MACMILLAN British Film Music: Musical Traditions in British Cinema, 1930s–1950s (Palgrave Studies in Audio-Visual Culture)

This book offers a fresh approach to British film music by tracing the influence of Britain’s musical heritage on the film scores of this era. From the celebration of landscape and community encompassed by pastoral music and folk song, and the connection of both with the English Musical Renaissance, to the mystical strains of choral sonorities and the stirring effects of the march, this study explores the significance of music in British film culture. With detailed analyses of the work of such key filmmakers as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Laurence Olivier and Carol Reed, and composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Brian Easdale, this systematic and in-depth study explores the connotations these musical styles impart to the films and considers how each marks them with a particularly British inflection.  Review   Review “In this scholarly and highly-readable musical journey, Paul Mazey offers an articulated and fresh outlook on the use of music in British cinema. If the scope of the investigation is limited to three decades (1930s to 1950s), its range is both deep and sweeping, in the way it excavates into the depths of the single case-studies while at the same time connecting Film Studies with Musicology, demonstrating to what extent British film music is indebted to the English Musical Renaissance. Film music, British music, British cinema: scholars and readers in all these fields will certainly welcome Mazey’s work.” (Dr Emilio Audissino, University of Southampton, UK, is a film scholar and film musicologist, author of and Film/Music Analysis: A Film Studies Approach (2017))  “Paul Mazey’s eloquent analysis of the idiosyncratic nature of British film score will be of great value to those interested in the role of various forms of traditional English music within film. Via detailed analysis of an array of pertinent examples, mainly taken from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Mazey elegantly reveals a unique relationship between the score and what is seen, particularly in terms of representations of landscape and community. In doing so, Mazey’s book will appeal to scholars of both film and music.” (Anthony Hogg, Independent Scholar)  From the Back Cover This book offers a fresh approach to British film music by tracing the influence of Britain’s musical heritage on the film scores of this era. From the celebration of landscape and community encompassed by pastoral music and folk song, and the connection of both with the English Musical Renaissance, to the mystical strains of choral sonorities and the stirring effects of the march, this study explores the significance of music in British film culture. With detailed analyses of the work of such key filmmakers as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Laurence Olivier and Carol Reed, and composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Brian Easdale, this systematic and in-depth study explores the connotations these musical styles impart to the films and considers how each marks them with a particularly British inflection.  About the Author Paul Mazey is an Associate Teacher of Film and Television at the University of Bristol, UK.  He has published articles on British film music in the Journal of British Cinema & Television and Revenant journal.