This dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach that analyzes and compares the film scoring processes of Danny Elfman, Elliot Goldenthal, James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer in characterizing the fictional hero Batman in film. This is accomplished by applying Classical Hollywood film scoring principles from the golden age of cinema, Juan Chattah's pragmatic and semiotic typologies regarding musical metaphoric expression, and psychology. This amalgamation demonstrates how the aforementioned film composers consider varying structural aspects of their music, i.e., formal design, melodic contour, harmonic gestures, and cadential formulas, in (re)creating and establishing their individual artistic trademarks on a comic book character within canonical and non-canonical storylines. The study includes soundtracks from Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns, Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, and Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The result is an analysis that: 1) enhances what little is known about the music for these films; 2) allows for the recognition of the film scoring creative process behind film sequelization; 3) enhances musical and psychological interpretations of the Batman character; and 4) offers an expansion of Chattah's metaphorical typologies.

Forman's Amadeus and the Role of Music in Film Narrative Vedoucí diplomové práce (supervisor): Zpracoval (author): Mgr. Tereza Havelková, Ph.D. Tomáš Bazika studijní obor (program): Praha, July 2020 Obecná teorie a dějiny umění a kultury Abstract The subject of this thesis is a study of the ways of using the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Miloš Forman's motion picture Amadeus. In my thesis, I focus on how Amadeus employs pre-existing classical compositions to create a new, largely fictional narrative based on the life and music of Mozart. I argue that instead of applying pre-existing pieces as film music, Amadeus conceives individual scenes as well as its overall filmic structure to accommodate the music's expressive qualities and biographical associations. I engage in a conversation with relevant existing scholarship to establish a theoretical framework for a systematic interpretation of the meaning-making roles of music in Amadeus. Drawing on Claudia Gorbman's concept of diegetic, non-diegetic and metadiegetic sound categories, I apply her taxonomy to Amadeus in order to show how not only the selection and placement of music but also its relation to the diegesis determine its impact on the narrative. I propose that in its treatment of Mozart's music, Amadeus reverses the traditional hierarchy of the...