Mitl Valdez's film Los confines (1987) is an adaptation of several works of fiction by the Mexican author Juan Rulfo. The director chose to adapt two short stories ("Talpa" and "¡Diles que no me maten!") and an episode from the author's first novel, Pedro Páramo. Valdez's intent was to "capturar el sentido" of the Jaliscan author or, in other words, to remain faithful to certain elements of his writing while adjusting them to the filmic medium. The musical score of Los confines is the method of appropriation that this study endeavors to investigate, since it shares common themes, metaphors, and imagery with the source texts. The musical language of Los confines not only communicates meaning within the film, but echoes elements of Rulfo's writing as well. Musical motifs in the score evoke concepts and symbols that form part of the writer's fictive universe and illustrate how Valdez finds "un equivalente en la expresión cinematográfica" for Rulfian material (qtd. in Pelayo).

Der Beitrag basiert auf Erfahrungen im Höranalyse-Unterricht unter dem speziellen Aspekt ›Klangfarbe und Instrumentation‹ im Rahmen des Studiengangs Komposition für Film und Medien. Die Klangmischung, modern gesprochen der ›Sound‹ spielt in der Filmmusik eine große Rolle. Das musiktheoretische Interesse ist daher unverändert groß, die Wurzeln dieses Phänomens aufzuspüren und zu erforschen. Wann, wo und wie vollzieht sich der Prozess der ›Emanzipation der Klangfarbe‹, also die Loslösung des Klangs von der kompositorischen Substanz, beginnt die Umkehrung von ›Erscheinung‹ und ›Wesen‹ eines Kunstwerks? Ausgehend von einem Abschnitt über Lohengrin aus Adornos Versuch über Wagner wird zunächst der Versuch einer theoretischen Begründung unternommen, so dann die methodische Umsetzung in der Unterrichtspraxis mit anderen Beispielen aus Wagners späten Opern demonstriert. Im (kürzeren) zweiten Teil meiner Ausführungen soll gezeigt werden, dass Debussy (besonders in seiner einzigen Oper) noch einen Schritt weiter gegangen ist: Klangfarbe wird zum Symbol, zum (bildhaften) Topos. Hier nimmt die Filmmusik ihren Ausgangspunkt, und diese Tendenz hält bis heute an. Beispiele aus aktuellen Filmmusiken sollen dazu die (nicht nur) stimmungsvolle Untermalung liefern. / This article describes experiences in a course on aural-analysis of timbre and instrumentation in the context of the major Composition for Film and Media. After all, the sound experience as a whole plays a central role in film music. Thus the music-theoretical interest in researching the roots of this phenomenon is potentially unlimited. When, where, and how is the process of “emancipation of timbre” implemented—that is, disengagement of sound from the compositional substance? And when, where, and how does an artwork transition from “emerging” to “being”? Based on a section on Lohengrin from Adorno’s Versuch über Wagner, an attempt is made to form a theoretical foundation, followed by a demonstration of the methodological implementation in pedagogical practice using other examples from Wagner’s later operas. The brief second part of this article illustrates that Debussy (particularly in his only opera) went a step further still: timbre becomes a symbol, a metaphorical topos. This is the starting point for film music—a tendency that continues until the present day. Examples from recent film music then provide (not only) the atmospheric accompaniment.

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The thesis explores the function of musical pauses in the context of film music. What is a musical pause? When and why have they been employed in the history of western classical music? Would there be other or additional reasons for utilizing pauses when applied to film music? Through analysis of select movies the thesis unveils to what extent musical pauses are used in each film, and discusses how these pauses impact the audiences understanding of the movies’ narrative. Pauses are an entity of music not often discussed, not even among musicians. While there exists a body of research that states the importance of pauses in western art music, there seems to be little mention of it in literature on film music. Yet, as will be explored in this thesis, musical pauses have the potential of enhancing as well as altering a films narrative in both efficient and musically meaningful ways. However, for musical pauses to be effective in film music, they need not only to be recognized by the composer, but their function must also be brought to the attention of the films director, editor and sound designer.

This diploma theses deals with the issues of music in movies. However, it is also focused on the life of Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer, one of the temporary Czech film music composer. I approached his life through a biography and an interview. Then I developed the matters of film music upon his work. First, I discussed the historic point of view and than the practical one - three interviewees helped me with that. Futher, I described the process of recording in Smecky Music Studio and I also analysed two parts of soundtrack from the movie Against the Wild which was composed by Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer and demonstrated the use of film music in educational practice. Last but not least, the results of a questionare are introduced to show how people perceive film music and its composers.

The thesis deals with a musical aspect in Czech films directed by Miloš Forman. The topic is investigated within a wider context of musical culture of the 1960s as it is focused on analysis of cultural phenomena associated with musical expression which left their impression on Forman's films and participated, to great extent, in specificity of their soundtracks. So the films are not analyzed as separate artifacts, but they are considered as documents affected by the social climate at that time. Common social phenomena which were an integral part of Forman's films are studied such as dancing parties, twist and radio broadcasting. The Forman's cooperation with the Semafor theatre is analyzed as well as how Semafor poetics influenced his films. Jiří Suchý's lyrics and the period hits classified as the medium pop music stream are carefully analyzed as they are an important part of Forman's films. A short outline of the cinematographic context of the 1960s and comparison with films thematically similar help to specify Forman's approach to the music aspect. The collage-like structure of the work highlights a few contradictory trends in pop music of the 1960s whose variety can be seen in Forman's films.

In contemporary consumer culture, branding is the term given to the creation of an image or text (visual, aural, textural or multi-sensory) intended to represent a commodity or product sold by a producer or service provider. This product’s commercial viability depends largely on the way it is presented (via branding) to its target market. The aim of this research report is to show that music used consciously as a branding medium, with special reference to film music (in its commodified form), has become a brand in itself, as opposed to merely a component of a multi-modal commercial product. Through analyses of a central film music theme from Star Wars: Episode IV, composed by John Williams, I aim to identify what I will term `audio-branding techniques’ within the music, thereby showing how music has come to be regarded as a brand. The audio branding techniques will relate directly to the four levels of analysis that I propose to conduct. The nature of branding implies the presence of three entities in the cultural and commercial `transaction’ that takes place: namely, the service provider (creator), the product (commodity) and the target market (consumer). I intend to argue that, as a result of powerful creative collaborations between John Williams and his various directors (not to mention his own unique talent), this composer’s film music has increasingly become an audio brand which is almost commensurate with the brand status of the film itself. Williams’s ability to create a symbiotic relationship between a music brand and that of a film has set him apart from most other contemporary art and commercial composers. As a result, it is not simply the actors, directors and producers associated with a movie that induce one to buy tickets to see it, but Williams’s independent audio branding style as well. I thus aim to prove that his film music is an audio brand independent of, and yet also allied with, other brands.

M. Mus. (Composition) by Coursework and Research, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / The aim of this Research Report is to highlight the overt and more subtle roles that contemporary film music plays in the final presentation of a film. An analysis of selected examples by the renowned film music composer, Hans Zimmer, illustrates the techniques and musical tools that he uses to achieve certain effects which influence the way different scenes are perceived by the viewer/listener. Much of the debate revolves around the degree to which the music plays either an obvious or less obvious role in the multi-media modality of film and the techniques that the composer applies to achieve his/her desired dramatic result. I have drawn on the writings of current film music theorists in order to interrogate the interaction between music and some of the other art-forms that coalesce in the creation of the final film product.

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Esta tese analisou os processos de significação na música de cinema tendo como referencial teórico estudos musicológicos com ênfase cognitivista e semiótica, decorrentes da teoria das tópicas musicais, a partir dos trabalhos de Leonard Ratner (1985), Kofi Agawu (1991, 2009), Robert Hatten (1994, 2005, 2014) e Danuta Mirka (2014). A pesquisa se concentrou em dois gêneros cinematográficos, o western e a ficção científica, considerando as práticas musicais a eles relacionadas desde o cinema silencioso, para compreender a formação do inventário associativo que constituiu a base do pensamento tópico no cinema. Ao analisar o inventário musical de cada gênero, observamos que o uso recorrente de figurações e materiais musicais específicos correlacionados a elementos da paradigmática fílmica criou aquilo que denominamos - \"imaginário sonoro do gênero cinematográfico\", que definimos como sendo o conjunto de gestos, musemas, tópicas e sons concretos recorrentes na música do gênero e que contribuíram para a formação de uma identidade musical. A identificação dos elementos constituintes deste imaginário sonoro nos ajudou a compreender a significação musical à luz dos códigos e da mitologia que fundamentam o gênero cinematográfico. Em relação à formação do imaginário sonoro do western e da ficção científica, duas tendências antagônicas ganharam relevância: o papel da tradição folclórica e nacionalista para a identidade da música do western e, por outro lado, a importância das experiências da vanguarda musical para a construção do imaginário sonoro da ficção científica. Os signos musicais que permeiam o imaginário sonoro do gênero cinematográfico se combinam em processos tropológicos e se transmutam para acompanhar os desenvolvimentos técnicos, poéticos, tecnológicos e ideológicos que afetam os campos musical e cinematográfico. Em conjunto com as análises musicais, a teoria da marcação, aplicada ao plano musical por Hatten (1994), nos serviu como profícua ferramenta para a análise das antinomias que orientam grande parte das narrativas cinematográficas. A adoção da teoria da marcação contribuiu para revelar a função da música como alienadora ou -familiarizadora? de elementos da narrativa. Verificamos finalmente a possibilidade de correlação entre o discurso paradigmático das referências tópicas e o eixo sintagmático da forma fílmica. / This doctoral dissertation analyzed the processes of musical meaning in cinema using as theoretical fundament musicological studies of cognitivist and semiotic basis that have followed the theory of music topics after the work of Leonard Ratner (1985), Kofi Agawu (1991, 2009), Robert Hatten (1994, 2005, 2014) and Danuta Mirka (2014). The research concentrated in two cinematographic genres, the western and the science fiction, considering musical practices related to them since the silent movies, to understand the formation of an associative inventory that has become the basis of the topical thought in cinema. Analyzing the musical repertoire of each genre, we observe that the recurring use of specific figurations and other musical materials, related to elements of the film paradigms, has created what we called - \"sound imagery of a cinema genre\" . We defined this concept as the set of gestures, musemas, topics and concrete sounds often used in the music of that genre which contributed for the identification of the music with the images and the plot. The identification of the elements of this sound imagery helped us to understand the musical meaning by the perspective of the codes and myths that form the cinematographic genre. In relation to the formation of the sound imagery of the western and the science fiction genres, two antagonist tendencies have emerged, the role of folkloric and nationalistic traditions for the music identity of the western genre and the importance of avant-garde musical experiments for the construction of the science fiction sound imagery. The musical signs that cross the sound imagery of the cinematographic genre blend through tropological processes and transform themselves to follow the technical, poetical, technological and ideological developments that affect the fields of music and cinema. Besides the musical analysis, the markedness theory, applied to music by Hatten (1994), served as useful tool to analyze the role of antinomy that guide many of the cinematographic narratives. The adoption of the makedness theory contributed to reveal how the music alienate or familiarize the elements of the narrative. We also verified a possible correlation between the paradigmatic discourse of the topical references and the syntagmatic axis of the filmic form.