Performed lecture by Pamela Howland.

1 Outubro 2019, 14:00 • Maria Teresa Correia Casal

Learning to listen to films: Pamela Howland, "Music and the Movies", Theatre 1.

www.pamelahowland.com 

Abstract 

MUSIC AND THE MOVIES:  The Soundtrack of American Film

 

Music is one of the most powerfully emotional and least understood aspects of film.  Although many people are barely aware of it while they are viewing a movie, film scores move us and manipulate us, often giving us clues for understanding what we’re seeing and more often, for what we are not seeing. This lecture is a survey of the works of great American film score composers from the 1930s Golden Age up to contemporary times.  Film score composers such as Max Steiner (Gone with the Wind, 1939) Bernard Herrmann (Psycho, 1960), and the more contemporary John Williams (Harry Potter 2001-2004, Star Wars 1977-2017) will be studied, along with many others. We will examine and develop a vocabulary and techniques for analyzing virtually any movie score.  In addition, we will investigate why and how music functions as a powerful emotional and storytelling tool in these films, and discover the degree to which film composers have relied on cherished symphonic and operatic traditions from 19^th- century European musical styles in creating their uniquely American soundtracks. After this course students will never “hear” movies in the same way. 

 

Knowledge of classical music and proficiency in music reading are not pre-requisite, but a love of the movies is.