Musical Borrowing
An Annotated Bibliography

Contributions by Karen Anton Stafford

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[+] Brown, Kristi A. "The Troll Among Us." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 74-87. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suites carry cultural codes for the complex and ironic relationship between human and monster. These codes were recognized by authors such as Lageröf, Lie, and Ibsen, and they enter intertextually into films like Griffith's Birth of a Nation. Fritz Lang uses Peer Gynt to represent a murderer in M, and after this film, the music takes on generically spooky connotations. The film Needful Things goes beyond coding for malevolence by taking advantage of the written-in acceleration of Peer Gynt (beginning it early and making it quite fast) and synchronizing the music with the onscreen action. Film scenes using Peer Gynt exemplify Nicholas Cook's categories of conformance and contest, which characterize the relationship between image and music (the elements are invertible or each medium deconstructs the other, respectively).

Works: D. W. Griffith (director) and Joseph Carl Breil (composer): Sound track to Birth of a Nation (74-75); Fritz Lang (director): Sound track to M (77-80); Dario Argento (director): Sound track to Demoni (81-82); Fraser Clarke Heston (director): Sound track to Needful Things (80-85); Jerry Zucker (director): Sound track to Rat Race (84-85).

Sources: Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite (74-87); Schubert: Ave Maria (82); Patrick Doyle: Dies irae (82).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Clague, Mark. "Playing in 'Toon: Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940) and the Imagineering of Classical Music." American Music 22 (Spring 2004): 91-109.

Fantasia uses pre-existing classical music as the subject of animation that demonstrates three types of music: program music, music that does not have a plot but paints pictures, and absolute music. The film is an example of Disney's imagineering (engineering and imagination), in which images and stories add meaning to the abstract music. Images in the film create a familiar narrative to describe unfamiliar music to middle-class audiences. The structure of The Rite of Spring was modified to fit the narrative of the animators, and the narrative itself is not one intended by Stravinsky. Fantasia can be understood as an effort to construct ideologies of current social positions and behaviors through imagineering of the music, as seen in the animation for Beethoven's Symphony No. 6.

Works: Walt Disney (producer): Sound track to Fantasia.

Sources: J. S. Bach (arranged by Leopold Stokowski): Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (92-96); Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (97-98); Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major (Pastorale) (99-105).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Cormack, Mike. "The Pleasures of Ambiguity: Using Classical Music in Film." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 19-30. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

The recontextualization of pre-existing classical music within film brings complexity and ambiguity to film. Four reasons for this ambiguity are as follows: the music's original meaning may be indeterminate; the process of extracting and recontextualizing music increases ambiguity; audiences understand music in different ways; and awareness that the music was not originally written for the film creates distance between the music and straightforward interpretation. Since Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto is pre-existing but does not have an agreed upon meaning, it can be understood in film through several different codes and interpretations (including conventional cinematic musical codes), making it more complex than newly composed scores. In Détective, the disjunction between the visual film and the short well-known classical music excerpts does not allow the use of cinematic musical codes, but it does produce complexity.

Works: Martin Scorsese (director): Sound track to Raging Bull (21-23, 28); David Lean (director) and Noel Coward (writer/producer): Sound track to Brief Encounter (23-26, 28-29); Jean-Luc Godard (director): Sound track to Détective (26-29).

Sources: Pietro Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana (21-23); Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C-sharp Minor (24-26); Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor (Unfinished) (27); Wagner: Rienzi (27).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Davies, Ann. "High and Low Culture: Bizet's Carmen and the Cinema." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 46-56. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Cinema attempts to claim a status as an art form and offer the elitism of opera to new audiences in opera film. The opera film creates a hybrid cultural artifact that blurs boundaries between high and low culture, which can be seen in Cecil B. DeMille's Carmen, Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones, and Francesco Rosi's Carmen. Bizet's Carmen as an opera is a hybrid of high and low culture in and of itself, a characterization maintained in film opera versions of it. Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones uses Bizet's music but with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein and an entirely black cast, playing into the tradition of the musical. The consideration of filmed opera as a cultural hybrid, implying distance, allows tension between high and low culture to be preserved and invites the audience to appreciate the elite high culture.

Works: Works: Cecil B. DeMille (director): Sound track to Carmen (48-49, 55); Otto Preminger (director): Sound track to Carmen Jones (49-51, 55); Francesco Rosi (director): Sound track to Carmen (51-55).

Sources: Bizet: Carmen (48-55).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Franke, Lars. "The Godfather Part III: Film, Opera, and the Generation of Meaning." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 31-45. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana is integrated into The Godfather Part III in complex ways. Coppola uses music from Cavalleria rusticana in a scene in which the opera is attended in addition to exploiting traits of opera on other levels. The opera appears in three levels within the narrative of the film: a literal level, a cultural level, and a dramatic level. The literal level is achieved through the usage of the diegetic, staged opera within the film. At this level, Coppola uses the opera aurally and rearranges it for cinematic effect. The Preghiera develops multiple meanings within the context of the film, from a contrast of faith/harmony with murder to religious ceremony in opera. The themes of ritualism and violence in the opera also parallel the film. The cultural level depicts opera as a cultural artifact that permeates life, an example of which is the arrangement of "Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate" from Verdi's Nabucco, which functions as a cultural icon of Sicily as well as a portrayal of the character Michael's relationship with Sicily. The dramatic level adapts operatic structure, appearance, and narrative to the film as a whole.

Works: Francis Ford Coppola (director): Sound track to The Godfather Part III.

Sources: Pietro Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana (31-45); Verdi: Nabucco (37-39).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Gorbman, Claudia. "Ears Wide Open: Kubrick's Music." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 3-18. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Music in film plays a key role in depicting point of view. Pre-existing songs may be used to provide ironic commentary, as music may be planted to specifically complement the action onscreen. Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut shows Kubrick's increasingly sophisticated use of pre-existing music as he skillfully combines music and image. Four kinds of music are used in this film: a Shostakovich waltz, a Ligeti piano suite, a newly composed score, and pre-existing songs. The Ligeti is used to underscore objective events, while the newly composed score by Jocelyne Pook underscores jealous fantasies. Music goes beyond signifying moods and emotions in Eyes Wide Shut, also pointing out Kubrick's narrational agency.

Works: Stanley Kubrick (director): Sound track to Eyes Wide Shut.

Sources: Dmitri Shostakovich: Jazz Suite, Waltz No. 2 (7-9); György Ligeti: Musica Ricercata (9-13); Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields: I'm in the Mood for Love (16); Isham Jones and Gus Kahn: It Had to Be You (16); Wayne Shanklin: Chanson d'Amour (16); Victor Young and Edward Heyman: When I Fall In Love (16); Harry Warren and Al Dubin: I Only Have Eyes for You (16); Mozart: Requiem (17); Liszt: Nuages gris.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Joe, Jeongwon. "Reconsidering Amadeus: Mozart as Film Music." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 57-73. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

While many writers have been critical of Amadeus for what they regard as trivial treatment of Mozart's music, the music used in the film acts as a structural support for visual rhythm and as a means to unify narratively related scenes through continuity of music, tonality, and motto. For example, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater is used to link three disjunct yet related events having to do with the death of Salieri's father. Milos Forman's use of music also both inscribes and subverts the standard practice of phantasmagoric aesthetics in Hollywood as well as displaying Brechtian alienation, with multiple examples of Brechtian interventions. For example, as soon as Salieri praises The Marriage of Figaro, the Emperor yawns, which obliterates the seriousness of Salieri's jealousy.

Works: Milos Forman (director): Sound track to Amadeus.

Sources: Mozart: Don Giovanni (60, 64-66, 68), Requiem (60, 64), Symphony No. 25 in G Minor, K. 183 (61), Mass in C minor, K. 427 (62), The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) (62), The Abduction from the Seraglio (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) (62-63) The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) (63-64, 67-68), Piano Concerto in D Minor, K. 466 (64-65, 69), Wind Serenade in B-flat Major, K. 361 (66-68); Pergolesi: Stabat Mater (62, 70).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Knapp, Raymond. "Music, Electricity, and the 'Sweet Mystery of Life' in Young Frankenstein." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 105-18. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Music and electricity have become specific accretions to the Frankenstein story over time, with American popular music serving as a subset of music in Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein. The film plays like an operetta by focusing on personal stories and songs with special personal significance to the characters, staying away from the larger issues of human appropriation of the divine powers of electricity and music. Pre-existing songs used in the film offer both thematic verbal content as well as immediate jokes, whether or not the audience is aware of thematic conventions in which the film is engaging, although the broader humorous effect of the songs often obscures the appropriateness of the musical choice.

Works: James Whale (director): Sound track to Bride of Frankenstein (110); Mel Brooks (director): Sound track to Young Frankenstein.

Sources: Victor Herbert: Dream Melody (107-08, 112-13, 116); Irving Berlin: Puttin' on the Ritz (108, 113-15); Battle Hymn of the Republic (108, 113, 115); Schubert: Ave Maria (110-11); Wagner: Lohengrin (115).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Knights, Vanessa. "Queer Pleasures: The Bolero, Camp, and Almodóvar." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 91-104. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Pedro Almodóvar's use of sentimental boleros and Latin popular musical heritage in his films may have contributed to the renaissance of the bolero song genre in late twentieth-century Spain. He used boleros through a process of bricolage, choosing pre-existing songs to indicate of mood, aid narration, and create commentary, often depicting the bolero as camp or queer. Further, due to semiotic shifters in Spanish, bolero lyrics have multiple meanings which alter depending on the gender identifications of singers and listeners. This reinforces a blurring of boundaries between masculine and feminine as well as a homoerotic articulation of desire through the use of boleros in Almodóvar's films.

Works: Pedro Almodóvar (director): Sound track to Entre tinieblas (Dark Habits) (93, 96-98), Sound track to La ley del deseo (Law of Desire) (93, 98-101), Sound track to Tacones lejanos (High Heels) (93, 100-103), Sound track to Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) (94), Sound track to La flor de mi secreto (The Flower of My Secret) (94-95); Sound track to Carne trémula (Live Flesh) (95-96).

Sources: Catalino Curet Alonso and La Lupe: Puro teatro (94); Lola Beltrán: Soy infeliz (94); Vargas: En el ultimo trago (95), Somos (95-96); Bola de Nieve: Déjame recordar (99); Jacques Brel: Ne me quitte pas (100); Jean Cocteau: La Voix humaine (100); Agustín Lara: Piensa en mí (100-102); Luz Casal: Un año de amor (102-103).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] McDonald, Matthew. "Death and the Donkey: Schubert at Random in Au Hasard, Balthazar." The Musical Quarterly 90 (Fall/Winter 2007): 446-68.

The musical context of pre-existing pieces used in film scores may help one derive meaning from a score. While film director Robert Bresson completely rejected non-diegetic film music at the end of his career, Au Hasard, Balthazar represents the culmination of his admired treatment of rhythm and form in film music. He avoids postmodern irony present in films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, choosing instead to merge the aural and visual to the point that they are dependent on each other. Fragments of the Andantino from Schubert's Piano Sonata in A Major, D. 959 are arranged in a way that adds meaning to the film. It is essential for viewers to pay attention to the meaning of these fragments both as they function within the film and according to their original function, as the images and sounds in the film transform one another.

Works: Robert Bresson (director): Sound track to Au Hasard, Balthazar.

Sources: Schubert: Piano Sonata in A Major, D. 959.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Patterson, David W. "Music, Structure and Metaphor in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey." American Music 22 (Fall 2004): 444-74.

Stanley Kubrick sampled over 400 recordings to create the score to 2001: A Space Odyssey, replacing original music by Alex North. While the soundtrack of pre-existing music would become quite popular, some denounced it for being arbitrary and cheaply exploiting classical music. Until recently, these issues have kept the music from being discussed as a musical score. Reading the entire soundtrack as a unit allows it to be understood as a chronological progression of harmonic languages that create unity throughout the film, which emphasizes structure and proportion both visually and aurally. Aural cues also underscore certain themes; for example, the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra represents birth and becoming. Despite the patchwork form of the soundtrack, borrowed atonal and tonal harmonic streams are effectively utilized to create a score that intersects with the film's narrative.

Works: Stanley Kubrick (director): Sound track to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Sources: György Ligeti: Atmosphères (448-50, 456-57), Requiem (452-53, 456-57), Lux Aeterna (456-57), Aventures (467-69); Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra (450-52, 455-56); Johann Strauss: The Blue Danube Waltz (453-56); Aram Khachaturian: Gayane (458-61); Mildred Hill: Happy Birthday (461-62); Harry Dacre: Daisy Bell (463-67).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Plumley, Yolanda. "Intertextuality in the Fourteenth-Century Chanson." Music and Letters 84 (August 2003): 355-77.

The practice of intertextual citation and allusion in lyric poetry during the fourteenth century is also apparent both musically and textually in the Ars Nova chanson repertory. Examination of these songs provides new evidence that the practice of citation and allusion was more widespread, more developed, and more varied in its function than previously argued by scholars such as Ursula Günther. Furthermore, looking at cases of borrowing from this period allows one to consider contemporary significance and meaning of works, contacts between composers, and transmission of works. Uses of pre-existing music are noticeable in Mauchaut's Pour ce que tous mes chans fais, where he borrows the opening of the chace Se je chant as a way of conveying ironic humor. In the following Ars Subtilior generation, composers often quoted Machaut's lyrics or made references to his poems in their works. For example, Matteo da Perugia cited both text and music from Machaut's De Fortune in Se je me plaing de Fortune, calling upon a previous authority and developing the model for his own purposes. Subtle musical connections in interrelated works between composers (such as the En attendant songs of Galiot, Senleches, and Philipoctus de Caserta, which all cite the anonymous Esperance qui en mon cuer s'embat) suggest citation games or contests. These examples demonstrate a variety of borrowing methods within the music, creating a web of connections that the audience would have recognized and appreciated.

Works: Machaut: Se je me pleing, je n'en puis mais (Ballade 15) (361), Pour ce que tous mes chans fais (Ballade 12) (363-64); Matteo da Perugia: Se je me plaing de Fortune (365-69); Galiot: En attendant d'amer la douce vie (370); Senleches: En attendant, Esperance conforte (370); Philipoctus de Caserta: En atendant souffrir m'estuet (370); Matheus de Sancto Johanne: Je chant ung chant (371-73); Trebor: Passerose de beauté (374-77).

Sources: Machaut: Se je chant (363-64), De Fortune me doy pleindre et loer (Ballade 23) (365-69); Anonymous, Esperance qui en mon cuer s'embat (370); Philipoctus de Caserta: En attendant souffrir m'estuet (370); Jean Haucourt: Se j'estoye aseürée (371-73); Egidius: Roses et lis (374-77).

Index Classifications: 1300s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan, Karen Anton Stafford, Hyun Joo Kim

[+] Powrie, Phil, and Robynn Stilwell, eds. Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

See abstracts for individual chapters by Claudia Gorbman, Mike Cormack, Lars Franke, Ann Davies, Jeongwon Joe, Kristi A. Brown, Vanessa Knights, Raymond Knapp, Ronald Rodman, Phil Powrie, Robynn Stilwell, and Timothy Warner.

Index Classifications: 1900s, 2000s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Powrie, Phil. "The Fabulous Destiny of the Accordion in French Cinema." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 137-51. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

The accordion in French cinema is a marker both of the past (including utopian longings for it) and of Frenchness. Three periods of French films that use accordion music exist, and Yann Tiersen's award-winning score for Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amélie), composed mostly of music from Tiersen's own pre-existing albums, offers a glimpse at a possible future period. While Amélie was criticized as a film for presenting a sanitized version of the area in France it depicts, Tiersen's music works against the clean-cut culture. The soundtrack establishes an imaginary sonic architecture built from melancholic retrospection through layers of Tiersen's minimalistic, pre-existing music. The use of Tiersen's accordion music rather than traditional tunes avoids citation of stereotyped music and allows accordion music to be reinvigorated.

Works: Jean-Pierre Jeunet (director), Yann Tiersen (composer): Sound track to Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amélie) (146-51).

Sources: Yann Tiersen: La Valse des monstres (146), La Rue des cascades (146), Le Phare (146), L'Absente (147).

Index Classifications: 1900s, 2000s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Rodman, Ronald. "The Popular Song as Leitmotif in 1990s Film." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 119-36. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

The study of film music is often focused on the classical film score, which derives from late nineteenth-century opera and musical theater, including features such as the use of symphony orchestras, functional tonality, the leitmotif, and a newly composed score. However, the practice of the compilation score has been around from the earliest days of film, and by the end of the twentieth century, the popular music score was being used in a postmodern manner, decentering the role of the unique musical work and drawing upon the style and celebrity of a musical work, exemplified by Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting. In Pulp Fiction, the musical style of borrowed popular music rather than a singular theme is used as a leitmotif, and in Trainspotting, celebrity and irony are used as a leitmotif through the social codes (the mode of Social Practice). Full lists of borrowed music for the films are included in tables.

Works: Quentin Tarantino (director): Sound track to Pulp Fiction (121, 123-30); Danny Boyle (director): Sound track to Trainspotting (121, 130-35).

Sources: Dick Dale and the Deltones (performers): Misirlou (126); Kool and the Gang: Jungle Boogie (126); John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins (songwriters), Dusty Springfield (performer): Son of a Preacher Man (126); Neil Diamond (composer), Urge Overkill (performer): Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon (126); Lew DeWitt (composer), Statler Brothers (performers): Flowers on the Wall (126); Gerald Sanders, Jesse Sanders, Norman Sanders, and Leonard Delaney (songwriters), The Tornadoes (performers): Bustin' Surfboards (126); Dennis Rose and Earnest Furrow (songwriters), The Centurians (performers): Bullwinkle, Part II (126); Sam Eddy, Dean Sorensen, and Paul Sorensen (songwriters), The Revels (performers): Comanche (126); Bob Bogle, Nole Edwards, and Don Wilson (songwriters), The Lively Ones (performers): Surf Rider (126); Bizet: Carmen (131); Iggy Pop and David Bowie (songwriters), Iggy Pop (performer): Lust for Life (133), Nightclubbing (134).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Shumway, David R. "Rock 'n' Roll Sound Tracks and the Production of Nostalgia." Cinema Journal 38 (Winter 1999): 36-51.

Recent film sound tracks that consist of previously recorded material are used with the assumption that the audience will recognize the style, if not the specific artist or song. The use of such music affects the feeling of youthful nostalgia in the nostalgia film genre. For example, in American Graffiti, music is the most important element of the production of nostalgia, even though it gives an idealized picture of music from the 1950s. American Graffiti also established a new model in which popular music is used without a clear differentiation between diegetic and non-diegetic music.

Works: Works: Mike Nichols (director): Sound track to The Graduate (37-38); Dennis Hopper (director): Sound track to Easy Rider (38-39); George Lucas (director): Sound track to American Graffiti (39-42); Lawrence Kasdan (director): Sound track to The Big Chill (43-44); Emile Ardolino (director): Sound track to Dirty Dancing (45-48); John Sayles (director): Sound track to Baby, It's You (48-49).

Sources: Sources: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence (37), April Come She Will (37-38), Scarborough Fair/Canticle (37-38); Dennis Edmonton [Mars Bonfire] (songwriter), Steppenwolf (performers): Born to be Wild (38); Hoyt Axton (songwriter), Steppenwolf (performers): The Pusher (38); Chuck Berry: Johnny B. Goode (41); Brian Wilson and Mike Love (songwriters), The Beach Boys (performers): Surfin' Surfari [Surfin' Safari] (41); Arthur Singer, John Medora, and David White: At the Hop (41); Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers [Jimmy De Knight] (songwriters), Bill Haley and the Comets (performers): Rock around the Clock (42); Hoyt Axton (songwriter), Three Dog Night (performers): Joy to the World (43); Brian Wilson and Tony Asher (songwriters), The Beach Boys (performers): Wouldn't It Be Nice? (43); Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (songwriters), The Rolling Stones (performers): You Can't Always Get What You Want (43); Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich (songwriters), The Ronettes (performers): Be My Baby (45); Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio (songwriters), The Four Seasons (performers): Big Girls Don't Cry (45); Berry Gordy, Jr. (songwriter), The Contours (performers): Do You Love Me? (45); Maurice Williams (songwriter), Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs (performers): Stay (45); Otis Redding: These Arms of Mine (45), Love Man (45); Gerry Goffin and Carole King (songwriters), The Shirelles (performers): Will You Love Me Tomorrow? (47); Al Kooper: (I Heard Her Say) Wake Me, Shake Me (49); Lou Reed (songwriter), The Velvet Underground (performers): Venus in Furs (49).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Stilwell, Robynn. "Vinyl Communion: The Record as Ritual Object in Girls' Rites-of-Passage Films." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 152-66. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

A recurrent theme in coming-of-age films starring female protagonists is that of feminine interaction with records. The record collector has usually been associated with a masculine stereotype, but in films depicting feminine interactions with records, the inscribed voice of the record expresses the girl's character. A scene depicting a transformational rite in Heavenly Creatures features music that slips between diegetic use of Mario Lanza's Donkey Serenade, the girls' own singing of the song, and a non-diegetic newly composed orchestral version. In The Virgin Suicides, songs from records, while non-diegetic, organize the relationship of a young couple. The record and its music function as a ritual object in the narrative as the girl experiences a coming-of-age transformation.

Works: Terry Zwigoff (director): Sound track to Ghost World (152-53, 158-59); Mark Herman (director): Sound track to Little Voice (159-60); Peter Jackson (director): Sound track to Heavenly Creatures (160-63); Sofia Coppola (director): Sound track to The Virgin Suicides (163-66).

Sources: Skip James: Devil Got My Woman (152); Sammy Cahn and Nicholas Brodszky (songwriters), Mario Lanza (performer): Be My Love (161); Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart (composers), Robert Wright and George "Chet" Forrest (lyrics), Mario Lanza (performer): Donkey Serenade (161-62); Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson (songwriters), Heart (performers): Magic Man (164-65), Crazy On You (165).

Index Classifications: 1900s, 2000s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford

[+] Warner, Timothy. "Narrating Sound: The Pop Video in the Age of the Sampler." In Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell, 167-79. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Timber is a pop video made up of audio samples and video clips from a soundtrack to a Greenpeace film on the destruction of the rainforest. Four affective elements are involved in this type of music: sounds/timbres, music (the manipulation and organization of timbres), images showing the source of the timbres, and the rhythm of image editing. Audio samples include a chainsaw, a chattering monkey, and a singing human voice. The images of nature and sounds of industry that are used in the video are treated as musical elements. For example, musically, the sample of the chainsaw functions like an electric guitar riff. The dichotomy involved in Timber commenting on destructive machines yet being made possible by samplers (machines) makes the piece intriguing.

Works: Coldcut and Hexstatic: Timber.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford



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