[Thor Joachim Haga]

But you can’t construct the identity of something based on exceptions. Yes, there are plenty of scenes in films where music takes on a more freeform, “fluid” role. We all know the sequence in E.T. where Spielberg edited to Williams’ music, for example. But most of it – the MEAT of it – is working on more of a micro level within scenes, and even more importantly – within the scenes’ synch and editing points. That automatically gives the music a special form of structure. Even moreso than tone poems, ballets, singspiele and what-have-you.

In deciding what something IS, you have to look at the ‘dominant tendencies’, to use your own words. There’s no reverse engineering in that. In most cases, however it’s been edited and synched up, it’s fairly easy to recognize what is originally a film cue and what is originally a classical cue. Even in that YouTube clip you posted.

Would you agree, Nick, that film music is its own artform?