Film in Concert

Sebastian Stoppe (Ed.)

Film in Concert

Film Scores and their Relation to Classical Concert Music

From the very beginning of cinema, music always played an important role in the history of filmmaking. Nonetheless, film music is judged by critics as a kind of low-grade art form. However, the majority of film score composers enjoyed a classical education and composed as well for the silver screen as for the concert hall. Film music also has its roots in the musical era of romanticism. Therefore, symphonic film scores can be regarded as program music in a broader sense. These scores were influenced by a motion picture instead of a poem, a landscape, or a painting. It is neither necessary nor supposed that film music must be subordinate to its belonging film. In fact, a well-written film score may enhance the impact of a film by using its own language—the language of music.

Film music is still not truly recognized as an own style of music which is to be performed regularly in a concert hall. There are still strong prejudices about film music—too nice, too industrial, full of clichés, and unworthy to be performed live by an orchestra. This book wants to explore the nature of film music and its relation to classical music. How is film music perceived today? Does film music have its place on its own—uncoupled from its original film—in the concert hall? And how does film music relate to other musical genres in the 19th and 20th century?

“Bereits in der Einleitung plädiert Herausgeber Sebastian Stoppe für eine Anerkennung der Filmmusik als eigener Musikstil. […] Die Kapitel sind thematisch sinnvoll gegliedert und übersichtlich gestaltet. […] Aufgrund der zentralen Beispiele Citizen Kane (1941), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), Star Wars und Cloud Atlas bezieht sich der Sammelband weniger auf den gegenwärtigen Diskurs der Filmmusik, sondern umfasst mehrere Jahrzehnte ihrer Entwicklung.”
Annika Lacher in open_in_new MEDIENwissenschaft, Rezensionen | Reviews 33 Sonderpublikation (2016)