Metafilm music in Jean-Luc Godard's cinema / Michael Baumgartner

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baumgartner, Michael, author.

Series:

Oxford Academic

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion picture music.

Music--20th century.

Music.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (521 pages)

Edition:

First Edition

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2022

Summary:

This monograph explores the underresearched use of music in Jean-Luc Godard's films and video essays from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. While Godard is largely hailed as a leading innovator of visual montage, unique storytelling style, and groundbreaking cinematography, his achievements as a leading pioneer in sculpting complex soundtracks altering the familiar relationship between sound and image have been mainly overlooked. On these soundtracks, music assumes the unique role of metafilm music. Metafilm music self-consciously refers to its own role as film music and disrupts the primary function of film music as an essential filmic device creating cinematic illusion. The concept of metafilm music describes how Godard thinks with film music about film music. Metafilm music manifests itself in Godard's work in four distinct manners: as fragmentized musical cues; as the same fragment verbatim repeated several times; as extrapolated, short excerpts from classical or popular music; and as music making as a model for filmmaking. With a detailed analysis of these parameters, the book explores fragmented and repeated music as Godard's critique of the leitmotif technique. Godard further self-reflexively investigates genre-specific music in musical comedies, films noir, and melodramas, as well as prototypical film music as arguably its own musical genre. His last foray into metafilm music entails music making as a metaphor for filmmaking. By thinking with music about the function of film music, Godard has created throughout his career multilayered soundtracks that challenge the conventional norms of film music and sound.

Contents:

Contents: Acknowledgments - About the Companion Website - Introduction: For Ever Metafilm Music - Part I:Metafilm Music, Fragmentation, Repetition, and Quotation - 1. Gapped Music in Godard's 1960s Films: Dissection of Musical Unity as a Self-Reflexive Exercise - 2. Leitmotif Technique Revisited: The Indexical Function of Multiple Repeated Musical Fragments in Godard's 1960s Films as Manifestations of Metafilm Music - 3. The Undoing of the Leitmotif Technique: Quotation, Fragmentation, and Repetition in Godard's 1960s Films with Beethoven, Schumann, and Pseudo-Bach as Metafilm Music - 4. Quoting Popular Songs: Chanson and Canzone as Metafilm Music in Godard's Work - Part II:Metafilm Music and Genre Reference - 5. Referencing Silent-Film Music: Metafilm Music, Mise en Scène, Acting, and Storytelling - 6. Referencing Music-Specific Genres and Genre-Specific Music: Metafilm Music, Cinéma-en-Kit Musical, and Pastiched Film Noir Music - 7. Referencing Film Music as a Genre: Metafilm Music, Prototypes of Film Music as Genre Mash-Up, and Melodramatic Commutation - Part III:Metafilm Music, Music Making, and Filmmaking - 8. Music Making as Metaphor for Filmmaking I: Metafilm Music in One Plus One and Prénom: Carmen - 9. Music Making as Metaphor for Filmmaking II: Metafilm Music in Soigne ta droite (Une place sur la terre) - Conclusion:Two or Three Things I Know about Metafilm Music(s) - Notes - Works Cited - Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-19-049717-3

0-19-049718-1

0-19-049719-X

OCLC:

1317328111