Hitting the Right Notes
Film Directors and Composers in Harmony
Lester D Friedman author Charity Lofthouse author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Rutgers University Press
Publishing:10th Nov '26
£32.00
This title is due to be published on 10th November, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Hitting the Right Notes: Film Directors and Composers in Harmony is a unique, multi-disciplinary volume co-authored by scholars from both media studies and music theory. The book features a chronological and systematic approach that concentrates on analyzing representative scenes from a broad spectrum of mainstream movies as exemplars. With a distinctive focus on versatile analytical tools from film studies, music cognition, and music theory, each chapter supplies background on the time period, director, composer, and their working relationship, then a close reading incorporates both visual analysis and musical elements beyond pitch and harmony. Robust yet accessible, Hitting the Right Notes highlights up-to-date ways of understanding film music, directly demonstrates their application across eras and genres, and displays the artistic magic directors and composers create together. It is essential reading for those interested in film and music.
"Expansive and engaging, Friedman and Lofthouse's book offers a carefully curated tour through movie scoring history—guided by a strong set of central questions and pursued through a succession of richly contextualized and probing close readings." - Frank Lehman, author of Hollywood Harmony: Musical Wonder and the Sound of Cinema
"Film music lovers will relish this book! Since one author is from cinema studies and the other from music, their full breadth of expertise shines through. With beautifully described scenes along with bios, contexts, and collaborative descriptions, the authors provide a peek behind the curtain for well-loved films and the music that score them." - Janet Bourne, associate professor of music theory at the University of California, Santa Barbara
"Friedman and Lofthouse's exploration of fifteen classic films—some oft-dissected scores, others previously unexamined—will shed new light on the collaborative nature of film scoring for students, scholars, and enthusiasts alike." - William O'Hara, associate professor of music theory at Gettysburg College
ISBN: 9781978833487
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 454g
258 pages