British film music and film musicals / K.J. Donnelly.

Author/creator Donnelly, K. J.
Format Book
Publication InfoBasingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Descriptionvii, 222 pages ; 23 cm
Subjects

Contents British film music -- Wicked sounds and magic melodies: music in Gainsborough melodrama -- Did you hear the one about the Irishman? Sound and music, forging ethnicity in Odd Man Out (1946) -- Experimenting with film scores, 1967-1970 -- Pop music culture, synergy and songs in films: Hardware (1990) and Trainspotting (1996) -- History of British film musicals -- Stage to screen: whatever happened to the British musical adaptation? -- The perpetual busman's holiday: Sir Cliff Richard and the British pop musical -- The musical revolution: The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night -- White labels and black imports: music, assimilation and commerce in Absolute Beginners (1985).
Abstract British film music is one of the unsung stars of British culture. British cinema should be most proud of it, and yet it barely receives a mention in scholarly or popular writing. Yet during the 1930s, British-made musicals, starring actors such as George Formby and Gracie Fields, were the most popular films seen by British audiences. Any consideration of British music, or international film music, could not fail to note William Walton's outstanding score for Olivier's Henry V (1944) and Malcolm Arnold's music for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Yet these are never mentioned in the kind of scholarly books and histories produced in the area of 'British film' studies. This book aims to open up debate on the subject as well as map a terrain that has for a long time been lost. It addresses music in British films, both as musical scores in the first half of the book, and as British film musicals in the second half.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 206-214) and indexes.
Biographical noteK. J. Donnelly lectures in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK. He is author of Pop Music in Cinema (2001) and The Spectre of Sound (2005), and editor of Film Music: Critical Approaches (2001).
LCCN 2007060065
ISBN9781403996732 (cloth)
ISBN1403996733 (cloth)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk ML2075 .D66 2007 ✔ Available Place Hold