Despite the long history of music in film, its serious academic study is still a relatively recent development and therefore comprises a limited body of work. The contributors to this book, drawn from both film studies and musicology, attempt to rectify this oversight by investigating film music from the vibrant, productive, politically charged period before World War II. They apply a variety of methodologiesincluding archival work, close readings, political histories, and style comparisonto this under explored field.

Phil Powrie is Professor of French Cultural Studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Most recently, he is co-author (with Bruce Babington, Ann Davies, and Chris Perriam) of Carmen on Film: A Cultural History (IUP, 2007).

Robynn Stilwell is Assistant Professor of Music in the Department of Art, Music and Theatre at Georgetown University. She is co-editor (with Phil Powrie) of Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film.

Contents

Introduction

Part 1. Germany
1. Film Music in the Third Reich Robert E. Peck
2. Herbert Windt's Film Music to Triumph of the Will: Ersatz-Wagner or Incidental Music to the Ultimate Nazi-Gesamtkunstwerk? Reimar Volker
3. Alban Berg, Lulu, and the Silent Film Marc Weiner
4. From Revolution to Mystic Mountains: Edmund Meisel and the Politics of Modernism Christopher Morris
5. New Technologies and Old Rites: Dissonance between Picture and Music in Readings of Joris Ivens's Rain Ed Hughes
6. "Composition with Film": Mauricio Kagel as Filmmaker Björn Heile

Part 2. The USSR
7. Eisenstein's Theory of Film Music Revisited: Silent and Early Sound Antecedents Julie Hubbert
8. Aleksandr Nevskiy: Prokofiev's Successful Compromise with Socialist Realism Rebecca Schwartz-Bishir
9. In Marginal Fashion: Sex, Drugs, Russian Modernism, and New Wave Music in Liquid Sky Mitchell Morris

List of Contributors
Index