First Paper: choose one of the following topics for an an essay of 5-7 pages:
1. Ben Winters, in the section, “The Robin Hood Legacy,” from his chapter “The Historical and Critical Context of Robin Hood” notes that “Keira Knightley’s role in Pirates of the Caribbean points to the changing attitude towards gender evinced in the contemporary adventure film.” That is as far as he goes. To what extent does the score for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) support that assertion? Some questions to consider in framing your thesis: how often (or not) is Elizabeth accompanied by music? in particular, what types of scenes engender music for her and which do not? does Elizabeth have her own leitmotif? do other characters? Ultimately you will want to answer the question of whether or not you agree with Winters’s assertion. Use some critical ballast to make your case in the form of course readings: “The Fallen Woman and the Virtuous Wife” and/or “Introduction: Gender, Sexuality and the Soundtrack.” Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is now available on Blackboard for your viewing pleasure.
2. To what extent did the composing team for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl reproduce the model of classical Hollywood scoring that we have been studying in class. The answer to this question should be your thesis. You can’t cover the entire score in a 5-7 page paper. Choose a small number of characteristics of classical Hollywood film scoring (say, three) to use as evidence for your thesis and structure your paper around them. Your class notes should prove helpful here but you should also consider a chapter on Korngold’s score for Captain Blood (1935) that I’ve put on reserve: “The Classical Hollywood Film Score: Captain Blood, a Working Model. “ I realize that you haven’t seen Captain Blood but this chapter lays out the contours of the classical Hollywood film score in a very clear way whether or not you’ve seen the film. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is now available on Blackboard for your viewing pleasure.
3. For all you bibliophiles in class, here’s a question involving the scholarship of film music studies. Research three bodies of evidence on film music (see below) published in the 21st century and answer the question of whether or not there is a group of classical Hollywood era film scores (roughly 1933-1964) that scholars generally agree on as “masterworks” and that constitute a canon in studies of classical Hollywood film scores. Your answer to this question will be your thesis. There are several major bodies of evidence here: histories of film music (there are two); textbooks on film music (there are three); anthologies (collections by publishers with multiple authors) of film music scholarship (there are three major ones); monographs (books by a single author) devoted to a single film score which is essentially the publisher Rowman & Littlefield’s series Film Score Guides; and stand-alone journal articles (there are three important journals in film music). Choose three bodies of evidence (the histories, the textbooks, and one other body of evidence of your choice) and lay out your case. If you find that there is a de facto cannon, consider what scores constitute this canon, which scholars are writing about them, what they are writing about them, and why they were chosen. If you find that such a canon hasn’t coalesced, what scores are prominent in the different bodies of evidence you’ve chosen or perhaps no scores emerge as prominent in any single body of evidence.
Histories of film music
Cooke, Mervyn. A History of Film Music. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2016.
Wierzbicki, James. Film Music: A History. New York: Routledge, 2009. (RIC ebook)
Textbooks on film music
Buhler, James, David Neumeyer, and Rob Deemer, eds. Hearing the Movies: Music and
Sound in Film History. New York: Oxford UP, 2010.
Hickman, Roger. Reel Music: Exploring 100 Years of Film Music. New York:
Norton, 2006.
Major anthologies of film music scholarship
Cooke, Mervyn and Fiona Ford, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Film Music.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2016.
Neumeyer, David. The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies. New York:
Oxford UP, 2014
Mera, Miguel, Ronald Sadoff, and Ben Winters, eds. The Routledge Companion to
Screen Music and Sound. New York: Routledge, 2017.
Monographs on individual film scores
See the website for Rowan & Littlefield, Film Score Guide series
Journals devoted to film music (Available digitally through databases at Adam Library or through journal websites):
Journal of Film Music; Music and the Moving Image (MaMI); Music, Sound, and the Moving Image (MSMI)
Use the vocabulary and methodology we have been learning in the course. Provide detailed and specific examples and include critical support, in the form of quotations. And above all, make sure you answer the question with a thesis that takes a clear position. Structure the body of your paper in some way and create a conclusion that sums up your position.
Requirements: All papers must conform to standard grammar and usage, punctuation, spelling, and documentation (use University of Chicago format*). This will be considered as part of your grade. Please use end notes and include a Bibliography. Keep a copy of your paper. Submit all papers by email: kkalinak@ric.edu.
Due: Monday, October 19th by 10am
* A note on Documentation
You will need to use University of Chicago documentation for this paper. All students are introduced to Chicago documentation in Film 219 and I am assuming that as students in an upper-division Film Studies course, you have had some practice using it. If you are shaky on the details or out of practice, refer to the handbook from 219: Kate Turabian: A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 8th ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2013) copies of which are currently available at the bookstore. Please use End Notes, not footnotes, and include a Bibliography. Documentation will be considered as part of your grade so if you have questions, ask.
