Music in Film
Module Outline
Leeds International Summer School
Module Overview
This module offers an introduction to the history of film scoring from the silent era through to the
present. The function of music in a multimedia context will be discussed and students will be
introduced to basic analytical techniques that can be used to interpret the role of music in films.
The module will also introduce elements of the processes of film scoring through a case study of
the work of composer Trevor Jones in order to demonstrate aspects of theory in practice.
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Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

recognise the history of film soundtracks from the silent era through to the present;

recognise the contributions of a range of film composers;

understand and engage with theoretical debates in the history of film music study at an
introductory level;

analyse sequences from individual film soundtracks with reference to the ideas and
approaches covered in the course.
Assessment
There are two elements of assessment, a group presentation and an individual presentation. All
presentations will be video recorded for moderating purposes.
1. Group Presentation – 40% of final grade
A group presentation of approximately 15 minutes’ duration comprising a critical evaluation of
a set text, and demonstration of ideas using appropriate audio-visual examples. Groups will be
formed and texts distributed in the first session of the module.
2. Individual Oral Presentation – 60% of final grade
A presentation of approximately 10 minutes’ duration focusing on an analysis of the use of
music in a scene (max. 2 minutes) drawn from a film or TV programme not covered in the
course. Students should use some of the techniques covered in the course, and all topics must
be agreed by the tutors. Please note that although brief handouts and the use of AV materials
(such as audio, video, transparencies) can be helpful, we would encourage you to use these
intelligently and selectively.
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Schedule of Lectures
Day
Date
Subject
Monday
20 July
Course Introduction; Music in Silent Film
Tuesday
21 July
The ‘Classical’ Hollywood Score
Wednesday 22 July
‘Popular’ Film Scores
Thursday
23 July
Trip to the National Media Museum
Friday
24 July
Electronic Music; Group Presentations
Monday
27 July
‘New Hollywood’
Tuesday
28 July
The Functions of Film Music
Wednesday 29 July
Film Score Processes
Thursday
Individual Presentations
30 July
Pre-Course Reading

Rick Altman, ‘The Living Nickelodeon’ in The Sounds of Early Cinema, edited by Richard
Abel and Rick Altman (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), pp. 232-240.

Claudia Gorbman, ‘Classical Hollywood Practice: the model of Max Steiner’, in Unheard
Melodies (London: BFI Publishing, 1987), pp. 70-98.

Kathryn Kalinak, ‘The “Hysterical Cult of the Director”’, in Settling the Score: Music and
the Classical Hollywood Film (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992),
pp. 135-158.

Jeff Smith ‘Did they mention the music? Toward a theory of popular film music’, in The
Sounds of Commerce: Marketing Popular Film Music (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1998), pp. 1-22.

Hilary Lapedis, ‘Popping the question: the function and effect of popular music in cinema’,
Popular Music, 18:3, (1999), pp.367-379. This article can be accessed online via JStor,
which can be accessed through the University library catalogue when you search for
Popular Music journal
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Reading List
Abel, Richard, and Rick Altman (eds.), The Sounds of Early Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2001)
Altman, Rick, Sound theory sound practice (London: Routledge, 1992)
Bennett, Andy, Barry Shank, and Jason Toynbee (eds.) The popular music studies reader (London:
Routledge, 2006)
Brown, Royal S., Overtones and undertones: reading film music (Berkeley, Los Angeles and
London: University of California Press, 1994)
Bruce, Graham, Bernard Herrmann: film music and narrative (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Books
on Demand, 1997)
Buhler, J., Flinn, C., and Neumeyer, D. (eds), Music and cinema (London and Hanover: Wesleyan
University Press, 2000)
Chion, Michel, Audio-vision: sound on screen Trans. Claudia Gorbman (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1994)
Cooke, Mervyn, A history of film music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
Cooke, Mervyn (ed.), The Hollywood film music reader (New York: Oxford University Press,
2010)
Cooper, David, Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo: a film score handbook (Westport: Greenwood Press,
2001)
Cooper, David, ‘Trevor Jones’s Score for In the Name of the Father’, in The Ashgate Research
Companion to Popular Musicology (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 25-42
Cooper, David, Christopher Fox & Ian Sapiro, CineMusic? Constructing the Film Score
(Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008).
Davison, Annette, Hollywood theory, non-Hollywood practice : cinema soundtracks in the 1980s
and 1990s (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004)
Dickinson, K. (ed.), Movie music: the film reader (London and New York: Routledge, 2003)
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Donnelly, K.J. (ed.), Film music: critical approaches (New York: Continuum International
Publishing Group Inc., 2001)
Donnelly, Kevin, British film music and film musicals (New York: Palgrave, 2007)
Flinn, Caryl, Strains of Utopia: gender, nostalgia, and Hollywood film music (Princeton, New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992)
Gabbard, Krin, Jammin' at the margins: jazz and the American cinema (Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press, 1996)
Goldmark, Daniel, Tunes for 'toons: music and the Hollywood cartoon (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 2005)
Goldmark, Daniel, Lawrence Kramer, Richard Leppert (eds), Beyond the soundtrack: representing
music in cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007)
Gorbman, Claudia, Unheard melodies: narrative film music (Bloomington & Indianapolis, 1987)
Kalinak, Kathryn, Settling the score: music and the classical Hollywood film (Madison, Wisconsin:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1992)
Kalinak, Kathryn, Film music: a very short introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)
Lannin, Steve and Matthew Caley (eds), Pop fiction: the song in cinema (Bristol: Intellect, 2005)
Lapedis, Hilary, ‘Popping the Question: the function and effect of popular music in
cinema’, Popular music. Vol. 18/3 (1989), pp. 367-379
Marks, Martin, M., Music and the silent film : contexts and case studies, 1895-1924 (New York
and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997)
Mera, Miguel, & David Burnand (eds), European film music (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006)
Murch, W., ‘Sound design: The Dancing Shadow’ in Projections: a forum for filmmakers (London: Faber and Faber 1985), pp. 237-251
Neale, S. & M. Smith (eds) Contemporary Hollywood cinema (London and New York: Routledge,
1998)
Powrie. Phil, & Robynn Stilwell (eds) Changing tunes: the use of pre-existing music in
film (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006)
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Richardson, John, Claudia Gorbman and Carol Vernallis (eds) The Oxford handbook of new
audiovisual aesthetics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)
Romney, Jonathan and Adrian Wootton (eds) Celluloid jukebox: popular music and the movies
since the 50s (London: BFI, 1995)
Smith, Jeff, The sounds of commerce: marketing popular film music (New York, 1998)
Stilwell, R. (1997). ‘“I just put a drone under him…”: Collage and subversion in the score of Die
Hard ’, in Music and Letters. Vol. 78, pp. 551-580
Weis, Elizabeth and John Belton, Film sound : theory and practice (Columbia: Columbia
University Press, 1985)
Winters, Ben, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The adventures of Robin Hood: a film score
guide (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2007)
Wojcik, Pamela Robertson, and Knight, Arthur (eds.), Soundtrack available: essays on film and
popular music (Durham and London, 2001)
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