Saying It With Songs

Spring, Katherine

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199842216.001.0001

Cited by 40 publications

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“…Another slightly old-fashioned musical technique that appears in The River Is Blue is the "theme song," a practice in which a song is "repeated over the course of the narrative" so that it accumulates "associations with characters and dramatic motifs," to take Katherine Spring's definition. 66 Dramaturgy aside, theme songs were also an important part of marketing and were often recorded and published as sheet music before the film was released to generate interest and excitement. 67 Although use of theme songs declined early in the 1930s, some films continued to use them throughout the decade.…”

Section: Tying It Together: a Theme Song?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is odd to have a "theme song" introduced in the underscore-a more typical set-up would have the lovers in a setting that allows for a nightclub singer to introduce their theme as eventually happened in Blockade with "Beloved." 69 Even if the introduction of the theme song is odd, the way it is used is typical, as it becomes increasingly associated with the romantic aspects of the story. It is last heard in the final moments of the screenplay as Marco and Norma walk through an amusement park, a typical setting for theme song.…”

Section: Tying It Together: a Theme Song?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Kurt Weill'sThe River Is Blue: “Film-Opera” and Politics in 1930s Hollywood

Graber¹

2017

J Soc American Mus

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In early 1937, Kurt Weill and playwright Clifford Odets collaborated on a Spanish Civil War film that they hoped would lead to a new kind of political–musical picture. Originally titledThe River Is Blue, the film was eventually released in 1938 asBlockadewithout the involvement of either Odets or Weill, but recently uncovered archival material of the abandoned project reveals new facets of Weill's musico-dramatic thought. The discovery of Odets's first draft of the screenplay shows an extraordinarily close collaboration between composer and screenwriter as the shot numbers in the script align exactly with numbers in Weill's score. Read together, these two documents show Weill attempting to combine different paradigms of film scoring that were popular in the 1930s. There are moments of typical Golden Age–style scoring with mickey-mousing and leitmotifs, but there is also evidence of older practices such as the use of popular songs. Weill's score also displays the influence of the Popular Front, elements of Eisensteinian montage, and anti-Wagnerianism. These show Weill working toward what he termed “film-opera,” not a filmed version of an opera but an entirely new genre that combined elements of musical theatre and movies.

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Section: Tying It Together: a Theme Song?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tying It Together: a Theme Song?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Kurt Weill'sThe River Is Blue: “Film-Opera” and Politics in 1930s Hollywood

Graber¹

2017

J Soc American Mus

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The Cambridge Companion to Film Music

Davison

2016

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This wide-ranging and thought-provoking collection of specially-commissioned essays provides a uniquely comprehensive overview of the many and various ways in which music functions in film soundtracks. Citing examples from a variety of historical periods, genres and film industries - including those of the USA, UK, France, Italy, India and Japan - the book's contributors are all leading scholars and practitioners in the field. They engage, sometimes provocatively, with numerous stimulating aspects of the history, theory and practice of film music in a series of lively discussions which will appeal as much to newcomers to this fascinating subject as to seasoned film music aficionados. Innovative research and fresh interpretative perspectives are offered alongside practice-based accounts of the film composer's distinctive art, with examples cited from genres as contrasting as animation, the screen musical, film noir, Hollywood melodrama, the pop music and jazz film, documentary, period drama, horror, science fiction and the Western.

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Introduction

Cooke¹,

Ford²

2016

The Cambridge Companion to Film Music

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Saying It With Songs

Cited by 40 publications

References 0 publications

Kurt Weill'sThe River Is Blue: “Film-Opera” and Politics in 1930s Hollywood

Kurt Weill'sThe River Is Blue: “Film-Opera” and Politics in 1930s Hollywood

The Cambridge Companion to Film Music

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