Selected Bibliography of Film Music Materials for Librarians
Note: This bibliography was compiled
for a presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Music Library Association in
Washington, DC, February, 2004. It is not intended to be exhaustive but to be a
starting point for collection development in this area. It will be updated as
time permits. Any feedback is most appreciated.
BOOKS
OP=
out-of-print
Surveys (including Compositional Techniques)
Bazelon, Irwin. Knowing the score: Notes on film music. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1975. OP
Brown, Royal S. Overtones and undertones: Reading film music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Burlingame, Jon. Sound and vision: Sixty years of motion picture soundtracks. New York, NY: Billboard, 2000.
Burt, George. The art of film music: Special emphasis on Hugo Friedhofer, Alex North, David Raksin, Leonard Rosenman. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1994.
Davis, Richard. Complete guide to film scoring: The art and business of writing music for movies and TV. Boston, MA; Milwaukee, WI: Berklee Press, 1999.
Eisler, Hanns and Theodor W. Adorno. Composing for the films. London; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Athlone Press, 1994, 1947.
Evans, Mark. Soundtrack: The music of the movies. New York: Hopkinson and Blake, 1975. OP
Faulkner, Robert R. Music on demand: Composers and careers in the Hollywood film industry. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 2003, 1983.
Film music 1. ed. Clifford McCarty. New York: Garland, 1989. OP
Film music: Critical approaches. ed. K.J. Donnelly. New York: Continuum, 2001.
Film score: The view from the podium. ed. Tony Thomas. South Brunswick, NJ: A.S. Barnes, 1979. OP
Flinn, Caryl. Strains of Utopia: Gender, nostalgia, and Hollywood film music. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992. OP (on demand)
Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard melodies: Narrative film music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. OP
Hagen, Earle. Advanced techniques for film scoring: A complete text. Los Angeles: Alfred Pub. Co., 1990. OP
———. Scoring for films: A complete text. Los Angeles: Alfred, 1989, 1971. OP
Kalinak, Kathryn. Settling the score: Music and the classical Hollywood film. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
Karlin, Fred and Rayburn Wright. On the track: A guide to contemporary film scoring. New York: Schirmer Books: 1990; New York: Routledge, 2003.
Karlin, Fred. Listening to movies: The film lover's guide to film music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1994.
Knowing the score: Film composers talk about the art, craft, blood, sweat, and tears of writing music for cinema. Interviewed by David Morgan. New York: HarperEntertainment, 2000.
London. Kurt. Film music. Translated by Eric S. Bensinger. New York, Arno Press, 1970.
MacDonald, Laurence E. The invisible art of film music: A comprehensive history. New York, NY: Ardsley House Publishers, 1998.
Manvell, Roger and John Huntley. The technique of film music. New York: Communication Arts Books, 1967, 1957. OP
Marill, Alvin H. and James L. Limbacher. Keeping score: Film and television music, 1988-1997. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998.
Movie music, The film reader. Ed. Kay Dickinson. London; New York: Routledge, 2003.
Music and cinema. ed. James Buhler, Caryl Flinn, and David Neumeyer. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2000.
Northam, Mark and Lisa Anne Miller. Film and television composer's resource guide: The complete guide to organizing and building your business. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp., 1998.
Palmer, Christopher. The composer in Hollywood. London; New York: Marion Boyars, 1990, 1992.
Prendergast, Roy M. Film music: A neglected art. 2nd ed. New York: WW Norton, 1992.
Rona, Jeffrey C. The reel world: Scoring for pictures. San Francisco: Milwaukee, WI: Miller Freeman Books, 2000.
Skiles, Marlin. Music scoring for TV & motion pictures. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books, 1976. OP
Swynnoe, Jan G. The best years of British film music, 1936-1958. Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2002.
Thomas, Tony. Film score: The art & craft of movie music. Burbank, CA: Riverwood Press, 1991.
———. Music for the movies. South Brunswick, NJ: A. S. Barnes, 1973. OP
Timm, Larry M. The soul of cinema: An appreciation of film music. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Dictionaries and encyclopedias
Craggs. Stewart R. Soundtracks: An international dictionary of composers for film. Aldershot, Hants, England; Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1998.
Encyclopedia of music for pictures. Manchester: Ayer, 1970, 1978.
McCarty, Clifford. Film composers in America: A filmography, 1911-1970. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Bibliographies/Discographies
Anderson, Gillian B. Film music bibliography I. ed. H. Stephen Wright. Hollywood, CA: Society for the Preservation of Film Music, 1995. OP
Benjamin, Ruth and Rosenblatt, Arthur. Movie song catalog: Performers and supporting crew for the songs sung in 1460 musical and nonmusical films, 1928-1988. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1993. OP
Deutsch, Didier C. MusicHound soundtracks: The essential album guide to film, television and stage music. Detroit: Visible Ink, 2000. OP
Harris, Steve. Film and television composers: An international discography, 1920-1989. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1992, 2001.
Stubblebine, Donald J. Cinema sheet music: A comprehensive listing of published film music from "Squaw Man" (1914) to "Batman" (1989). Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1991.
Wescott. Steven D. A comprehensive bibliography of music for film and television. Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1985. OP
Composers/Scores
Bruce, Graham. Bernard Herrmann: Film music and narrative. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1985. OP (on demand)
Cooper, David. Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo: A film score handbook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001.
Danly, Linda. Hugo Friedhofer: The best years of his life: A Hollywood master of music for the movies. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999, 2002.
Daubney, Kate. Max Steiner’s Now Voyager: A film score handbook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
Henderson, Sanya Shoilevska. Alex North, film composer. Jefferson, NC: London: McFarland, 2003.
Schelle, Michael. The score: Interviews with film composers. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press, 1999.
Siddons, James. Toru Takemitsu. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001.
Smith, Steven. C. A heart at fire's center: The life and music of Bernard Herrmann. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991, 2002.
Special topics
Altman, Rick. Silent film sound. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Atkins, Irene Kahn. Source music in motion pictures. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1983.
Film music collections in the United States: A guide. eds. H. Stephen Wright and Stephen M. Fry. Hollywood, CA: Society for the Preservation of Film Music, 1996.
Hayward, Philip. Off the planet: Music, sound, and science fiction cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004.
Larson, Randall D. Music from the house of Hammer: Music in the Hammer horror films, 1950-1980. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996.
———. Musique fantastique: A survey of film music in the fantastic cinema. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1985.
PERIODICALS
RECORDINGS
Brigham Young University Film Music Archive
WEBSITES
FILMUS-L (listserv)
Music and Moving Pictures (listserv)
©2004, 2005 Leslie N. Andersen
Last updated: January 2005