Reading List

Books on music and sound in film, the reading list for Thinkspace's Professional Media Composition course:

The Journal of Film Music (Equinox)

Books - Film Music, General and History: Priority

Brown, Royal S., Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).

Buhler, James, David Neumeyer and Rob Deemer, Hearing the Movies: Music and Sound in Film History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Cooke, Mervyn, A History of Film Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

Cooke, Mervyn, and Fiona Ford (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Film Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Neumeyer, David (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).

Sonnenschein, David, Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema (Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese, 2001).

Books - Film Music, General and History: Optional

Cooke, Mervyn, (ed.), The Hollywood Film Music Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Wierzbicki,‎ James, Nathan Platte and‎ Colin Roust (eds), The Routledge Film Music Sourcebook (New York: Routledge, 2011).

Kalinak, Kathryn, Settling the Score (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992).

Kalinak, Kathryn, Film Music: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Mera, Miguel, Ronald Sadoff and Ben Winters (eds), The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound (New York: Routledge, 2017).

Wierzbicki, James, Film Music: A History (New York: Routledge, 2008).
Books - Genres and Styles: Priority

Goldmark, Daniel, Tunes for ‘Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).

Hexel, Vasco, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard's the Dark Knight: A Film Score Guide (Lanham: Scarecrow, 2016).

Marshall, Bill, and Robynn Stilwell (eds), Musicals. Hollywood and Beyond (Exeter & Portland: Intellect, 2000).

Winters, Ben, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s The Adventures of Robin Hood: A Film Score Guide (Lanham: Scarecrow, 2007).

Books - Genres and Styles: Optional

Cohan, Steven (ed), Hollywood Musicals: The Film Reader (London and New York: Routledge, 2002).

Coyle, Rebecca (ed.), Drawn to Sound: Animation Film Music and Sonicity (Sheffield: Equinox, 2010).

Hayward, Philip (ed.), Off the Planet: Music, Sound and Science Fiction Cinema (London: John Libbey, 2004).

Hayward, Philip, Terror Tracks: Music, Sound and Horror Cinema (Sheffield: Equinox, 2009).

Lerner, Neil (ed.), Music in the Horror Film (New York and London: Routledge, 2010).

Meyer, Stephen C. (ed), Music in Epic Film: Listening to Spectacle (New York: Routledge, 2016).

Scheurer, Timothy, Music and Mythmaking in Film (Jefferson: McFarland, 2008).

Whittington, William, Sound Design and Science Fiction (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007).

Books - Theories and Approaches: Priority

Chion, Michel, trans. C. Gorbman, Audio-Vision (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994).

Smith, Jeff, The Sounds of Commerce (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).

Books - Theories and Approaches: Optional

Adorno, Theodor and Hanns Eisler, Composing for the Films (London: Continuum, 2007 [1947]).

Beck, Jay, and Tony Grajeda (eds), Lowing the Boom: Critical Studies in Film Sound (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 20089).

Cook, Nicholas, Analysing Musical Multimedia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Donnelly, K.J. (ed.), Film Music: Critical Approaches (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001).

Donnelly, K. J., The Spectre of Sound: Music in Film and Television (London: BFI, 2005).

Flinn, Caryl, Strains of Utopia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).

Goldmark, Daniel, Lawrence Kramer and Richard Leppert (eds), Beyond the Soundtrack: Representing Music in Cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).

Kassabian, Anahid, Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music
(New York: Routledge, 2001).

Walker, Elsie, Understanding Sound Tracks Through Film Theory (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).

Winters, Ben, Music, Performance and the Realities of Film (New York: Routledge, 2014).

Books - Other Multimedia: Optional

Rodman, Ron, Tuning In: American Narrative Television Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Sexton, Jamie (ed.), Music, Sound and Multimedia: From the Live to the Virtual (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007).

Books – Music Business & Marketing

William, M. & Shemel, S. This Business of Music. Tenth Edition. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications

Harrison, A. Music: The Business. Seventh Edition. London: Virgin Publishing

Carey, P. Media Law. Fifth Edition. London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd.

Books - Industry Testimony: Optional

Ament, Vanessa, The Foley Grail 2nd Ed (Oxford: Focal, 2014).

Farnell, Andy, Designing Sound (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010).

Karlin, Fred and Rayburn Wright, On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring 2nd Ed. (New York: Routledge, 2004).

Morricone, Ennio and Sergio Miceli, Composing for the Cinema (Lanham: Scarecrow, 2013).

Schifrin, Lalo, Music Composition for Film and Television (New York: Berklee, 2011).