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

A estética da ópera cômica, germe da música setecentista, deu aos compositores uma nova gama de combinações e estratégias musicais de contraste e fluxo dramático, pois, ao representar na ópera a ação de homens comuns, a música pôde absorver e combinar tanto materiais retirados dos mais diversos contextos culturais - como a caça, a guerra e o campo - quanto estilos musicais que, juntos, são chamados de tópicas musicais. Por conseguinte, a gama de combinações setecentista possibilitou os compositores criarem significados expressivos únicos, de acordo com as finalidades expressivas determinadas pelo contexto social, cultural e teológico nos quais a música se insere. Tais inovações na linguagem musical também estavam disponíveis para o padre e compositor brasileiro José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767 - 1830). O objetivo desta pesquisa é estudar o Kyrie da Missa de Santa Cecilia do Pe. José Maurício Nunes Garcia na perspectiva da significação musical, a fim de investigar (1) a estratégia musical pela qual José Maurício compôs este Kyrie, (2) se estratégias musicais apontam para um significado expressivo que tenha relação (isto é, que seja correlato) com as unidades culturais/teológicas envolvidas no martírio de Santa Cecília (como, por exemplo, abnegação, redenção, salvação, etc.), e se, (3) a partir disso, podemos compreender como essas unidades culturais e/ou ideias teológicas influenciam as escolhas musicais. Ao manipular desde elementos formais, como harmonia e cadências, a tópicas musicais retiradas da tradição da música pastoril à tradição de representar na ópera cenas de assombro e maravilha (cuja música ficou conhecida como ombra), José Maurício consegue dialogar com a cultura e a teologia que circundam a Missa de Santa Cecília. / The aesthetics of comic opera, germ of eighteenth-century music, gave to composers a new range of musical combinations and strategies of contrast and dramatic flow. By playing in the opera the action of ordinary men, music was able to absorb and combine both materials taken from more diverse cultural contexts - such as hunting, war and the countryside - as well as musical styles that, together, are called musical topics. Consequently, the range of eighteenth-century combinations allowed composers to create unique expressive meanings, according to the expressive purposes determined by the social, cultural, and theological context in which music is inserted. Such innovations in the musical language were also available to the Brazilian priest and composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767 - 1830). This research aims to study the Kyrie of the Mass of St. Cecilia of Fr. José Maurício Nunes Garcia in the perspective of musical signification, in order to investigate (1) the musical strategy in which José Maurício composed this Kyrie, (2) if the musical strategie points to the cultural / theological units involved in the martyrdom of St. Cecilia (such as self-denial, redemption, salvation, etc.), and if (3) we can understand how these cultural units / theological ideas influence musical choices. By manipulating from formal elements, such as harmony and cadences, to musical topics taken from the tradition of pastoral music to the tradition of representing scenes of awe and wonder (whose music became known as ombra), José Maurício manages to dialogue with the culture and the theology surrounding the Mass of St. Cecilia.

Com a mudança no cenário musicológico internacional no final do século XX, o desenvolvimento da teoria das tópicas musicais encontrou terreno fértil nas análises sobre expressividade e significação do discurso musical. Apesar de seu principal objeto de estudo se pautar nas obras de compositores dos séculos XVIII e XIX, as tópicas musicais têm sido utilizadas como ferramentas de análise em obras de diversos períodos da música brasileira. Entretanto, pouco se tem pesquisado sobre a sua influência nas obras luso-brasileiras do período colonial. Nesta mesma senda, sabe-se que a obra religiosa de Marcos Portugal, importante compositor da Casa Real Portuguesa durante o reinado do príncipe regente D. João VI, também carece de atenção no âmbito das investigações musicológicas. Assim, diante destas duas carências, este trabalho pretende, como objetivo geral, observar as recorrências tópicas na Missa de Réquiem em Mi bemol maior de Marcos Portugal. O contexto fúnebre em que as Missas de Réquiem são compostas possibilita a ocorrência de jogos semânticos e simbólicos entre a música, a religião e a morte. Dessa forma, observamos como as tópicas de marcha fúnebre, ombra e tempesta são apresentadas no Réquiem de Marcos Portugal e como contribuem para a construção da expressividade e sentimentos comuns diante da morte: o temor pela condenação eterna e a esperança de salvação. / The transition of the international musicology context in the late twentieth-century has made it possible for the development of Topic Theory to find a breeding ground for the analysis about musical discourse expressivity and signification. While its main object of research is based on works from eighteenth and nineteenth-century composers, musical topics have been used as analysis tools in musical works from several Brazilian music periods. Nevertheless, very little has been researched about its influences in Luso-Brazilian colonial musical works. Similarly, it is known that the religious works of Marcos Portugal, a relevant composer of the Royal House during the reign of the Regent Prince D. João VI, also requires further attention as far as musicological investigations are concerned. Thus, given these two shortcomings, the aim of this study is to look for topical recurrences in Marcos Portugal Requiem Mass in E flat major. The funeral context in which Requiem Masses are composed makes the occurrence of semantic and symbolic games between music, religion and death, possible. In this way, we have noticed how funeral march, ombra and tempesta topics are employed in Marcos Portugal Requiem and how these topics contribute to the construction of expressivity and common feelings before death: awe of the eternal damnation and hope of salvation.

Com a mudança no cenário musicológico internacional no final do século XX, o desenvolvimento da teoria das tópicas musicais encontrou terreno fértil nas análises sobre expressividade e significação do discurso musical. Apesar de seu principal objeto de estudo se pautar nas obras de compositores dos séculos XVIII e XIX, as tópicas musicais têm sido utilizadas como ferramentas de análise em obras de diversos períodos da música brasileira. Entretanto, pouco se tem pesquisado sobre a sua influência nas obras luso-brasileiras do período colonial. Nesta mesma senda, sabe-se que a obra religiosa de Marcos Portugal, importante compositor da Casa Real Portuguesa durante o reinado do príncipe regente D. João VI, também carece de atenção no âmbito das investigações musicológicas. Assim, diante destas duas carências, este trabalho pretende, como objetivo geral, observar as recorrências tópicas na Missa de Réquiem em Mi bemol maior de Marcos Portugal. O contexto fúnebre em que as Missas de Réquiem são compostas possibilita a ocorrência de jogos semânticos e simbólicos entre a música, a religião e a morte. Dessa forma, observamos como as tópicas de marcha fúnebre, ombra e tempesta são apresentadas no Réquiem de Marcos Portugal e como contribuem para a construção da expressividade e sentimentos comuns diante da morte: o temor pela condenação eterna e a esperança de salvação. / The transition of the international musicology context in the late twentieth-century has made it possible for the development of Topic Theory to find a breeding ground for the analysis about musical discourse expressivity and signification. While its main object of research is based on works from eighteenth and nineteenth-century composers, musical topics have been used as analysis tools in musical works from several Brazilian music periods. Nevertheless, very little has been researched about its influences in Luso-Brazilian colonial musical works. Similarly, it is known that the religious works of Marcos Portugal, a relevant composer of the Royal House during the reign of the Regent Prince D. João VI, also requires further attention as far as musicological investigations are concerned. Thus, given these two shortcomings, the aim of this study is to look for topical recurrences in Marcos Portugal Requiem Mass in E flat major. The funeral context in which Requiem Masses are composed makes the occurrence of semantic and symbolic games between music, religion and death, possible. In this way, we have noticed how funeral march, ombra and tempesta topics are employed in Marcos Portugal Requiem and how these topics contribute to the construction of expressivity and common feelings before death: awe of the eternal damnation and hope of salvation.

Este trabalho visa abordar conceitos estéticos, musicais e históricos (relacionados à época do Iluminismo) que envolvem as transcrições para violão \"Six Airs Choisis de l\'Opéra de Mozart: \"Il flauto magico, arrangés pour guitare\" Op. 19 do compositor e violonista espanhol Fernando Sor (1778-1839), publicadas entre os anos de 1823 a 1825, em Londres, e baseadas em árias de A flauta mágica k620 (1791) de Mozart. O processo de transcrição empreendido por Fernando Sor exigiu, inclusive por necessidades históricas (aproximadamente 35 anos separam essas obras), uma mudança de concepção da escritura instrumental, pois, para Sor, tratava-se de verter a essência de um pensamento musical concebido no meio operático e apresentá-lo sob o conceito sonoro de um instrumento solo emergente, como foi o caso do violão no final do século XVIII e primeiras décadas do século XIX. Assim, do ponto de vista instrumental, elementos como textura, estilo de acompanhamento e conceito de condução de vozes, para citar apenas alguns aspectos, sofreram mudanças de concepção, resultando muitas vezes quase em uma nova composição e, até mesmo, outra percepção da forma musical, porque, acima de tudo, o elemento dramáticoliterário está ausente. / This paper aims at addressing the aesthetic, musical and historical concepts (related to the Enlightenment) that involve the guitar transcriptions \"Six Airs Choisis de l\'Opéra de Mozart: \"Il flauto magico, arrangés pour guitare\" Op. 19 by Spanish composer and guitarist Fernando Sor (1778-1839), published between the years 1823 to 1825, in London, and based in Mozart\'s Die Zauberflöte k620 (The Magic Flute). The transcription\'s process undertaken by Fernando Sor required, even for historical purposes (the compositions were created 35 years apart), a change in the concept of instrumental writing. For Sor, it was a question of translating the essence of the musical thought conceived in an operatic way and presenting it under a sonorous concept of an emerging, solo instrument as had been the case of the guitar in the late 18th century and in the first decades of the 19th century. From the instrumental perspective, therefore, elements such as texture, style of accompaniment and the voice leading concept, to name but a few, have undergone conceptual changes, often resulting almost in a new composition and even a different perception of the musical form since, above all, the elements of drama and literature are absent.

La Grande Messe des morts d’Hector Berlioz se remarque entre autres choses par la variété de styles et le changement rapide de climats expressifs. Son écriture novatrice éveille l’émotion du public en cultivant de nombreux effets d’inattendus que la presse de l’époque a soulignés lors de la création. Comment caractériser les différents styles musicaux sur lesquels le Requiem s’articule ? Comment le compositeur captive et éveille-t-il l’émotion de l’auditeur ? Comment l’auditeur perçoit-il la stratégie déployée par le compositeur ? La présente thèse a pour but d’éclaircir le fonctionnement des matériaux musicaux variés chez Berlioz, le mécanisme de la communication compositeur-auditeur et sa conception de la musique « sacrée ». L’étude de la rhétoricité du Requiem est fondée sur quatre enquêtes successives fondées sur la théorie de la communication musicale de Jean Molino et Jean-Jacques Nattiez et l’analyse de la rhétoricité selon Jean-Pierre Bartoli : 1. étude du processus génétique de la composition (analyse de la poïétique externe) ; 2. étude de la critique de la presse musicale (analyse de l’esthésique externe) ; 3. étude des principes du développement et forme narrative (analyse de la poïétique inductive) ; 4. étude des jeux sur l’attente ménagés par le compositeur (analyse de l’esthésique inductive). De cette recherche, on conclut que Berlioz réussit à concilier l’intensité dramatique et la religiosité à travers un certain art du discours, qui maintient l’unité de l’œuvre dans la variété de ses climats, des topiques exploités et des styles d’écriture. / Hector Berlioz’s Grande Messe des morts has been particularly recognized by its variety of styles and the rapid change of expressive atmospheres. His innovative style arouses public’s emotion by cultivating a great number of unexpected effects that the music press in time of its first performance emphasized. How can be characterized various musical styles which connect with one another in this Requiem? How does the composer behave to attract the audience and to arouse their emotion? How did the audience feel composer’s strategy which was deployed in this work? This thesis aims to make clear the function of various musical materials in his composition, a communication mechanism established between composer and audience, and his conception of the “sacred” music. A study of rhetoric in his Requiem is founded on four successive analyses, inspired by Jean Molino and Jean-Jacques Nattiez’s musical communication theory and Jean-Pierre Bartoli’s rhetoric analysis: 1. study of the creative process of the composition (analysis of the external poïétique); 2. study of the music criticism of press articles (analysis of the external esthésique); 3. study of the principal of the music’s development and its formal narrativity (analysis of the inductive poïétique); 4. study of the tactics on audience’s expectation handled by the composer (analysis of the inductive poïétique). This study concluded that Berlioz succeeded in managing the dramatic intensity and the religiousness through a certain art of discourse, which maintains the work’s unity with a variety of atmospheres, musical topics and styles.

Este trabalho visa abordar conceitos estéticos, musicais e históricos (relacionados à época do Iluminismo) que envolvem as transcrições para violão \"Six Airs Choisis de l\'Opéra de Mozart: \"Il flauto magico, arrangés pour guitare\" Op. 19 do compositor e violonista espanhol Fernando Sor (1778-1839), publicadas entre os anos de 1823 a 1825, em Londres, e baseadas em árias de A flauta mágica k620 (1791) de Mozart. O processo de transcrição empreendido por Fernando Sor exigiu, inclusive por necessidades históricas (aproximadamente 35 anos separam essas obras), uma mudança de concepção da escritura instrumental, pois, para Sor, tratava-se de verter a essência de um pensamento musical concebido no meio operático e apresentá-lo sob o conceito sonoro de um instrumento solo emergente, como foi o caso do violão no final do século XVIII e primeiras décadas do século XIX. Assim, do ponto de vista instrumental, elementos como textura, estilo de acompanhamento e conceito de condução de vozes, para citar apenas alguns aspectos, sofreram mudanças de concepção, resultando muitas vezes quase em uma nova composição e, até mesmo, outra percepção da forma musical, porque, acima de tudo, o elemento dramáticoliterário está ausente. / This paper aims at addressing the aesthetic, musical and historical concepts (related to the Enlightenment) that involve the guitar transcriptions \"Six Airs Choisis de l\'Opéra de Mozart: \"Il flauto magico, arrangés pour guitare\" Op. 19 by Spanish composer and guitarist Fernando Sor (1778-1839), published between the years 1823 to 1825, in London, and based in Mozart\'s Die Zauberflöte k620 (The Magic Flute). The transcription\'s process undertaken by Fernando Sor required, even for historical purposes (the compositions were created 35 years apart), a change in the concept of instrumental writing. For Sor, it was a question of translating the essence of the musical thought conceived in an operatic way and presenting it under a sonorous concept of an emerging, solo instrument as had been the case of the guitar in the late 18th century and in the first decades of the 19th century. From the instrumental perspective, therefore, elements such as texture, style of accompaniment and the voice leading concept, to name but a few, have undergone conceptual changes, often resulting almost in a new composition and even a different perception of the musical form since, above all, the elements of drama and literature are absent.