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 Listening
to Movies: The Film Lover's Guide to Film Music by
Fred Karlin
There are
few books about movie music, but most of them are good. Ditto
Karlin's, which, striving for comprehensiveness, covers how film
music is composed, recorded, and mixed into a soundtrack; how
to listen to it appreciatively; how it actually functions in eight
movies famous for their music (including such classics as The
Adventures of Robin Hood [1938] and North by Northwest);
how it has been reviewed by intelligent critics; and how it was
and is used in silent and nondramatic sound films. And after all
that, it's only half over! Karlin now puts on a business-chronicler's
hat to discuss movie musicmaking under the Hollywood studio system
and subsequently as a freelance occupation, the Oscars for music
and how they're awarded, and the commercial importance of songs
and soundtrack recordings. The book's last two sections are a
short chronology of film-music history and, prefaced by some comments
on "How They Got Started," a listing of selected film
composers and (only) some of their credits. Appendixes include
a list of soundtrack shops and vendors and a worthy annotated
bibliography. -- Ray Olson, Booklist (Amazon.com)
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