Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Aesthetic of music for the silent film'

The fact that silent cinema is not to be considered just as a precursor to sound cinema, in an evolutionary sense, is today well acknowledged. The studies of scholars such as Tom Gunning, André Gaudreault, Richard Abel, Noël Burch and Charles Musser have moreover invited to consider what the “silent era” harbored not just as another cinema than the “sound” one, but as a number of “other” ways to conceive cinema, each one of them needing an accurately different approach, whatever is the chosen perspective (historiographical, aesthetic, sociologic, etc.) to look at them from. However, it is strange how one of these perspectives seems to be reluctant in accepting this awareness towards the silent production. It is the musical perspective: even if studies that deal with silent film music according to the specific features of the different languages of the silents have been developed indeed (most notably, the ones by Rick Altman), they nonetheless remain a minority. The panorama of discourses about film music, as of 2010, can still include authoritative contributions saying that «almost nothing has changed from the beginnings to present days» in the general way in which music interacts with moving images. Signs of this attitude are to be found even in the field of film preservation. Film archives devoted to silents, in fact, do not often accompany their film collections with pertinent music collections. There are, of course, meaningful exceptions, like the silent music collections at the Library of Congress or at the MoMA, or the Eyl/Van Houten Collection at the Nederlands Filmmuseum. But they are, precisely, exceptions. This situation apparently clashes with the need for «painstaking historical research» that Rick Altman recommends to be at the core of contemporary studies on silent films. A research done within an archive of silent film, in fact, is likely to be incomplete on the side of music and sound practices. Musicians of the silent era interacted with films by staying at the side of the screen, in the shadows next to the light of the projector: it is quite ironic how the discourse on their music, now, is again confined in a “shadow” – a metaphoric one, though - which borders with the “light” of the modern studies on silent cinema, but cannot proficiently interact with it. «It is time», as Altman said, «to include sound in silent cinema’s historiographical revival». A complete silent film music archive should be at the interface between a music library and a performing arts collection. Written scores, during the silent era, were a minority: the greatest part of the musical practice was instead based on cue sheets, compilations, repertoires, or even improvisations –which cannot of course have left any trace outside occasional accounts from audience members or the performers themselves. Moreover, practices of non-musical sonorization where often complementary to and concurrent with music performances: so, there is an evident need to keep record of them too. In addition to that, it must be remembered that, especially since the 1980 Thames Television presentation of Abel Gance’s Napoléon, reconstructed by Kevin Brownlow with new music by Carl Davis, the repertoire of the music for the silents started to grow again. In the last 30 years, the venues where silent film are screened in a way respectful of historical practices multiplied, as well as the production of appropriate music accompaniments founded on complete scores, but also, again, on cue sheets and improvisations, just like during the actual silent age. It seems reasonable for this “new” tradition of music for silents to be preserved alongside the historical documents which are its origin and source of inspiration. My Ph. D. thesis uses these considerations as a premise to reconstruct and study a special and circumscribed collection of silent film music: the repertoire played at the international silent film festival Le Giornate del Cinema Muto from 1982 to present days. The accuracy shown by this festival in the presentation and divulgation of silent film music practices provides in fact a solid ground for a project of this kind. In addition to that, Le Giornate have already expressed, in 2009, the intention of having such an archive developed in Pordenone, after a suggestion I advanced during the XI Collegium organized by the festival. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first one includes an introductory chapter, where problems about the archival preservation of musical sources pertinent to silent film music are discussed; then, a first chapter deals with an outline of the history of music for silent films, choosing a non-linear approach based on the insurgence of musical practices more than on a chronological succession; finally, the first part is concluded by a chapter describing the aesthetic of music for silent films, comprehensive of a review of the pertinent literature and a description of the audiovisual strategies used by the composers. The second part is the repertoire of the music that has been performed live at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto on the basis of written scores. 115 films are listed following the 29 editions of the Festival, with full filmographic information. Each film is accompanied by a short analysis of the main audiovisual strategies. The sources of this research are mainly the audiovisual recordings of the screenings at le Giornate del Cinema Muto preserved at La Cineteca del Friuli, Gemona. Other details have been collected through conversations (in person or via email) with some of the authors of the music: Gillian B. Anderson, Neil Brand, Günter A. Buchwald, Philip Carli, Antonio Coppola, Berndt Heller, Stephen Horne, Maud Nelissen, Donald Sosin and Gabriel Thibaudeau.
Il fatto che il cinema muto non possa essere considerato un mero precursore del cinema sonoro, secondo una logica «biologica e teleologica», è oggi ampiamente riconosciuto. Le riflessioni di studiosi quali Tom Gunning, André Gaudreault, Richard Abel, Noël Burch e Charles Musser hanno inoltre invitato a considerare il muto non solo come un altro cinema rispetto al sonoro, ma come un sistema di pratiche cinematografiche concorrenti ed essenzialmente diverse da quella del sonoro, decisamente mal raccolte sotto l’etichetta generica “cinema muto”. Ciascuna di queste maniere cinematografiche, numerose e dall’identificazione e denominazione controversa– cinematografia-attrazione, cinema dei primi tempi, cinema primitivo, ecc. – necessita di distinti strumenti d’analisi, quale che sia il punto di vista (storiografico, estetico, sociologico, ecc.) scelto per studiarla. È tuttavia strano come uno di questi possibili punti di vista si stia ancor oggi dimostrando piuttosto riluttante nell’accettare tale genere di consapevolezza nei confronti del muto. Si tratta del punto di vista musicale. È vero che non sono mancati gli studi teorici capaci di trattare la musica per il cinema muto tenendo conto della molteplicità e delle differenti necessità dei linguaggi visivi di quell’epoca: Rick Altman ha in particolare offerto alcune delle riflessioni più interessanti in tal senso. Ma tali riflessioni sono rimaste una minoranza. Il panorama dei discorsi sulla musica per film nel 2010 è ancora in grado di accogliere contributi importanti che tuttavia non differenziano le strategie audiovisive del sonoro da quelle del muto, sostenendo che nella maniera generale in cui la musica interagisce con l’immagine in movimento «poco o nulla è cambiato dalle origini ad oggi». Segni di questa tendenza si riscontrano persino nell’ambito della preservazione dei film. Gli archivi cinematografici attivi nella conservazione del muto, infatti, raramente accompagnano le loro collezioni con archivi paralleli destinati alla documentazione relativa alla musica. Esiste, bisogna riconoscere, la consapevolezza dell’importanza che i documenti musicali possono avere nelle operazioni di restauro e preservazione dei film. Esistono inoltre casi particolari di raccolte di musica per il muto gestite in sinergia con archivi di film, come le collezioni di musica per il muto conservate alla Library of Congress di Washington, DC, o al Museum of Modern Arts (MoMA) di New York, oppure la Eyl/Van Houten Collection presso il Nederlands Filmmuseum. Ma si tratta di eccezioni: e fino alla fine degli anni ’80 in effetti non esistevano significative raccolte di musica per il cinema muto al di fuori di quella del MoMA. Questo stato delle cose sembra in apparente contrasto con la necessità di una «ricerca storica coscienziosa» che Altman raccomanda parlando dell’approccio contemporaneo al muto. Infatti, allo stato attuale delle cose, una ricerca sul muto svolta in un singolo archivio rischia plausibilmente di essere molto carente sul versante delle pratiche sonore e musicali. Durante l’epoca del muto, i musicisti interagivano con i film restando accanto allo schermo, nell’ombra vicina alla luce del proiettore. È piuttosto ironico come oggi i discorsi sviluppati attorno alla loro musica siano nuovamente costretti in un’“ombra” – metaforica, stavolta – che sta ai confini della “luce” costituita dai moderni studi sul cinema muto, senza però poter ben interagire con essa. «È tempo», come ha scritto Altman, «di includere il suono nella rinascita storiografica del cinema muto». Un archivio della musica per il cinema muto dovrebbe porsi all’intersezione tra una biblioteca musicale ed una collezione di materiali legati alle arti performative. Le partiture scritte, durante l’epoca del muto, erano infatti una minoranza: la maggior parte della pratica musicale si fondava su cue sheet, compilazioni, repertori o improvvisazioni – che non possono aver lasciato alcuna traccia al di fuori di occasionali resoconti di membri del pubblico o degli stessi musicisti. In più, pratiche di sonorizzazione non musicali erano spesso concomitanti e complementari alle esecuzioni: esiste dunque una chiara urgenza di preservare anche qualsiasi tipo di documentazione parli di esse. In aggiunta a ciò, occorre ricordare che, almeno dalla presentazione del 1980 del Napoleon di Abel Gance prodotta da Thames Television, che ha mostrato il film ricostruito da Kevin Brownlow con una nuova musica di Carl Davis, il repertorio della musica per il muto ha cominciato a crescere di nuovo. Negli ultimi trent’anni, i luoghi dove i film muti vengono proiettati in maniera rispettosa di pratiche musicali storiche si sono moltiplicati, assieme alla produzione di partiture, cue sheet e improvvisazioni. Sembra ragionevole offrire a questa “nuova” tradizione di musica per il muto un posto accanto ai documenti che ne sono origine ed ispirazione. La mia tesi di dottorato utilizza queste considerazioni come premessa per ricostruire e studiare una collezione particolare e circoscritta di musica per il cinema muto: il repertorio di partiture eseguite al Festival internazionale Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, dal 1982 al 2010. L’accuratezza filologica dimostrata da tale Festival nella presentazione e nella divulgazione delle pratiche musicali del muto offre infatti una solida base per studi di questo genere. Inoltre, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto hanno già espresso, nel 2009, l’intenzione di fondare concretamente un archivio come quello sopra descritto, in seguito ad un suggerimento da me avanzato nel corso del XI Collegium di studi organizzato dalla manifestazione. La tesi è divisa in due parti. La prima include un capitolo introduttivo, dove vengono discussi problemi riguardanti la conservazione archivistica delle fonti musicali pertinenti alla musica per il muto; dopodiché, un primo capitolo tratta della storia della musica per il muto, scegliendo un approccio non lineare guidato dallo sviluppo delle pratiche musicali, e non da una consequenzialità cronologica; infine, la prima parte si conclude con un capitolo descrivente l’estetica della musica per il muto, nel quale si offre una rassegna della letteratura sull’argomento ed una descrizione delle strategie audiovisive utilizzate dai compositori. La seconda parte presenta il repertorio della musica che è stata eseguita a Le Giornate del Cinema Muto sulla base di partiture scritte. Si tratta di un elenco di 115 film, coprente la 29 edizioni del Festival e completo di informazioni filmografiche. Ogni scheda di film è accompagnata da una breve analisi delle principali strategie audiovisive. Le fonti di questa ricerca sono principalmente le registrazioni audiovisive delle proiezioni a Le Giornate del Cinema Muto conservate presso La Cineteca del Friuli, Gemona. Altri dettagli si sono ottenuti tramite conversazioni (di persona o tramite email) con alcuni degli autori delle musiche: Gillian B. Anderson, Neil Brand, Günter A. Buchwald, Philip Carli, Antonio Coppola, Berndt Heller, Stephen Horne, Maud Nelissen, Donald Sosin e Gabriel Thibaudeau.

Film d'Art, the French production company responsible for the development of Henri Lavédan's L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise (1908), demonstrated a forward-thinking vision for film and music. Through their innovations, the company combined many elements of cinematography with new standards for quality productions. This project report will investigate the goals of Film d'Art and its unusually high ambitions, standard music practices in the silent film era, the issues revolving around the instrumentation to Saint-Saëns' score to Henri Lavédan's L'Assassinat de Duc de Guise (1908), and the performance of my arrangement in a graduate recital.

My research is centred around Silent Era films adapted from nineteenth and early twentieth century Gothic literature with a special emphasis on the figure of the monster and its translation from literary to cinematic form. The corpus I have assembled for the purposes of this analysis comprises sixty-six films made in ten different countries between 1897 and 1929. Many of these films are considered lost and I have endeavored to reconstruct them as much as possible using materials located in film archives. The Introduction lays out the ground covered in the thesis and provides a working definition of ‘monstrosity’ in this context. The first chapter deals with the historical, economic, cultural, social and technological contexts of the films under discussion. The second chapter approaches the eight literary monster figures who form the core of this thesis through the lens of Adaptation Theory. The third chapter examines the elements of cinematic language that were particularly relevant to translating monster characters and Gothic literary narratives into silent film, placing this corpus into the context of silent film history and theory. The fourth chapter reviews a cross-section of intermedial systems of classification that have been applied to monster figures, and proposes a new system that would reflect the multifarious nature of the silent film Gothic literary monster. Chapters Five through Nine offer a theoretical framework for classifying the principal characteristics of the silent film Gothic monster by applying various philosophical and aesthetic concepts. The final chapter summarises the material presented in earlier chapters and offers relevant conclusions demonstrating how these films employ the unique characteristics, conventions, and limitations of the silent film medium in their representations of the Gothic literary monster.

The Basilica Notre-Dame Choir accompanying screenings of The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Regent in 1924, imaginative community prologues before Mary Pickford’s Pollyanna at the Russell in 1920, and costumed opera soloists singing alongside the showing of The Bohemian Girl at the Imperial in 1926: the history of Ottawa’s silent cinemas is an exciting mix of film, theatre, technology, music, and community. Unfortunately, Ottawa’s musical history in the early 1900s has been, by and large, forgotten, and local cinema histories are relatively sparse. In much the same manner that Ottawa theatres incorporated both North American and local elements into their programming, this thesis demonstrates that an examination of the musicians of local cinemas can not only provide information to understand the development of silent film music practices in general, but also unveil a network of musicians and a series of important histories. This thesis reconstructs parts of Ottawa’s silent film music history using a number of methodologies (digital research, archival research, and social network mapping) and primary sources (IATSE union documents, Department of Labour strike documents, newspapers, and trade journals). It also analyses several screenings where music and film were uniquely combined and introduces key figures in Ottawa’s silent film music scene (including violinist Rudolph Pelisek and organist Amédée Tremblay), showing how their training provided prestige to cinemas and how their involvement in military, religious, and communal activities added to cinemas’ appeal. ----- Le Chœur de la Basilique Notre-Dame accompagnant les présentations du film The Hunchback of Notre Dame au Regent en 1924, les prologues communautaires inventifs avant le Pollyanna de Mary Pickford au Russell en 1920, et les soloistes d’opéra chantant à côté de la projection de The Bohemian Girl à l’Imperial en 1926: l’histoire des cinémas muets d’Ottawa est un mélange excitant de film, théâtre, technologie, musique et communauté. Malheureusement, le passé musical d’Ottawa au début du vingtième siècle a été largement oublié, et les histoires locales du cinéma sont relativement rares. De la même façon que les théâtres d’Ottawa incluaient à la fois des éléments locaux et nord-américains dans leur programmation, cette thèse démontre qu’un examen des musiciens des cinémas locaux peut non seulement procurer des renseignements pour comprendre le développement de la musique du cinéma muet en général, mais encore lever le voile sur un réseau de musiciens et une série de récits d’importance. Cette thèse reconstruit des aspects de l’histoire de la musique du du cinéma muet à Ottawa en utilisant un plusieurs méthodologies (la recherche numérique, la recherche en archives, et la cartographie des réseaux sociaux) et de sources primaires (documents du syndicat ouvrier IATSE, documents de grève du ministère fédéral du Travail, quotidiens, et revues spécialisées). La thèse analyse aussi quelques instances uniques de combinaison de musique et de film, et présente des personnages clé de la scène musicale du cinéma muet d’Ottawa (incluant le violoniste Rudolph Pelisek et l’organiste Amédée Tremblay), tout en montrant comment leur formation procurait du prestige aux cinémas, et comment leur implication dans des activités militaires, religieuses, et communautaires ont ajouté à la popularité des cinémas.

This thesis argues that how-to manuals and cue sheets are indicative of ideal performance practice amongst musicians from the silent film era. Pre-scored music was widely practiced amongst musicians. How-to manuals and cue sheets helped the musician accurately and consistently accompany a film. Authors of period manuals include W. Tyacke George, Edith Lang and George West, Ernst Luz and George Tootell. Compilers of cue sheet include James C. Bradford, Ernst Luz, Edward Kilenyi and Michael P. Krueger. Cue by cue analyses of The Cat and the Canary and The Gaucho show a high repetition of music, establishing continuity between the music played and the image on the screen. This shows how compilers associated music and film. These manuals and cue sheets prove that the musician community strove for a close connection between the image on screen and accompaniment. By 1920, arbitrary improvisation was unacceptable.

The thesis examines ’intermediality’ in Svenska Bios (Swedish Biograph) first fiction films. Värmlänningarne (1910), Fänrik Ståls Sägner (1910), Bröllopet på Ulfåsa (1910), Regina von Emmeritz och Konung Gustaf II Adolf (1910), Amuletten (1910), Emigranten (1910) and Järnbäraren (1911) are analysed in relation to theatre, literature, music and ‘reality’. A detailed discussion of intermediality is combined with specific theories relating to pictorialism and literary presentation in film. The thesis conclude, that early fiction films in general, and Svenska Bios films in particular, depended on their association with other media. The thesis also includes a short discussion concerning silent cinema music.

Célèbres et reconnus mais peu discutés, les films réalisés par Erich von Stroheim, entre 1919 et 1929 à Hollywood, occupent une place problématique dans l’histoire et la théorie du cinéma. Les discours contradictoires ou paradoxaux qu’ils ont inspirés animent cette recherche. Œuvre à la fois mutilée, reconstruite ou ruinée, elle est indissociable d’une expérience du temps. La versatilité des mondes et les métamorphoses de l’intrigue qu’elle propose, malgré un régime narratif évident, invitent à reconsidérer les catégories de l’histoire du cinéma muet américain. Interrogeant la représentation de l’histoire, ces films donnent à penser l’événement de la Première Guerre mondiale comme un point aveugle, et livrent une historicité composite. Au sein des pratiques du cinéma muet hollywoodien, les films de Stroheim se distinguent par l’invention d’un montage en accolade produisant une continuité qui incite à envisager la question de la durée. Ces films s’écartent de ce qu’à la même époque instaure le naturalisme américain par-delà les modèles littéraires. Pour analyser ce cinéma dans sa complexité, sera examiné l’être stroheimien selon les devenirs qui le font changer dans la durée, différemment de son appréhension dans le temps chronologique. De sorte que leurs devenirs se mesurent relativement aux êtres cédant à l’entropie ou au contraire demeurant des invariants. Selon cette configuration générale, Stroheim crée les conditions d’une expérimentation distincte de celle du naturalisme traditionnel
The films directed by Erich von Stroheim in Hollywood between 1919 and 1929, though little discussed, are famous and renowned, but they still remain an issue in both film history and film theory. Contradictions and paradoxes that characterize the discourses on these films drive this research. The works of Erich von Stroheim were in turns butchered, reconstructed, destroyed. Our aim is to show that it entails strongly an experience of time. Despite their obvious narrative plots, these films suggest a changeability of worlds and a metamorphosis of plot that lead us to review the standard approaches of American silent film history. While they question the representation of history, these films make the event of World War I appear as a blind spot, and reveal heterogeneous modes of historicity. Within the experiences of Hollywood silent films, the works of Erich von Stroheim are characterized by the creation of a bracket montage (montage en accolade), producing a continuity that invites us to consider the issue of duration. Beyond literary models, these films differ from what is established by American naturalism at the time. In order to make way for their complexity, we will study the Stroheim-being according to what it becomes and changes itself in duration, which is not what we could understand of it in chronological time. So what becomes of it is estimated with regard to its yielding to entropy, or, on the contrary, its remaining invariably the same. In accordance with this general configuration, Stroheim creates conditions that experiments a new way for naturalism

Ce travail étudie le rapport entre le langage narratif cinématographique et le discours musical contemporain. Le point de départ en a été l’étude des nouvelles créations contemporaines écrites pour accompagner certains films de l’époque du cinéma muet. Pour atteindre ces objectifs, nous sommes partis d’une vision théorique, pour arriver à l’analyse plus concrète qui nous a donné les consignes de base pour créer notre propre modèle d’analyse applicable à la composition. Ce modèle permet de préciser les concepts nous permettant d´aborder la relation entre le film et la musique selon deux axes, que nous appelons respectivement « points d’ancrage » (qui traitent des points d’articulation du discours cinématographique avec la musique) et « points de référence » (qui gèrent les éléments formels du discours cinématographique et musical). Dans la dernière partie de ce travail, nous appliquons notre modèle à la réalisation de quatre projets personnels, qui représentent une « conclusion artistique » des éléments analysés au cours de cette recherche
This work studies the relationship between the film’s narrative language and the contemporary music speech. The starting point of this work is the study of the new contemporary scores, which were composed for silent films from the 1920’s onwards. To reach these goals, we started from a theoretical vision, to subsequently perform a practical analysis. This gave us the important points to create our analysis model to be used for music composition. This model allows us to clarify the relationship between the film and the music, based on two main axes: the “anchoring points” (giving us the articulation points between the music and the film) and the “reference points” (which deals with the formal elements of both film and music speech). In the last part of our work, we have applied our model to the composition of four personal projects, which were created as an artistic conclusion of our research

The History of Horn Playing in Los Angeles from 1920 to 1970 begins with the horn players who played in the silent film orchestras and the Alfred Brain's tenure with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This study details the introduction of soundtracks, the early studio orchestras, the contract studio orchestras, the musician union's role in structuring the work environment, the horn players who played in both the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the studios, major figures from the subsequent freelance period such as Vincent de Rosa, and the local and international influence of the Los Angeles Horn Club.

The Chapter consists in two sections complementing Analytical Short Films. The first is about a supposedly universal atmosphere called RED in the Bavaria-Lesson, the second about different cultures in voice and posture coming together in the Beijing-Lesson. Both are related to theory as well as German philosophies of music education.

Thesis (PhD) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2004.
The digital copy of the exegesis, and the 2 CDs of images, props and environments created for the work have been removed from the thesis and are held by the Library's Digital Services Team. Also held in print (423 p. : ill. ; 25 x 27 cm. + 1 DVD of the film Boy (ca. 15 min.)), in Wellesley Theses Collection. (T 791.4372 ING)

The influence of new media on theatrical practice over the past fifty years has spurred a movement towards theatrical forms which are increasingly organized around the sensory elements of performance. This change is most noticeable in the visual approaches to theatre, and it has produced what I have labeled a theatre of visuality. This thesis argues that the tendencies for visualization found in visual media have extensively marked the performance strategies of contemporary theatre practice, resulting in a shift away from the logocentric dramatic text and towards theatre performance organized around the visual. Looking at four contemporary productions of Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck –Thomas Ostermeier’s Woyzeck (2005), Vesturport’s Woyzeck (2005), Robert Wilson’s Woyzeck (2000), and Josef Nadj’s Woyzeck ou l’Ébauche du Vertige (1994)– this thesis produces a preliminary typology of four distinct visualities/theatrical forms which make up the theatre of visuality: hyperrealism, synesthesia, superficiality, and visual narration. This thesis contributes to the conceptualization and understanding of postdramatic theatre by linking the theatre’s rejection of the text to the increased centrality of the visual in performance, and by tracing these shifts to the influence of visual media.

The Japanese Role Playing Game (JRPG) series Final Fantasy series undergoes an almost identical aesthetic evolution to that of narrative silent film. Through an exhaustive formal analysis of the first four games in the JRPG series and a comparison to the development of the language of the film medium, this thesis aims to expose these common evolutionary threads and offer some insight into why these temporally and medially disparate objects develop in such similar fashions. Simultaneously, the thesis serves as a methodological template for how videogames could be studied from a film studies perspective. By focusing on an empirically-based case study approach (inspired by David Bordwell and Noël Carroll’s volume Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies), the study aims to demonstrate the value in moving away from the large all-encompassing Grand Theories that dominate most film studies discussions. Due to the form of the medium that is constantly in flux (based on unpredictable player interactivity and an infinitely wide genre spectrum) an all-encompassing theory cannot define the medium as a whole, and can only be developed through a specificity (isolated case studies) over generality (Grand Theory) approach. The study also takes into consideration similar efforts of translating film studies methods into studying videogames. For the majority of its lifespan the Final Fantasy series set the standard for storytelling in its genre and influenced the industry as a whole. A thorough analysis of the series should be considered a crucial step in eventually understanding the video game medium and should prove useful in any peripheral studies of a similar nature.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The medium of contemporary scores for silent film offers extraordinary opportunities for innovative relationships between music and film. The “polysynchronous film score” is a term suggested for the purpose of this paper, referring to film scores whose relationship to the image/narrative falls outside the established analytical dichotomy of the terms synchronous/asynchronous, upon which the prevailing discourse in film music studies has been based. The research has a threefold intention: i) to identify the dominant conventions of film music, and silent film music in particular, and show how they are adhered to in contemporary scores for silent film. ; ii) to show why the art form of contemporary scores for silent films provides unique opportunities to work outside of these conventions. ; iii) to point the way to possible alternative relationships between music and film. I begin by discussing current thinking about the relationship between music and film, and how film music conventions are maintained in contemporary scores for silent films, as well as the ways in which assumptions about “silent film music” influence the latter. I then discuss both the history and technique of silent film scores in their original incarnation (circa 1895–1930). This is followed by a short history of the art form of contemporary scores for silent film, focusing mainly on a discussion of the work of some important practitioners and an analysis of excerpts from their work in terms of the conventions that I have discussed in earlier chapters. I then give some specific examples that exemplify some of the possibilities for the polysynchronous approach, drawn from my own work. The last part of my written thesis is an exegesis of my current creative practice work: the 65-minute score for Lotte Reiniger’s 1927 silhouette animation The Adventures of Prince Achmed, focusing on the ways in which it expresses the ideas of polysynchronicity and innovation in silent film scoring.

Thesis (M.M.) -- Florida State University, 2003.
Advisor: Denise Von Glahn, Florida State University, School of Music. Title and description from thesis home page (viewed 9-29-04). Document formatted into pages; contains 78 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

碩士
南華大學
民族音樂學系
107
Since the invention of sound films, most films have been sound films. And the film music gradually integrated into our daily life with the film. Contemporary college students are the main force of watching movies. In order to understand the degree of music connection of college students to movies, I tries to take this paper to carry out relevant investigation and discussion, and thus to deeply understand the problems and preferences of college students on movies and film music. The content of this paper consists of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction, which includes research motivation and purpose, literature review, research methods and limitations, and noun explanation. The second chapter reviews the history of film development, from how to form the film, the early silent film, the sound film, and the digital films. The third chapter is the summary of research methods and questionnaire survey. The fourth chapter is the sorting and analysis of the questionnaire, including different gender, grade, college and whether they have taken appreciation courses on arts, and analyzes the differences between them. The fifth chapter summarizes the findings and future research directions. It is hoped to take the present situation as the basis of empirical research, as a suggestion and reference for college students aesthetic appreciation of film music.

The present Ph. D. dissertation Educational chances of arts − proposals of Warsaw University study group verifies the research hypothesis accepted and formulated in preface. The Author makes a presentation of the study group examined, i.e. the Section of Theory of Aesthetic Education from the University of Warsaw pointing out erstwhile general pedagogical expectation. The Author, in particular, gives a presentation and analysis of the theory of aesthetic education and of education through art formulated by the study group concerned, both in overall terms and in domain specific, artistic realizations (visual arts, music, theatre, film, etc.). In the final part the main issues of the research work accomplished have been reminded. The Polish idea of aesthetic education and education through art was created in the 1960s within the Faculty of Education at the University of Warsaw. In different studies and reports shall be defined as Polish School of Aesthetic Education as well as Warsaw School of Aesthetic Education. The Polish theory of aesthetic education with its innovative approaches has been developed and expanded on the grounds of remarkable study works accomplished by the research community made up of many acknowledged scholars and PhD students working in the Department of General Pedagogy at the University of Warsaw.
Praca doktorska pt. Edukacyjne możliwości sztuki − propozycja warszawskiego środowiska uniwersyteckiego stanowi realizację przyjętej i sformułowanej we wstępie hipotezy badawczej. Autorka dokonuje prezentacji badanego środowiska naukowego, czyli Zakładu Teorii Wychowania Estetycznego w Uniwersytecie Warszawskim, z odniesieniami do, wówczas aktualnych, oczekiwań ogólnopedagogicznych; przede wszystkim omawia i prezentuje sformułowaną w tym środowisku teorię wychowania estetycznego/wychowania przez sztukę, zarówno w ujęciu ogólnym jak w jego dziedzinowych, artystycznych konkretyzacjach. W zakończeniu przypominane zostały podstawowe wątki tak zaplanowanego działania badawczego. Polska koncepcja w wychowania estetycznego/wychowania przez sztukę ukonstytuowała się w latach 60. XX wieku w ramach Wydziału Pedagogicznego UW. W różnych opracowaniach i omówieniach znaleźć można określenia takie jak „polska teoria wychowania estetycznego” czy „warszawska szkoła wychowania estetycznego”. Polska teoria wychowania estetycznego w jej nowatorskim kształcie powstała i rozwijała się na podstawie prac studyjnych realizowanych przez coraz liczniejszy zespół, w którego skład wchodzili zarówno pracownicy Katedry Pedagogiki Ogólnej UW, jak i doktoranci.