Reel Music

Essentials of Drama, Film, and Music

Reel Music provides a thorough introduction to the basic terms and concepts students need to explore the significance of music in combination with film and dramatic performance.

Concise and Comprehensive

Covering both popular and symphonic film scores from the late nineteenth century to 2004, Reel Music avoids overwhelming students with an unmanageable number of films and composers, focusing instead on only the most significant works. Organized chronologically by era, the text examines film history in relation to trends in other artistic mediums, such as the development of rock and roll, and in the context of world and national events such as the Cold War, space exploration, and Vietnam.

Exceptional Pedagogy

• Viewer Guides highlight diverse approaches to film-music composition through analysis of music in single scenes of selected films.
• Feature Film Guides present thorough analysis of a significant film in each major period.
• Location Timings enable students to find key moments in films discussed in the text.
• Composer Profiles offer useful biographies of the foremost film composers and lists of their major works.
• Close-up windows in the text detail the most important non-musical events in film history.
• Suggested Viewing Lists offer short descriptions of important films not closely covered in the text.