MUSIC 325 A Su 21: 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 responses to cinema. This will enable students to enjoy film-viewing with a more thoughtful and critical eye and ear than before.
NOTE on ZOOM MEETINGS
I would very much appreciate it if you would "unmute" your cameras on Zoom. This helps me feel more like I'm talking to other humans and less like I'm talking to some monolithic abyss. It will also help me, via your facial expressions, to gauge which things from the lecture require more explanation, which things are painfully obvious, etc.
EVALUATION
Course grades will comprise the following components:
- Participation / Discussion [10%] We cover a lot of material in this class and will participate in discussions frequently. The readings and video lectures listed on this site should be completed before class on the listed dates. Each video lecture will have a series of ungraded 1-question quizzes to help you with comprehension of the material. Your participation grade will be determined by watching the video lectures and completing these quizzes. Since a large amount of the course is asynchronous in this way we will most likely not meet for every scheduled class session. I will send out an announcement for the synchronous class sessions we will skip.
- Assignment [10%] Masking / Commutation Test
- Quizzes [10%] 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
N.b., This schedule of classes, readings, and assignments is subject to revision during the quarter.
WEEK 1
6/21: 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)
You Were Never Really Here (2017)
The 39 Steps (1935)
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
6/23: Montage, Mise-en-scène, a crash course in ethics and aesthetics, the political psychology of mechanized art.
Video Lecture: A Crash Course in the Ethics and Aesthetics of Classical Music
Lecture manuscript / Powerpoint
Source texts: Kant, Critique of Judgment (excerpts) / Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (excerpt)
Beethoven's 5th Symphony, 1st movement: Allegro Con Brio (Youtube link)
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
6/25: Alexander Nevsky, A crash course in film theory
Alexander Nevsky (1939) Scene: The Battle On The Ice
Alexander Nevsky (MPAA rating: NR) (Link to the full movie on Youtube)
The missing piece about Putin and Ukraine (interview with Georg Michels)
Robert F. Baumann, Mobilizing History to Promote Patriotism and a New Past
(France24: 9/11/21) Putin unveils monument to legendary Russian prince
Video Lecture: A Crash Course in Film Theory
Discussions on Film/Reading | Formalism and Realism | Masking Exercise
Reading: Gunning, Illusions Past and Future: The Phantasmagoria and its Specters
optional: Peter Bürger, Montage
Jonathan Crary, Modernizing Vision
Terminology: Camera Obscura
Notes: Film Theory
WEEK 2
Video Lecture: A crash course in harmony
BLERG!: at 6:32 I meant to say FUNDAMENTAL frequency
6/28: Film and desire, psychoanalytic perspectives, the Tristan chord
Source texts (optional): Schopenhauer (var. selections)
Bernard Herrmann Vertigo Suite, Prelude, Dream Sequence
Richard Wagner - Tristan und Isolde, Prelude
Stephen Fry - The Tristan Chord
Notes: Schopenhauer - Wagner - Freud
6/30: Video Lectures: Freud
Source texts (optional): Brooks, Freud's Masterplot | Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle | Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (excerpt)
7/2: Vertigo, Masking / Commutation Test
Reading: Noël Carroll, Vertigo - the impossible love
Watch: Vertigo (MPAA rating: PG)
Video Lecture: Vertigo
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)
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
Masking Exercise #1
(sound only)
(sound + video)
Masking Exercise #2
(video + sound)
Commutation Test
Star Wars - Prom Night
Requiem for a Dream (commutated)
Requiem for a Dream (original sound)
The Shining (original sound)
WEEK 3
7/5: Independence Day Observed
Watch: 2001: a Space Odyssey (MPAA rating: G)
Reading (required): 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
7/7: 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
7/9: Masking / Commutation Test Assignment DUE
Musique Concrète
Readings (required): 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
7/12: Continue Discussion of Musique Concrète
Hildegard Westerkamp - Türen der Wahrnehmungen (Doors of Perception) (1989) Part I
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
7/14: 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
7/16: QUIZ #2 Due by 6:30 pm
Midterm Projects DUE || Midterm Party!
WEEK 5
7/19: Classical aesthetics
Video Lecture: Classical aesthetics — what is really real?
Source texts (optional): Plato, Republic, bks, VII/X / Aristotle, Poetics
7/21: Mulholland Drive
(MPAA rating: R for explicit nudity and sexual situations, strong language, violence and disturbing images)
Reading (required): Miller, Monstrous Maturity on Mulholland Drive
Source text (optional): Freud, The Uncanny
Mulholland Drive / Club Silencio Scene
7/30: Final Projects Due by 5:00 pm
This course content is offered under a Public Domain license. Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.