Hearing place: Film music, geography and ethnicity

Mark Brownrigg

doi:10.1386/macp.3.3.307_1

Hearing place: Film music, geography and ethnicity

International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics ◽

10.1386/macp.3.3.307_1 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 307-323 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Mark Brownrigg

Keyword(s):

Film Music ◽

Music Geography

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A History of Film Music

10.1017/cbo9780511814341 ◽

2008 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Mervyn Cooke

Keyword(s):

Film Music ◽

History Of

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K. J. Donnelly, British Film Music and Film Musicals (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp. vii+222, ISBN 978 1 4038 9673 2 (hb), £55.

Journal of British Cinema and Television ◽

10.3366/e1743452108000204 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 183-185

Author(s):

Jeffrey Richards

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Film Music ◽

Film Musicals

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Ian Johnson, William Alwyn: The Art of Film Music

Journal of British Cinema and Television ◽

10.3366/jbctv.2006.3.1.187 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 187-188

Author(s):

Jeffrey Richards

Keyword(s):

Film Music

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Restrained Airs: The Diegetic Surface and Nondiegetic Depth of British Film Music

Journal of British Cinema and Television ◽

10.3366/jbctv.2019.0493 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 429-443

Author(s):

Paul Mazey

Keyword(s):

Film Music ◽

The World ◽

British Cinema ◽

Film Making ◽

The Way

This article considers how pre-existing music has been employed in British cinema, paying particular attention to the diegetic/nondiegetic boundary and notions of restraint. It explores the significance of the distinction between diegetic music, which exists in the world of the narrative, and nondiegetic music, which does not. It analyses the use of pre-existing operatic music in two British films of the same era and genre: Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), and demonstrates how seemingly subtle variations in the way music is used in these films produce markedly different effects. Specifically, it investigates the meaning of the music in its original context and finds that only when this bears a narrative relevance to the film does it cross from the diegetic to the nondiegetic plane. This reveals that whereas music restricted to the diegetic plane may express the outward projection of the characters' emotions, music also heard on the nondiegetic track may reveal a deeper truth about their feelings. In this way, the meaning of the music varies depending upon how it is used. While these two films may differ in whether or not their pre-existing music occupies a nondiegetic or diegetic position in relation to the narrative, both are characteristic of this era of British film-making in using music in an understated manner which expresses a sense of emotional restraint and which marks the films with a particularly British inflection.

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