How Film and TV Music Communicate
type: CreativeWork
description: This Commentary contextualises and places within a critical framework, three books on Film Music written by myself.(1) The books, written between 2013 and 2015, are targeted toward students of film music and professional practitioners. This Commentary has given me the opportunity to address a variety of relevant scholarship, which relates directly to the research question, which is ‘how does film music communicate.’ The issue of meaning in music is addressed occasionally, for example by Lawrence Kramer (2002), and the issue of music’s emotional function within film is addressed throughout the Commentary, referencing amongst others, Frank Lehman (2018), Arnie Cox (2017) and Lawrence Kramer (2002). The centre of gravity in my books, which is distilled and discussed in this Commentary, focuses on how film music creates emotion, ultimately centring on how and why harmony specifically can be said to convey emotion and a sense of identity to its audience. Building on the analysis of scholars such as Heinrich Schenker (Pankhurst, 2008), Eduard Hanslick (1854), Lawrence Kramer (2011; 2012; 2016), John Sloboda (2005) and Arnie Cox (2017) and film music scholars such as George Burt (1995), Claudia Gorbman (1987) Roy Prendergast (1992) and Frank Lehman (2018), the three books which form part of this portfolio contribute new knowledge and understanding to the world of film music composition, with extremely detailed, in-depth and specific analysis of hundreds of cues spread over a 50-year period of film history, explaining, distilling and rationalising various relevant concepts and ideas, such as how and why, and under what circumstances music can generate feelings and emotions, and to what extent such feelings inform and guide our knowledge and understanding of music. This Commentary places the three books in context of surrounding literature and current and historical critical thinking on the subject of film music and also the wider area of music and emotion. The Commentary di…
abstract: This Commentary contextualises and places within a critical framework, three books on Film Music written by myself.(1) The books, written between 2013 and 2015, are targeted toward students of film music and professional practitioners. This Commentary has given me the opportunity to address a variety of relevant scholarship, which relates directly to the research question, which is ‘how does film music communicate.’ The issue of meaning in music is addressed occasionally, for example by Lawrence Kramer (2002), and the issue of music’s emotional function within film is addressed throughout the Commentary, referencing amongst others, Frank Lehman (2018), Arnie Cox (2017) and Lawrence Kramer (2002). The centre of gravity in my books, which is distilled and discussed in this Commentary, focuses on how film music creates emotion, ultimately centring on how and why harmony specifically can be said to convey emotion and a sense of identity to its audience. Building on the analysis of scholars such as Heinrich Schenker (Pankhurst, 2008), Eduard Hanslick (1854), Lawrence Kramer (2011; 2012; 2016), John Sloboda (2005) and Arnie Cox (2017) and film music scholars such as George Burt (1995), Claudia Gorbman (1987) Roy Prendergast (1992) and Frank Lehman (2018), the three books which form part of this portfolio contribute new knowledge and understanding to the world of film music composition, with extremely detailed, in-depth and specific analysis of hundreds of cues spread over a 50-year period of film history, explaining, distilling and rationalising various relevant concepts and ideas, such as how and why, and under what circumstances music can generate feelings and emotions, and to what extent such feelings inform and guide our knowledge and understanding of music. This Commentary places the three books in context of surrounding literature and current and historical critical thinking on the subject of film music and also the wider area of music and emotion. The Commentary di…
author: Morrell, Brian
language: eng
date published: 2020
date modified: 2026-07-24T04:39:44Z
provider: University of South Wales
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of South Wales