MUSIC 325 A Su 20: Music In Cinema
Professor: Huck Hodge, DMA • Office: 325 Music
Email: hhodge@u.washington.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will survey of some of the most representative films and film scores of the last 100 years while laying the groundwork for students to acquire the skills necessary to critically engage with film as a multi-media experience. Special attention will be paid to aesthetic questions arising from the fusion of sound and image as well as the psychological, political and philosophical resonances that result from this union.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will gain exposure to the techniques used in many artistic media that touch on the boundaries of the musicology of film (opera, theater, television, video games, etc.). In addition, they will acquire an understanding of the nature of film music‘s cultural importance, and the degree to which it can shape our emotional, philosophical and political response to cinema. This will enable students to enjoy film-going with a more thoughtful and critical eye and ear than before.
EVALUATION
Course grades will comprise the following components:
- Discussion / Participation / Q&A [5%] We cover a lot of material in this class and you will participate in discussions frequently. To this end you must complete the reading in a timely manner. Each student should prepare at least 3 questions about the readings, films, and online lectures to start things off. To keep things fair, we will use a random number generator to determine which students will be called on to respond with/to questions/prompts in class.
- Assignment [10%] Masking / Commutation Test
- Quizzes [15%] There will be 3 online quizzes given throughout the quarter. These will cover material from the lectures, readings and films.
- Midterm Project [30%] Using only sound effects create a 2 / 3-minute Musique Concréte composition / story.
- Final Project [40%] The final will involve scoring of a brief scene from a short silent film. You must use original or pre-existing (compilation) music AND sound design. You must pay close attention to the interaction of sound and image. You will also write a 3-page (750-word) statement describing how the techniques and ideas presented in class influence your piece.
The chart for converting percentage grades to the 4.0 scale can be found here.
RESOURCES:
Columbia University Film Glossary
Examples of Film Sound Techniques (College Film & Media Studies)
FilmSound.org Glossary of Sound Terminology
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEK 1
6/22: Introduction: syllabus, goals, requirements | The beginnings of cinematic sound, the legacy of the 19th century, close listening. Diegetic/non-diegetic music, empathetic/anempathetic music.
Reading: New Yorker, Hearing the Movies, Adorno/Eisler, Eisenstein
New Yorker article online (includes links to musical examples)
CLASS SESSION (zoom video)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
pay particular attention to the sound / music at these points:
1:45 - 2:00, 2:30-2:40
Force Theme - Star Wars Original Trilogy - Leitmotiv through the Saga
Original Imperial March Star Wars Episode V Empire Strikes Back
Imperial March - Star Wars VI Return of the Jedi - Darth Vader's Death
Video Lecture: (AN)EMPATHETIC / (NON)DIEGETIC / ON- or OFFSCREEN?
Apocalypse Now (1979): Ride of the Valkyries
Rivendell Scene 1 - The Fellowship of the Ring
Pippin's Song Edge of Night (LOTR)
Terminology: Diegetic Sound | Non-Diegetic Sound
6/24: Montage, Mise-en-scène, a crash course in aesthetics, the political psychology of mechanized art.
Video Lecture: A Crash Course in Ethics and Aesthetics
Beethoven's 5th Symphony, 1st movement: Allegro Con Brio
Video Lecture: The Political Psychology of Mechanized Art
Eisenstein's 5 Methods of Montage
October (1928) — The Machine Gun
Terminology: Montage | Mise-en-scène | (Continuity) Editing
6/26: Alexander Nevsky, A crash course in film theory
Alexander Nevsky (1939) The Battle On The Ice
Alexander Nevsky (MPAA rating: NR)
Video Lecture: A Crash Course in Film Theory
Discussions on Film/Reading | Formalism and Realism | Masking Exercise
Reading: Peter Bürger, Montage (optional) / Jonathan Crary, Modernizing Vision (optional)
Terminology: Camera Obscura
Notes: Film Theory
WEEK 2
Video Lecture: Things you need to know about harmony
BLERG!: at 6:32 I meant to say FUNDAMENTAL frequency
6/29: Film and desire, psychoanalytic perspectives, the Tristan chord
Reading: Schopenhauer (var. selections) / Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (excerpt)
Noël Carroll, Vertigo - the impossible love
Bernard Herrmann Vertigo Suite, Prelude
Richard Wagner - Tristan und Isolde, Prelude
Stephen Fry - The Tristan Chord
Notes: Schopenhauer - Wagner - Freud
7/1: Video Lectures: Freud
Reading: Schopenhauer (var. selections) / Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (excerpt)
Noël Carroll, Vertigo - the impossible love
Watch: Vertigo (MPAA rating: PG)
Some appearances of the Tristan Chord in Vertigo (pdf):
Also: see 1:53:40-50 (Judy as Madeleine) 1:58:55 (The necklace: "There, I'm ready") 1:59:25-35 (Drive to the tower)
Vertigo Shot (Zoom-In/Track-Back)
Video Lecture: Vertigo
Hitchcock Explains What a McGuffin Is
Extra Credit: The Mystery of McGuffin Manor - unsolved.pdf
Žižek - Our Fear of Falling in Love
Notes: Freud - Dreams - Beyond Pleasure.pptx
7/3: Independence Day Observed
WEEK 3
7/6: Masking / Commutation Test
Masking Exercise #1
(sound only)
(sound + video)
Masking Exercise #2
(video + sound)
Commutation Test
Requiem for a Dream (commutated)
Requiem for a Dream (original sound)
The Shining (original sound)
Watch: 2001: a Space Odyssey (MPAA rating: G)
Reading: Nietzsche, Zarathustra / Birth of Tragedy (excerpts)
Notes: Schopenhauer Nietzsche Kubrick
Richard Strauss — Also sprach Zarathustra (Sunrise)
György Ligeti, Requiem — Dies Irae
2001: Dawn of man / space station docking with Alex North score
7/8: Discussion: 2001: a Space Odyssey
Notes: Schopenhauer Nietzsche Kubrick
Video Lecture: Nietzsche - The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music
Video Lecture: 2001: A Nietzschean Odyssey
7/10: Masking / Commutation Test Assignment DUE
Musique Concrète
Reading: Chion, Audio-vision (excerpt) / Schafer, The Tuning of the World (Ch. 9)
The Concept of „Sound Object“ (objet sonore) by Pierre Schaeffer
Once Upon a Time in The West (1968) | opening sequence (audio only)
Once Upon a Time in The West (1968) | opening sequence
Pierre Schaeffer - etude aux chemins de fer
Steve Reich - Come Out (Original Ver.).mp3
Huck Hodge - Pools of shadow from an older sky, IV. In lost Venetian air (2011)
WEEK 4
7/13: Continue Discussion of Musique Concrète
Hildegard Westerkamp - Türen der Wahrnehmungen (Doors of Perception) (1989) Part II
Francis White - Walk Through resonant Landscape No. 2 (1992)
Bazin and the Phenomenology of Film
Read: Divining the real: the leaps of faith in André Bazin’s film criticism
Terminology: Deep Focus | Cinema Verité | Long Take
7/15: Watch: Elephant (Google Drive link)
(MPAA rating: R for disturbing violent content, language, brief sexuality and drug use - all involving teens)
Reading: Jordan, The Ecology of Listening while Looking (optional)
Video Lecture: On the intensity of experience — Cage, Schaeffer, Bazin, Van Sant
7/17: Midterm Projects DUE || Midterm Party!
WEEK 5
7/20: Classical aesthetics
Video Lecture: Classical aesthetics — what is really real?
Read: Plato, Republic, bks, VII/X / Aristotle, Poetics (optional)
7/22: Mulholland Drive
Watch: Mulholland Drive (rent online)
(MPAA rating: R for explicit nudity and sexual situations, strong language, violence and disturbing images)
Reading: Miller, Monstrous Maturity on Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive / Club Silencio Scene
7/29: Final Projects Due by 5:00 pm
Course Summary:
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