Scoring the Screen

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 ÊVertigoÊ ÊTo Kill a MockingbirdÊ ÊPattonÊ ÊThe UntouchablesÊ or ÊThe MatrixÊ in the detail provided by ÊScoring the Screen: The Secret Language of Film MusicÊ.ÞThis is the first book since Roy M. Prendergast''s 1977 benchmark ÊFilm Music: A Neglected ArtÊ 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 Êfrom the insideÊ of the actual process of scoring-to-picture.ÞThe core thesis of ÊScoring the ScreenÊ is that music for motion pictures is indeed a ÊlanguageÊ 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 ÊmeaningÊ. To quote renowned orchestrator Conrad Pope (who has worked with John Williams Howard Shore and Alexandre Desplat among others): If you have ÊanyÊ 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.