Film music books
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We’re all waiting for Tim Greiving’s John Williams book to come out (well, I am, anyway).
Meanwhile, let’s do a topic on what film music books you have in your collection. Presumably, one can’t be a film music fan without having at least ONE film music book in one’s collection.
I have the Adventures of Robin Hood and the Batman film score guides from Scarecrow Press. It’s kind of arbitrary that I got these two specific titles, as I stumbled over them quite discounted. Haven’t read much in them yet.
My two favourite film music books are probably Torn Music and Audissino’s book on John Williams’ music. Even though I have to confess in the latter I never read the chapter about the Dracula score.
And I have a little Reclam book by Peter Moormann called “Klassiker der Filmmusik”, my only film music book in German with a lot of essays on famous scores.
But that’s about it.
I have two books only actually (besides having some magazines from the old times, although no FSM):
– Tony Thomas: Filmmusik (German version of the book “Film score”)
– Fred Karlin: Listening to MoviesI did read some more some decades ago like the “famous” polemic Eisler/Adorno “Komponieren für den Film” and the two “Handbuch Filmmusik” parts by German film composer and professor Enjott Schneider as far as I recall.
As a youngster I pretty much wore out the school library copy of the late Roy Prendergast’s “Film Music: A Neglected Art”. As I understand it, it was the only comprehensive book on film music for many years after its publication (1977). I have a lot of great memories marveling at the details in the craft of the Golden Age masters, as presented by Prendergast. It has been too many years since I last opened the book. Perhaps it is finally time to order my own copy!
The book I actually own myself is not one I could recommend, although I’d be happy to hear from someone who might have found the book useful? Only in Norwegian, the book approaches the subject of film music from a strictly theoretical perspective. It felt awkward and artificial, and the author’s limited experience with the actual “mechanics” of making music, as it seemed to me at least, made the book unrealistic. However, the publisher claims the book is “internationally recognized”, so it might be me there’s something wrong with. Open for the possibility!
The Prendergast is a classic, Mark! It’s also a cornerstone of my own academic years. Not my favourite, but a reference point. I agree that the Larsen is hit/miss, but it’s the only Norwegian book of its kind.
Here’s a pic with some of my own, on my shelf:
Would be fun to flip through some of those pages some time. A few of them familiar (Randall Meyers, Adorno/Eisler). Of course I am also hugely anticipating the Grieving book in a few short months. Friends and family who are already tired of me bringing up little Williams anecdotes from time to time don’t know what’s coming their way…
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