Scoring the Screen: The Secret Language of Film Music - Softcover

By Andy Hill
HL531B

$37.00
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Scoring the Screen: The Secret Language of Film Music - Softcover
Product Details
Today, musical composition for films is more popular than ever. In professional and academic spheres, media music study and practice are growing; undergraduate and postgraduate programs in media scoring are offered by dozens of major colleges and universities. And increasingly, pop and contemporary classical composers are expanding their reach into cinema and other forms of screen entertainment. Yet a search on Amazon reveals at least 50 titles under the category of film music, and, remarkably, only a meager few actually allow readers to see the music itself, while none of them examine landmark scores like Vertigo , To Kill a Mockingbird , Patton , The Untouchables , or The Matrix in the detail provided by Scoring the Screen: The Secret Language of Film Music . This is the first book since Roy M. Prendergast's 1977 benchmark, Film Music: A Neglected Art , to treat music for motion pictures as a compositional style worthy of serious study. Through extensive and unprecedented analyses of the original concert scores, it is the first to offer both aspiring composers and music educators with a view from the inside of the actual process of scoring-to-picture. The core thesis of Scoring the Screen is that music for motion pictures is indeed a language , developed by the masters of the craft out of a dramatic and commercial necessity to communicate ideas and emotions instantaneously to an audience. Like all languages, it exists primarily to convey meaning . To quote renowned orchestrator Conrad Pope (who has worked with John Williams, Howard Shore, and Alexandre Desplat, among others): If you have any interest in what music 'means' in film, get this book. Andy Hill is among the handful of penetrating minds and ears engaged in film music today.

Reviews

Undoubtedly the most important book on film scoring since On the Track. --Derek Gleeson, Director, MA in Scoring for Film & Visual Media; Pulse College Dublin

You MUST read this in the ever-growing pantheon of books on film music, this one is very special. While most analytical books are written by academics, Andy was right there in the thick of things as a member of the Disney music department, while the majority of the scores in the book were actually being recorded. Not to mention, it is so alive with his mad passion for film music. --Christopher Young, Film Composer

With his book Scoring the Screen, Andy Hill has made an important and truly invaluable addition to an all-too-barren landscape of great literature about great film music. He presents his case that the finest composers to have worked in film over the last eighty years have contributed genuine masterpieces of music and drama to our culture. A film score must excel at both to be successful, and this is so beautifully illustrated in Hill s elegant prose. From the selection of scores discussed to the cues within them, and the musical phrases and bars highlighted, I read the book from a very personal point of view. Having produced new recordings of To Kill A Mockingbird with Elmer Bernstein and Patton with Jerry Goldsmith and examined these and other scores in great detail with the composers themselves, I found myself very moved by Hill s like-minded analysis. Part of the film composer s art is in fact to conceal the effort and the intellect that goes in to the creation of their scores. Hill thankfully lifts the veil. I am thrilled to see such a rare spotlight illuminating the artistry behind these masterworks. --Robert Townson, Film Music Producer (Var-se Sarabande)

About the Author

ANDY HILL (Nashville, TN) is a Grammy Award winning motion picture music producer. From 1987 to 1996, he served as vice president of music production for Walt Disney Pictures. He developed and directed, from 2006 to 2011, the MFA in Music Composition for the Screen at Columbia College Chicago and oversaw the launch of the MA in Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games at the international campus of the Berklee College of Music. He is an industry advisor to the MA in Film Scoring at Pulse College, Dublin.

Paperback: 391 pages
Product Dimensions: 7 x 1 x 10 inches