MUS F337: Music for Radio and Television/Topic: Music in Sound Film

Music F337: Music for Radio and Television First Summer 2001
Topic: Music in Film Sound
Unique # 79000
Meets daily 1:00-2:30 in DFA 2.204
Instructor: David Neumeyer

Office: MRH 3.748. ph. 471-7346. email: neumeyer@mail.utexas.edu
Web site for this course: url TBA
Hours: after class each day. If you need to meet with me at another time, ask for an appointment.

DESCRIPTION:

I have used an available course title, "Music for Radio and Television," in order to offer the course this summer, rather than wait another year till a new course number and title were approved. Our topic is in fact "Music in Film Sound," and the course is a survey of music for cinema, concentrating on American feature films in a wide range of genres. (We will touch on music in radio and in television, but only in an historical context -- the influence of radio on early sound film, and film composers who moved into television in the late 1950s.) The broader field, of which musics in sound cinema, radio, television, and recording are all part, is called phonography.

Our object in this course is to develop skills in analyzing the sound track, music's role in the sound track, and the relation of sound track and image track (especially relating to music) on small-scale and large-scale (narrative) levels. The course develops critical listening and viewing skills at the same time it offers a film-music history survey. I will give daily lectures for two weeks as a concentrated introduction to the history of music in film; we will spend the rest of our time building on this information to refine skills in critical viewing through the analysis of films and film techniques as they relate to film-music's narrative functions.

As I said in the course announcement, musical background is not a prerequisite. Information and skills from courses such as Introduction to Film, Music Appreciation, or Introduction to Music Theory can be helpful, but are not necessary for success in this course.

TEXTS:

George Burt, The Art of Film Music (Boston: Northeastern University Press, c1994).

Michel Chion, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994).

Requirements:

1. Readings and class participation. Because of the time constraints of this short semester, there will be no assigned readings outside the two textbooks. I do not keep attendance, but you will find it impossible to pass the second exam, and therefore the course, without regular class attendance because the skills needed are taught primarily through our class examples and discussions.

2. Exam 1 on terms, film composers, studios (look under "Schedule" below for study guide and sample exam).

3. Exam 2 consists of (1) analysis of a film scene with music, using specific questions drawn from Chion and Burt, and (2) a commutation test (applying and evaluating different kinds of music) for another film scene. Study guide will be posted by mid-semester, or June 25.

Each exam counts 50% toward the final grade. Note that this is not a practice-oriented course -- it concentrates on history, aesthetics, and criticism. However, students who have prior experience may arrange to do guided projects to replace one of the two exams.

SCHEDULE:

Week 0:

Wednesday June 6: Introduction; syllabus.

Thursday 7: Last day of the official add/drop period. Read Chion, Foreword (Walter Murch), Preface and ch. 1.

Friday 8: Read Chion, ch. 2

Week 1:

Tuesday 12: Continue "five-minute" history.

Wednesday 13: Continue "five-minute" history.

Thursday 14: Read Chion, ch. 3; continue "five-minute" history.

Friday 15: continue ch. 3; continue "five-minute" history.

Week 2: