Film music: ideologies, functions and theoretical perspectives

Literature:

Adorno, Theodor W., and Hanns Eisler. Composing for the Films. 1947. Reprint, with new introduction by Graham McCann. London: Continuum, 2007. Chapters 1–7. [91 pp.]

Buhler, James. Theories of the Soundtrack. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Chapter 6, pp. 158–161, 168–186. [23 pp.] https://www.ub.gu.se/sv.

Buljančević, Rastko. “Neo-liberal Transgressions in the Contemporary Film Industry: Classical Music and Dehumanised Musical Bodies in the Films The Perfection (2018) and Nocturne (2020).” El oído Pensante 11, no. 2 (2023): 34–65. https://doi.org/10.34096/oidopensante.v11n2.13331. [32 pp.]

Buljančević, Rastko. “Music in Pasolini’s The Decameron: Humour, Spirituality, (De)tabooisation and Playing with Conventional Signifiers of the Italian Musical Past.” Zbornik Radova Akademije Umetnosti, no. 10 (2022): 130–151. https://doi.org/10.5937/ZbAkU2210130B. [22 pp.]

Buljančević, Rastko. “Dystopian Sounds of Capitalism: Ideological Diversion, Immersion, and Interpellation in the Horror Game Soundtrack Yuppie Psycho: Executive Edition (2020).” The Journal of Sound and Music in Games 7, no. 2–3, forthcoming Summer 2026. [ca. 40 pp.]

Chion, Michel. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Part One, pp. 25–34, 95–138. [54 pp.]

Collins, Karen. Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. Chapters 1–4, pp. 1–84. [84 pp.]

Duncan, Dean. Charms That Soothe: Classical Music and the Narrative Film. New York: Fordham University Press, 2003. Introduction and Conclusion. [27 pp.]

Elsaesser, Thomas. “Digital Cinema: Convergence or Contradiction?” In The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media, edited by Carol Vernallis, Amy Herzog, and John Richardson, pp. 13–41. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. [29 pp.]

Garwood, Ian. The Pop Song in Film. Movie eBooks, 2006. Chapters 1–2, pp. 8–37. [30 pp.] https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/film/movie/contents/garwood._movie_ebook_the_pop_song_in_film.pdf.

Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. Introduction and Chapters 1–3, pp. 9–76. [65 pp.]

Heldt, Guido. Music and Levels of Narration in Film: Steps across the Border. Bristol: Intellect, 2013, pp. 48–135. [88 pp.]

Kalinak, Kathlyn. Film Music: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Chapters 1–6, pp. 1–90. [90 pp.] https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.ub.gu.se/lib/gu/reader.action?docID=497617&ppg=1.

Kassabian, Anahid. Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music. Abingdon: Routledge, 2001. Introduction and Chapters 1–2, pp. 1–60. [60 pp.]

Kornbluh, Anna. Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism. London: Verso, 2024. Introduction and Chapters 1–2, pp. 1–64. [64 pp.]

Kulezic-Wilson, Danijela. Sound Design Is the New Score: Theory, Aesthetics, and Erotics of the Integrated Soundtrack. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Chapters 4–5, pp. 89–150. [62 pp.]

Lau, Matthew. Sounds Like Helicopters: Classical Music in Modernist Cinema. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019. Introduction and Conclusion. [27 pp.]

Mera, Miguel. “Materializing Film Music.” In The Cambridge Companion to Film Music, edited by Mervyn Cooke and Fiona Ford, pp. 157–172. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. [16 pp.]

Mera, Miguel. “Towards 3-D Sound: Spatial Presence and the Space Vacuum.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Sound Design and Music in Screen Media: Integrated Soundtracks, edited by Liz Greene and Danijela Kulezic-Wilson, pp. 91–111. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. [21 pp.]

Pontara, Tobias. “Interpretation and Underscoring: Modest Constructivism and the Issue of Nondiegetic versus Intradiegetic Music in Film.” Music and the Moving Image 9, no. 2 (Summer 2016): 39–57. https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.ub.gu.se/article/619749. [19 pp.]

Pontara, Tobias. “Privatized Interiorities and Epiphanic Experiences: Intradiegetic Listening and the Cultural Construction of Classical Music in Contemporary European and American Cinema.” Music and the Moving Image 18, no. 2 (2025): 31–48. https://doi.org/10.5406/19364695.18.02.02. [18 pp.]

Ritchey, Marianna. Composing Capital: Classical Music in the Neoliberal Era. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. Introduction and Conclusion. [41 pp.]

Smith, Jeff. The Sounds of Commerce: Marketing Popular Film Music. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Chapters 1–2, pp. 1–44. [44 pp.]

Stilwell, Robynn. “The Fantastical Gap between the Diegetic and Nondiegetic.” In Beyond the Soundtrack: Representing Music in Cinema, edited by Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer, and Richard Leppert, pp. 184–202. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007. [18 pp.]

Vancour, Shawn. “Television Music and the History of Television Sound.” In Music in Television: Channels of Listening, edited by James Deaville, pp. 57–80. New York: Routledge, 2011. [23 pp.]

Winters, Ben. “The Non-Diegetic Fallacy: Film, Music, and Narrative Space.” Music & Letters 91, no. 2 (2010): 224–243. https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.ub.gu.se/article/386906. [19 pp.]

Total: ca. 1107 pages