Universität Wien

160059 VO Electroacoustic Music and Sound in Film (2016W)

Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Friday 14.10. 14:30 - 18:00 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
Saturday 15.10. 10:00 - 13:30 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
Friday 21.10. 14:30 - 18:00 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
Saturday 22.10. 10:00 - 13:30 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
Friday 04.11. 14:30 - 18:00 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
Saturday 05.11. 10:00 - 13:30 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
Friday 11.11. 14:30 - 18:00 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Aims:
•• To enhance understanding of the uses and applications of electroacoustic music in connection with the history of cinema.
•• To develop a critical framework for deconstructing film production processes with respect to the involvement of electroacoustic music and sound.
•• To set up tools for analysing and close-reading audio-visual dramaturgies involving electroacoustic music and sound.
•• To understand the cultural discourse generated by the rise of electroacoustic techniques in popular culture and understand the catalysing role played by cinema.

Contents and method:
The course will trace the history of electro-acoustic sound and music in cinema along a chronological path with incursions into local contexts (e.g. Hollywood, French, Italian cinema). A typical sample of topics will include the following:
•• Early sound synthesis in the transition from silent to sound film.
•• Sound manipulation, post-production processes, and their role in the definition of film genres in Classic Hollywood.
•• The Golden Age of Hollywood science fiction: intersections of avant-garde music and popular culture.
•• Electroacoustic music and auteur cinema in Europe.
•• The origins of sound design and the poetics of ‘New Hollywood’

Assessment and permitted materials

Written exam on 12.11.16 and three further exams at the beginning, middle and end of the following semester.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Examination topics

Contents of the course and literature.

Reading list

Adjustments and integrations to this list will be communicated during the course.

Corbella, Maurizio and Anna K. Windisch, 2013: Sound Synthesis, Representation and Narrative Cinema in the Transition to Sound (1926-1935). CiNéMAS 24. 1 (automne), 59-81.

Corbella, 2014. Sound design: Emergence and Rise of a “Technically Ordinary” Term. In Proceedings of the highSCORE Festival 2014, ed. G. Cestino and I. Pustijanac (Pavia: HighScore Center for New Music).

D'Escriván, Julio, 2007: Electronic Music and the Moving Image. In The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music, ed. N. Collins and J. D'Escriván (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 156-170.

Hentschel, Frank, 2011: Töne der Angst: Die Musik im Horrorfilm (Berlin: Bertz + Fischer). Chapter 2 (Geräusch) 60-100; Chapter 3 (Großer Exkurs: Atonalität, Geräusch und Elektronik Musik vor 1970), 101-144.

Wierzbicki, James, 2002: Weird Vibrations: How the Theremin Gave Musical Voice to Hollywood’s Extraterrestrial “Others”. Journal of Popular Film and Television 30. 3, 125-35.

Wierzbicki, 2005: Louis and Bebe Barron’s Forbidden Planet: A Film Score Guide (Lanham, Scarecrow Press, 2005), Chapter 2 (Compositional Techniques), 17-42.

In order to contextualise the subject of the course, reference to general histories of film music and sound is encouraged.

Association in the course directory

BA (2016): POP-V
BA (2011): B06 (PM), B14
MA: M01, M02, M04, M05, M11
EC POP

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:35