Cheng, Hui Tung Eos. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 425-429). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract and appendix also in Chinese.

In the early twentieth century, the American eugenics movement began to dominate much of the public discourse surrounding disability, particularly the disability known as “feeble-mindedness.” Eugenicists broadly depicted the feeble-minded as both innocent children because of their supposed lack of intelligence and moral deviants who could harm members of society. There are many studies that have analyzed the effects of this construction of disability in popular culture and American films. However, only a few scholars, such as Joseph Straus and Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, have asked what the feeble mind sounds like. Through a musical analysis of the leitmotifs present in the film scores for Of Mice and Men (1939) and Oklahoma! (1955), this thesis argues that the symptomology of feeble-mindedness and social stereotypes of the disability seeped into and influenced the musical portrayals of Jud Fry and Lennie Small. Jud and Lennie reflected many of the anxieties surrounding disability during the eugenics era. Although the films’ narratives reveal the ideological positions towards disability, music also plays a significant role announcing characters’ disability and encouraging particular responses to disability. The musicians for these films, including Aaron Copland, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Robert Russell Bennett, accomplished this task by musically imitating a disabled embodiment. By mimicking either physical symptoms or social stereotypes of feeble-mindedness, particularly obsession and idiocy, the film scores represent Jud and Lennie as either innocent children or social menaces to support the ideological stance of each film.

This thesis is a study of the gender politics through musical discourse in the Mad Max series. Dystopian narratives are particularly interesting texts for study of gender because they allow for extreme hypothetical situations in worlds that are at once familiar and unfamiliar. Musical discourse in the Mad Max films both supports and complicates dominant readings of gender constructions. I consider the gender politics of the franchise, using Mad Max (1979) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) as case studies, and drawing on scholarship on gender in film music, feminist film theory, and Australian car culture. In analyzing this music, I consider its broader cultural connotations, including film music tropes and operatic character types. After considering these genre associations, I analyze the musical gestures for narrative content and consider how the placement of themes with images and dialogue influences that content, with attention to how these factors contribute to a gendered understanding of the character. As the first deep thematic analysis of music in the Mad Max films, my project extends existing scholarship on both onscreen performance and gender categorizations that include musical forces resistant to strict binary categorization. My analysis of gendered musical discourse emphasizes the power of inquiry about gender in film music to clarify, enrich, and complicate texts.

Science fiction film has been telling stories about artificial anthropomorphic robots and androids for almost a hundred years, spawning films, such as Metropolis (1927), Ghost in the Shell (1951), and Blade Runner (1982). Each of these science-fiction films was complemented by a musical score that helped to create an onscreen world dominated by a dystopian view of the future. Influenced by the generations of prior science-fiction films, Automata (2014), The Machine (2013), and Ex Machina (2015) are all concerned with the same narrative in which humanity is in decline while artificial robots are rising up and experiencing life in a way that humans are no longer capable of doing. These three films were all chosen as exemplars of recent science- fiction films with stories about robots versus humans. Further, this difference between robots and humans is paralleled in the film's musical scores. Humans are represented by depressive musical themes with dull and cold timbres that symbolize how empty they have become. Robots, on the other hand, are represented by bright and lively timbres that symbolize how the robots are living more vibrant lives than humans. This thesis traces themes for humans and robots through several important moments and tropes in each film: the state of humanity, the first encounter with the robot, the quality of life for robots and humans, and the eventual conflict that erupts between artificial and organic life. This conflict ends with the arrival of a robotic Eve figure, a sole female robot that is set apart by the film score as a special being, the start of a new age that is dominated by robotic life. These films choose to portray female robots and promote the idea of Eve because the female is seen as a mysterious Other to be feared; in the same way, humans fear these female robots because of their Otherness. Analysis and conclusions were achieved through transcription of the film scores, interviews with the film composers, analysis connecting the score to the visual scene, and constructing a historical context that connects the three films to their predecessors. Future research can expand on these findings by adding more science fiction films to the film pool, examining just how far the musical difference between humans and robots can be traced in film. Unlocking the musical themes assigned to humans and examining how they change over time can reveal how humans perceive themselves, for better or worse. This study is also meant to serve as a gateway for more science fiction films to be studied through their music, as some film's have hidden meanings that can only be understood by examining the music and how it interacts with the visual scene. A study of Automata, The Machine, and Ex Machina manifests how humanity is making way for the robotic Eve and the next stage of evolution for the world.

The research on Ingmar Bergman is comprehensive, however, there is one aspect of his artistry that has been regrettably neglected – his use of music. Music always played a huge part in Bergman’s life, and it was also a great source of inspiration. The music was a structural component in the creating process and he often referred to his films as pieces of music and his actors as musical instruments. Moreover, music frequently played a thematic part in the plot. The purpose of this essay is to examine what function music actually has in a selection of Bergman’s films. To do this I have closely analyzed sequences in which music is performed in four different films from the sixties; Through a Glass Darkly (1961), The Silence (1963), Persona (1966) and Hour of the Wolf (1968). The basis of the discussion lies in the film sound research, mainly that of Claudia Gorbman and Royal S. Brown. The conclusion of this analysis is that Bergman’s use of music is quite extraordinary, particularly in creating a certain feeling of time and space differentiated from the rest of the story. The music has an apparent intrinsic value of its own, and consequently, it is a narrative instrument in itself.

The comic book superhero film has become a mainstay amongst Hollywood blockbuster films. However, despite their popularity and financial success, the genre has only recently begun to receive scholarly attention. In particular, there has been little research on what traits distinguish and define the genre, and even less on the music which accompanies the films. This scope of this dissertation can be divided into three parts. First, it is a study of the superhero film genre. I provide a historical overview both of the superhero comic, as well as its filmic adaptations -- delineating the semantic and syntactic traits of the superhero film genre and the ways in which it adheres to and differs from its encompassing genre of the action film. Second, it is a study of the music for superhero films. By examining the musical themes of superhero films over time, I establish what musical parameters are held in common amongst superhero films -- namely, what contributes to the comic book sound. Finally, it is a study of topic theory, and in particular, how topical analysis can function within, and enrich the study of film music. By expanding on topical theories established for the study of classical music, I further systematize the topical study of film music, using superhero films as a model for demonstrating the potential for new musical topics to be uncovered through the topical analysis of film music. / text

This thesis examines adaptations of William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice (c. 1601–4) across media, comparing cinematic, televisual, musical, visual art, and online adaptations, among others, in an endeavour to determine its adaptability in various periods and cultural and societal contexts, with a focus on the issue of race. Shakespeare’s seeming endorsement of a racial stereotype has proved to be challenging in adaptations, which have not always been successful in either reproducing or interrogating the issue, despite the fact that the play has continuously been engaged with across media, periods, and cultures. Resultantly, the thesis considers the ways in which the race issues present in Othello have been exploited, adapted ‘faithfully’, ignored, and negotiated in different contexts. Sustained consideration of representations of the race issues of the play from a Western perspective has not been undertaken previously and this thesis analyses the use of Othello as a vehicle for commenting on and reflecting contemporary current events through the lenses of adaptation theory and the singular history that adaptations of Shakespeare’s work have. Initially, the thesis explores national readings of screen adaptations (from the United States, Great Britain, and outside the Anglo-American gaze), before grouping adaptations by media (such as music and online videos, as well as allusions in other media), deducing why specific adaptive trends have endured in Othellos, examining the relationship between the adaptability of the play and the media in which it is placed. A pertinent question addressed is: what is Othello’s place in adaptations of Shakespeare’s work – and how adaptable is it when both black and white performers and adapters perpetuate racial stereotypes? One conclusion drawn is that – despite its prevalence across media – Othello is inadaptable when its race issues are linked – through various methods – to the contexts in which it is placed, changing them in the process.

The 1961 Hammer horror film, The Curse of the Werewolf, paired innovative make-up and set design with the avant-garde music of Benjamin Frankel (1906-1973). Frankel’s concert works had by this time embraced serialism, but The Curse of the Werewolf was his sole attempt at composing an almost entirely serial film score. This music more fully bridged the divide between the continental modernist practices found in his concert works with more conventional film music techniques. Thus, The Curse of the Werewolf’s score represents a crucial point in Frankel’s broader creative development as a composer who increasingly embraced twelve-tone methods in his concert works. Drawing from historical surveys, analytical scholarship, journal articles, and Frankel’s own writings, this thesis provides historical context surrounding Frankel’s life and involvement with the film. Most importantly, this study examines Frankel’s implementation of serialism in The Curse of the Werewolf’s score and its relation to the film’s visual and narrative components. I examine three pivotal scenes through traditional film music analysis combined with twelve-tone analysis. These analyses show how Frankel pairs motives with onscreen characters and situations while still embracing serial methods. This study sheds light on serialism’s application in film through the work of an overlooked British composer.

The advances in music technology and cinematography in recent years has granted a higher level of importance to the film music. There exists a gap in the academic study of film music as it relates to music technology, as no appropriate methodology exists that can accurately measure the contribution that music technology makes towards the music as it exists in film. This study aims to contribute towards existing methodologies for analysing film music, but from the perspective of music technology, and more specifically how audio processing in the domains of dynamic, spectral, spatial and temporal processing contribute towards the music in the film. This is achieved by building on the proposed methodologies of the study of film music as proposed by Kassabian (2009) and Altman (2000). This new method can be utilized to create a reference list of contributions that audio processing can make towards the soundtrack of a film by isolating the particular contribution that every moment of music is contributing to the film, and then finding how audio processing adds to this. / Mini Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Music / MMus / Unrestricted

This thesis examines how Zhao Jiping's film score in Yellow Earth (1984) establishes distinct identities for the diegetic and non-diegetic (presentational) space, as well as how Zhao manipulates the audience's perception of musical-spatial boundaries in order to create moments of musical significance during the "river scenes." To model the diegesis, I use a perception model approach combined with work by Winters and Yacavone. This frames the diegesis in relation to reality, without being beholden to it, and attributes to the audience an active role in constructing the diegesis, internally and subjectively expanding on fragments presented by the film. I then characterize the music of the diegesis as being representative of the Shaanbei region of China, using folk singing and instruments indigenous to the region. The music of the presentational space uses melodic material derived from the diegetic music, supported by orchestral music in a style similar to mixed instrument ensembles in Model Works. During the "river scenes", Zhao's music gradually detaches the audience's sense of anchoring in the diegetic space and pivots into the presentational space, creating an intense contrast that supports the narrative significance of the scene. Afterwards, similar techniques are then used to gradually re-anchor the audience back into the diegesis. Using models of the diegetic and presentational spaces that incorporate recent shifts in academic perspective, this thesis demonstrates Zhao Jiping's nuanced understanding of how an audience perceives musical space, both by creating distinct identities for the diegetic and presentational spaces, and by manipulating audience perception of space in order to create moments of musical significance.