What do we know about film music? More than three decades of film music scholarship and in-depth studies may indicate that the most relevant questions on this topic have already been addressed. However, this book, by the renowned scholar Kathryn Kalinak, is not only an exceptional introduction to the subject for non-specialised readers, but also an excellent overview for connoisseurs on key issues present in the latest academic research. Film Music. A Very Short Introduction joins other voices which have emphasised the importance of talking about music to an uninitiated audience, by addressing music issues in an understandable way, but also by fluently introducing theoretical concepts derived from film music criticism. The willingness of a panoramic view requires a quite traditional structure, extending from the analysis of functions and theory to the broadest and most expected film music history or the inevitable reference to the composers. A curious reader can also obtain some valuable information from additional materials such as the sections on concrete terms, recommended viewings and further readings sorted by chapters.
What is really surprising and makes the difference of this synthesis is its global vision, not focused in Western practice and film repertoire, but with continual reference to non-Western music, even when explaining musical terms. Although more subtle in the chapters devoted to theoretical approaches, this purpose seems evident in the sections on history, where there are Western and non-Western examples from well-known movies. However, the limited length of the book reveals obvious shortcomings.
The history of film music has received extraordinary scholarly attention since the beginning of the discipline, so it has been remade over and over again. But it is necessary to reconstruct it in a renewed way, because the events which are usually associated with the United States and Western Europe should not be presented as the history of film music worldwide. The global outlook pursued here shows that from a historical point of view music was a central engine for the development of cinema within every national industry. In the early days there were no unified practices since each country had different approaches which included their own musical traditions. In fact, during the first period there was an evidence of musical accompaniments to film – either phonographic or live – from Germany to Russia, through Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Iran, Australia, France and Mexico. Afterwards, there were sound synchronisation attempts all over Europe and the United States, including music originally composed for film in France (by Saint-Saëns), Russia and Italy. India soon introduced music in films, but culture and instruments were exchanged across continents as Indian ragas appeared in British films and Western songs in Indian productions, while Japan made a large number of films about geisha dancers. Therefore, throughout history, there are multiple styles and techniques, including experimentation and bricolage between native and Western music, such as in Japan or Persia, as well as the vocabulary of the classical Hollywood film score, both inside and outside Hollywood. The introduction of new languages since the sixties also caused a greater internationalisation in examples such as Toru Takemitsu or the new Indian directors of the Bengali industry – for example the filmography of Satyajit Ray with music by Ravi Shankar. Even today many authors around the world (Mexico, Argentina, Egypt) are trapped between the demands of commercial success and commitment to the cinema of national identity.
A global outlook leads to derived aesthetic reflections which are also interspersed in the chapters on history. In particular, we should reconsider the usefulness of generic constructions such as the musical model outside the Western tradition, because, in numerous countries, uses of the songs are not the same as their use in Hollywood. For instance, Hindi cinema reverses the relationship between musical numbers and narrative, as the storylines serve to link musical numbers and technological highlights. In many nations across the world, from Latin America to the former Soviet Union, where the relationship between narrative and performance of indigenous music predominates as a platform for the expression of national culture, this model is far more valid.
Another breakdown of clichés lies in balancing the space devoted to popular music and to soundtrack, as hitherto the history of art music has predominated in the literature on this field. Popular music in film is very common in countless countries, either embedded in musical numbers or in the background music. But in Western practice it was gradually banished in favour of the symphonic models, which later joined the music for auteur cinema and modernism as a mark of authenticity. Nevertheless, since the sixties new musical genres such as rock and disco succeeded all around the world and Hollywood institutionalised the practice of the compilation score, in which popular music was foregrounded. However, while the compilation score may seem a new practice, it is actually pretty similar to the bricolage that had already been developed in Iran, China, German pastiche and Bollywood forms.
Within a narrative medium, musical conventions connect musical effects to specific meanings through the powers of association. The growing importance of the notion of music as a meaningful device in film belies the claim that music is a universal language. In the various film industries, music, responding to each national cultural tradition, works through varying practices which in turn have evolved, even though they all exploit the expressive power of music in film. On the other hand, one of the most important reasons to justify the presence of music in film is the pleasure of perception, as unconsciousness in the reception of film music makes it an even more powerful element, as is widely discussed by the theoretical line of Psychoanalysis.
This idea of music as a component of a film's narrative construction gives way to reflection on both how power is related to film music, and its political function or articulation within social discourse. Kalinak emphasises the importance of the theory at the time of reviewing the patterns of thinking and in this she approaches the major theoretical texts of film music. She also stresses studies about the ideological function, so prevalent in this book of film, made by Caryl Finn, Krin Gabbard, Anahid Kassabian and herself, which refer to such issues as history, gender, sexuality, race, class and ethnicity. The ideological issue is also present in the section devoted to the composers, which highlights the institutional practices and the circulation of powers within them. Here the figure of the composer is demystified by abundant anecdotes and references to real practice, where directors and producers are a key factor.
Thus, this book is an introduction to film music which is not only a source of information, but also an invitation to reflect on contemporary issues and current uncertainties about film music which still need to be rethought. It confirms the need for further research in the cinema of non-Western cultures as well as in periods that have not been sufficiently studied yet. It further stresses that issues of race and ethnicity studies can display the importance of popular music in filmmaking. World music and globalisation, which have previously been addressed only as exceptions, are finally shown as common events in film music. Kalinak's vision, although sometimes slightly forced, also demonstrates that present-day ideas on globalisation and transnationalism have always been present in film music.
