modernity, the Body and Contradiction in Music, and Western Music and Race, which was awarded the American Musicological Society's Ruth A. Solie Award. Annette Davison is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on film music and sound, music for the stage and for television. Publications include Hollywood Theory, Non-Hollywood Practice: Cinema Soundtracks in the 1980s and 1990s (2004), Alex North's A Streetcar Named Desire: A Film Score Guide (2009), and, with Erica Sheen, American Dreams, Nightmare Visions: The Cinema of David Lynch (2004).
Press Reviews:
"Covering a suprising array of practices, the case studies in this book are engaging ... Given the variety of topics and perpectives, it is a remarkable achievement of the editors that the book reads as an integrated effort, with substantial cross-referencing and little unnecessary repetition ..." - Maria A. Vélez-Serna
"This collection fulfills a need for addressing the history of British cinema sound, in which music was hardly covered in the 1930s. Especially for students and faculty interested in British cinema music ... Highly recommended." - M. Goldsmith, Choice
"an important collection on a neglected field; exploring the diverse sonic dimensions of cinema as it developed across the era leading up to synchronised sound, presenting a richly evocative array of ephemeral cultural practices ... The Sounds of the Silents in Britain presents a complex story in an engaging and accessible fashion, with an intelligently light touch taken, in general, with regard to theory. It is sure to become a valuable resource for film and music scholars, students and, indeed, anyone interested in this extraordinarily vibrant period of cinema." - Michael Williams, Viewfinder
See the publisher website: Oxford University Press
> From the same authors:
The Cinema of David Lynch (2004)
American Dreams, Nightmare Visions
Dir. Erica Sheen and Annette Davison
Subject: Director > David Lynch
> On a related topic:
Music and Sound in Silent Film (2018)
From the Nickelodeon to The Artist
Dir. Ruth Barton and Simon Trezise
Subject: Silent Cinema
From Silents to Sound (2009)
A Biographical Encyclopedia of Performers Who Made the Transition to Talking Pictures
by Roy Liebman
Subject: Silent Cinema
Early British Animation (2019)
From Page and Stage to Cinema Screens
by Malcolm Cook
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Early Cinema in Scotland (2018)
Dir. John Caughie, Trevor Griffiths and María A. Vélez-Serna
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
The Dream That Kicks (2017)
The Prehistory and Early Years of Cinema in Britain
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
The History of the British Film 1918 - 1929 (2011)
Volume IV
Dir. Rachael Low
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
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