Course Syllabus

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:

  1.  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.
  2. Assignment [10%] Masking / Commutation Test 
  3. Quizzes [10%] There will be 3 online quizzes given throughout the quarter. These will cover material from the lectures, readings and films.
  4. Midterm Project [30%] Using only sound effects create a 2 / 3-minute Musique Concréte composition / story. 
  5. 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

TV Tropes

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

Lecture Manuscript

 

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)

Alexander Nevsky on TV Tropes

 

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

Lecture Manuscript

 

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

Zoom Session

 

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

Lecture Manuscript

Source texts (optional): Schopenhauer (var. selections)

 

Lecture Manuscript

 

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

QUIZ #1 Due by 6:30 pm

Freud Lecture Manuscripts

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)

Vertigo on TV Tropes

 

Video Lecture: Vertigo

Lecture Manuscript

 

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 only)

(video + sound)

 

Commutation Test

Star Wars - Prom Night

 

 

Requiem for a Dream (commutated)

Requiem for a Dream (original sound)

 

The Shining (original sound)

The Shining (commutated)

 

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

2001 on TV Tropes

Richard Strauss — Also sprach Zarathustra (Sunrise)

György Ligeti, Requiem — Dies Irae

György Ligeti, Atmospheres

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

Lecture Manuscript

 

2001 on TV Tropes

 

Video Lecture: 2001: A Nietzschean Odyssey

Lecture Manuscript

 

 

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

Speech to song demonstration

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

zoom session

 

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)

 

Elephant on TV Tropes

 

Video Lecture: On the intensity of experience — Cage, Schaeffer, Bazin, Van Sant

Lecture Manuscript

 

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?

Lecture Manuscript

Source texts (optional): Plato, Republic, bks, VII/X / Aristotle, Poetics 

 

7/21: Mulholland Drive

Watch: 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 on TV Tropes

 

Mulholland Drive / Club Silencio Scene

 

7/30: Final Projects Due by 5:00 pm

QUIZ #3 Due by 6:30 pm