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.
RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request Form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).
EVALUATION
Course grades will comprise the following components:
- Assignments [20%] 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 Concrète 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
6/22: 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)
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
6/24: 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
Crash course in Ethics and Aesthetics
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
source text (optional): Peter Bürger, Montage
Eisenstein's 5 Methods of Montage
October (1928) — The Machine Gun
Terminology: Montage | Mise-en-scène | (Continuity) Editing
WEEK 2
6/27: Alexander Nevsky, A crash course in film theory
Adorno/Eisler/Eisenstein / Alexander Nevsky
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
source text (optional): Jonathan Crary, Modernizing Vision
Formalism and Realism | Masking Exercise
Reading: Gunning, Illusions Past and Future: The Phantasmagoria and its Specters
Terminology: Camera Obscura
Notes: Film Theory
Video Lecture: A crash course in harmony
BLERG!: at 6:32 I meant to say FUNDAMENTAL frequency
6/29: 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
7/1: Video Lectures: Freud
Source texts (optional): Brooks, Freud's Masterplot | Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle | Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (excerpt)
7/4 (Asynchronous): Independence Day
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
7/6: Vertigo, Masking / Commutation Test
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)
7/8: Masking / Commutation Test (continued) / 2001
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
WEEK 3
7/11: Nietzsche / 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
7/13: 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)
7/15: Continue 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
WEEK 4
7/18: Watch: Elephant
(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
7/20: QUIZ #2 Due by 6:30 pm
Musique Concrète (midterm) Projects DUE ||
7/29: Final Projects Due by 5:00 pm
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
The University of Washington Student Conduct Code (WAC 478-121) defines prohibited academic and behavioral conduct and describes how the University holds students accountable. I expect that you will know and follow university policies regarding all forms of academic and other misconduct.
Acts of academic misconduct include:
- Cheating:
- unauthorized assistance in person and/or online for assignments, quizzes, tests or exams
- using another student’s work without permission and instructor authorization
- allowing anyone to take a course, assignment or exam for you without instructor authorization
- Falsification: intentional use of falsified data, information or records
- Plagiarism: representing the work of others as your own without giving appropriate credit to the original author(s)
- Unauthorized collaboration: working with other students in the course on assignments, quizzes or exams without permission
- Engaging in behavior prohibited by an instructor
- Multiple submissions of the same work in different courses without instructor permission
- Deliberately damaging or destroying student work to gain advantage
- Unauthorized recording, and/or subsequent dissemination of instructional content
If these definitions are not clear to you, please contact me or your TAs so that we can review them with you. It is important that you fully understand what is and is not permissible in this course.
Any suspected cases of academic misconduct will be handled according to university regulations, which include:
- submission of the case material (description of the incident and supporting documents such as an exam, paper, and any communications about the incident) to the College of the Environment Dean’s Office
- suspension of the grade for the quiz, exam, homework, paper or other assignment in question
- an X grade for the class in the case of the academic misconduct procedure continuing past the end of the quarter
- a reduction, down to a zero, for the quiz, exam, homework, paper or other assignment in question should the academic misconduct hearing officer find you responsible
For more information, see the College of the Environment’s Academic Misconduct Policy and the Community Standards and Student Conduct website.
The College of the Environment Student Academic Grievance Procedures provide mechanisms for enrolled students to address academic problems or grievances in an equitable, respectful and timely manner. Academic grievances are defined as those involving conflicts between a student or students and their course instructors (including faculty and teaching assistants) or research mentor(s) with respect to differences arising within credit-bearing work and while the student is registered at the University of Washington. If you have or are experiencing such a conflict in this class, and have not, cannot, or do not wish to attempt resolution with me, I encourage you to explore additional options open to you by accessing the website above.
HONOR CODE FOR EXAMS, QUIZZES AND ASSIGNMENTS
I understand that I am bound by the Honor Code and the University of Washington Student Conduct Code and by the academic policies and procedures in this course when taking exams or quizzes, or completing assignments.
By entering my name and student number in the space below, I attest that I am in compliance with the conditions specified on this [exam, quiz, assignment] with regards to time and materials permitted. I further attest that I have not received any assistance from others during the [exam, quiz, assignment] period; and also that I have not given any assistance to other students.