Miguel Mera, and David Burnand, Eds., European Film Music

Journal of Film Music 3.1 (2010) 84-88 ISSN (print) 1087-7142 doi:10.1558/jfm.v3i1.84 ISSN (online) 1758-860X

Miguel Mera, and David Burnand, eds., European Film Music

London and Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2006 [xiv, 206 pp. ISBN 0754636593, $29.95 (trade paper)] Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series. Music examples, illustrations, tables, figures, filmography, bibliography, index.

Linda Maria Koldau Aarhus Universitet [email protected]

or an unprepared reader whose mother Wales, and Scotland; just one, Kathleen M. Vernon, tongue is not English, this book at first glance is an assistant professor at the SUNY Stony Brook. F appears to be just another book from the U.S. Realizing this, the complacent European reader attempting to deal with the lack of attention given to will lean back contentedly in their chair; therefore, European film music in the literature. Film studies this focus on the old continent, and, therefore, the as well as film music studies are predominantly highly sophisticated differentiation of what is American. My own expectation as a European reader European—good European craftsmanship, what else? would be that this is a book by American authors: Mera and Burnand quickly make clear that its title, European Film Music, imparts the instinctive it is exactly this point they intend to defy with conviction that it is an American book (the U.S. being their anthology. The starting point is obvious, the Blessed Land of film studies), kindly throwing a justifying the publication of such a book without glance at good old Europe and its somewhat minor further need of discussion: “It is necessary, because film traditions (if compared to Hollywood). Under writing that examines the common themes, this impression, how delightful it was to read the first practices, methodologies and ideologies of music paragraphs of the introduction: rarely does one find within European film tradition is scarce” (p. 1). such an intelligent, concise, and perceptive analysis of But European Film Music goes far beyond that. In the question of what constitutes Europe, and what it its first five pages, the Introduction exposes three is that constitutes—or does not constitute—European points: first of all, defining what it is meant by film. And what a refined understanding there is for the “European Cinema”; secondly, a concise but highly complexity of European politics and culture, expressed important sketch that explains how European right on the first pages of the introduction. and Hollywood film have long been thriving on Succinctly put, this book is not American. It is the mutual exchange of personnel (directors, British, and with two exceptions so are the authors composers, actors, among others), motives, of the essays. Miguel Mera is Senior Lecturer traditions, techniques, and aesthetics. Finally, in composition for screen at the Royal College and in an equally concise way, Mera and Burnand of Music, and David Burnand is Head of music undermine the often subliminally ingrained technology and Head of the Centre for the Study conviction that European cinema with its presumable of Composition for Screen at the same London high aesthetic standards generally leans towards institution. The twelve other authors are scholars modernism, in contrast to the commercialized, at universities or cultural institutions in England, conservative, and popularized Hollywood standards.

It is these twists of previous generalizations about from operetta and cabaret—both strands being European and American film that are taken up and integrated in the well directed interests of propaganda. developed in manifold variation in the twelve essays In contrast to this broad overview, linking music assembled. They challenge the reader to re-think, to politics, the next two essays by Richard Dyer and to compare, to correct habits of thinking, and thus Kathleen M. Vernon/Cliff Eisen single out specific to become open to new ways of viewing, listening aspects and directors of Italian and Spanish Cinema. and thinking about both European and Hollywood Dyer uncovers an aspect in Italian neo-realism that traditions in their manifold changes and complexities has so far passed unnoticed: though this famous and, as a sort of mental by-product, also opening our movement in Italian war and post-war cinema perception of traditions in film worldwide. The very concentrates on the needs and experiences of the first pages fill the reader with eager anticipation: people, aiming to reveal the sociocultural reality of like a well conceived beginning of a film they set Italy in the 1940s and 1950s, it is striking that the the scene for a fascinating panorama to come. people’s music (represented by folk songs, popular The anthology is built on two intertwined music, and popularized opera arias) is confined to structural principles, thereby offering a variety source music (diegetic music), while the score (non- of approaches and focuses. The first principle is diegetic music) hardly ever integrates any of these chronological, taking the reader from the 1920s popular genres. According to Dyer, this must be up to films of the most recent years. At the same regarded as an inconsistency, if not conflict in the time, this linear chronological progress is overlaid concept of neo-realism: even though this movement by a gradual trajectory from broad overviews to claims to be an honest expression of ordinary people, individual case studies. By this double strategy their musical experience is not elevated to the the twelve essays offer a concentrated (albeit, status of the score and the authorial sphere of film. of course, not complete) overview of European But Dyer’s argument here is a dubious one: much cinema, exposing the manifold ways in which earlier than the 1940s and 1950s, photoplay music music is used to contribute to one facet which may in the silent era fostered the world over a general indeed be defined as a common denominator in film style that was not promoting itself as superior, European cinema: the creation, the assertion, and but simply one that was effective dramatically. The also the questioning of its identity (cf. p. 3). source music in neo-realist films thus corresponds Like the introduction by Mera and Burnand, to the concept of this movement, yet the score Reimar Volker’s study on film music in Germany transgresses the adherence to realism and reveals from 1927 to 1945 leaves the reader impressed with that the apparently “realistic” setting is an artistic its concise summary of a very complex development and therefore “unrealistic” creation after all. Film in German cinema. At the outset, the change from music scholars would hope that Dyer would have silent film to films with sound, speech, and music described the score’s style more thoroughly. had to be tackled by German companies, which With Carlos Saura and Pedro Almodóvar, two th only hesitatingly opened to this new medium in prominent composers of Spanish cinema in the 20 the late 1920s. Right when the first film composers Century are introduced. Vernon and Eisen’s study on established themselves, Adolf Hitler and his cabinet their collaboration with the composers Luis de Pablo members became aware of the potential film offered and Alberto Iglesias shows two different approaches them for propaganda.1 Ironically, film became a which respond to the exigencies of their respective leading medium in Germany right at a time when its time and political environment (the last years of the best exponents (directors, actors, musicians) had to Franco dictatorship and the counterculture youth go into exile to survive. Volker further informs the movement Movida following Franco’s death): the reader about the bureaucratic system imposed on film challenging introduction of avant garde ideas into production under the Nazi regime and introduces the conventions of the classical film score (Saura/ the main strands of film music in the Third Reich: de Pablo), and the integration of a range of musical “serious” films with music in the classical vein, and styles including frequent quotations of popular entertainment productions with popular elements music in the case of Almodóvar/Iglesias. Because of the great success of their films, the works by these four men not only set standards for Spanish cinema 1 The decisive point was the official premiere of the U–Boat war propaganda and film music, but they also succeeded in bringing film Morgenrot (directed by Gustav Ucicky; music by Herbert Windt) on 2 about “a new credibility and legibility for Spanish February 1933, which was attended by Hitler and his closest followers three days after the Nazis had officially seized power. cinema beyond the borders of its homeland” (p. 57).

Kate Daubney and Phil Powrie concentrate on two cultural roots come to the fore after all? Halfyard’s popular genres in English and French cinema: in her juxtaposition opens up this question, but one would examination of the Ealing comedies—a group of films feel less uneasy with a more substantial backing of beginning with Passport to Pimlico (1949) and ending her thesis, including a broader spectrum of films, with The Ladykillers (1955)—Daubney examines the examples from earlier periods, and some relationships subtle use of music to epitomize the subject matter between century-old stereotypes of musicians (typically doing so already in the main titles), to and their social standing in European culture.2 delineate in music social roles and their respective The central part of the anthology, with essays by behavior, and to satirize certain situations through its David Cooper, Kevin J. Donnelly, and Miguel Mera, close connection to physical gestures. According to concentrates on an aspect of instability that may Daubney, in contrast to many Hollywood film scores be observed in European cinema, resulting from of the same period, music is used quite sparingly in two conflicting, yet often interacting tendencies: most of these comedies—and this is exactly in line the profound respect for tradition on the one hand, with the elegant social commentary exposed in subtle, preserving and canonizing “great works,” and a well directed satires (p. 60). Satire is not necessarily ceaseless striving for the modern on the other hand. elegant; it can even be quite vulgar. The elegance and Cooper shows in his study on the 1959 documentary the wit in these parodies is part of their “Englishness.” film Mise Éire (directed by George Morrison)—a film With the French heritage film, Powrie takes up a that celebrates the independent Irish Republic—how genre that gained popularity in France from the mid- the composer Seán Ó Riada integrated folk elements 1980s until the end of the 1990s. The historical setting in his compositional style for the first time. But he of these films forces the composer to deal with the also used exactly these elements in some cases to problem of integrating period music, since too close undermine Morrison’s coherent narrative of Ireland’s a correspondence between historical setting and strength, juxtaposing this representation with strident music can turn the film into period pastiche. Instead, atonality. The score’s straight-forward exposition of typical compositional techniques, such as collage, Irish Republican propaganda is diverse: it displays crossover, and montage, pastiche, are often found in an Ireland that looks simultaneously to the past and period films, both in the films as a whole and in the to the future. In his article on the cooperation of music, which avoids too consistent a period score, German director Werner Herzog with the pop group but combines various, contrasting elements. This Popol Vuh, Donnelly exposes a development central to results in a deliberate incongruity in musical style and German popular culture in the 1970 and early 1980s, instrumentation, creating a hybrid space that reveals resulting in a distinctly non-mainstream current of the basically postmodern character of this film genre. pop and rock music known as Krautrock. For Herzog, Janet K. Halfyard’s examination of the the German recording artists Popol Vuh (their name differences between the cinematic traditions of is taken from the Guatemalan Quiche Mayan Indian Hollywood and European cinema focuses on an holy manuscript) offered the perfect blend of popular, important instance in the context of film music: Western art music, and non-Western elements: their the representation of classical music performers in sublime and atmospheric music was ideally suited to film. According to Halfyard, a clear distinction can define key moments already present in Herzog’s films. be drawn between American and European films As Herzog himself put it: “An image does not change in this respect: in Hollywood productions, gifted per se when you place the music behind it, but… classical musicians are often negative characters, certain qualities and atmospheres in the images… appearing as a threat to American character and could be seen more clearly when there was certain values (frequently epitomized in the juxtaposition of high culture and popular culture). In European 2 The male music teacher–female student relation is just briefly mentioned film, the representations are more diverse, displaying by Halfyard. Here, it would have been necessary to identify this relation as a romantic stereotype widespread in 19th-century literature, and going a different gender construction in the ranking of back in German literature as far as the early 17th Century, when the musicians (relinquishing the often found constellation German–Austrian physician Hippolyt Guarinoni advised parents of the citizenry to refrain from having their daughters be taught in music, quoting of older male teacher and young attractive female an example of a lute teacher who had deserted an innocent young pupil musician in American films that feature two “with her belly filled”: “Dergleichen erst vor einem Jahr inn dieser Gegend ein Exempel fürvber gangen / in dem ein solcher / so ein junges Mensch performers of classical music) and a generally auff der Zitter schlagen lernete / mit vollem Bauch hinderlassen / vnnd er neutral characterization of musicians. Does the more darvon gewichen. . . .” See Hippolyt Guarinoni, Die Grewel der Verwüstung Menschlichen Geschlechts, (Ingolstadt, 1610), 370. This is the earliest example limited American perception of Europe’s ancient known to me of what would become a widespread stereotype in 19th–century literature (and later on in film).

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010. REVIEWS 87 music playing. The music changes the perspective of succinctly the importance of such first-hand experience the audience; they see things and experience emotions to film studies; thus giving this book yet another that were not there before.”3 In Mera’s essay on the reason to review our approaches to film music: function of music in the films of Theo Angelopoulos, the aforementioned conflict of aesthetics in European As a rare example of practice-led research in cinema is taken a step further onto the level of contemporary film scoring, it is intended that this theoretical discussion of film and film music, revealing chapter will provide insights into the dynamics the inadequacy of the common academic frameworks between intention, process and outcome… Suffice it to say that, just as an archaeologist cannot fully and terminology if applied to films that do not follow comprehend the significance of a flint tool without the model of mainstream narrative cinema. Mera’s knowing—quite possibly through developing the skills astute examination of techniques on the borderline and insights of a flint-knapper—what is discarded between sound and music (e.g., the expressive function during the process, or reused in a different context, so the study of film music cannot rely solely on readings of a drone) open up potential avenues of study that of the text (p. 178). deserve more attention and discussion in future examinations of the musical sound track of films.4 The final three essays of European Film Music offer The Introduction, with its sophisticated discussion close readings of individual films. Jon Paxman’s of Europeanness in film, relations to Hollywood, study of Three Colours: Red (directed by Krzysztof and modernist tendencies, did not promise too Kieslowski, 1993, with music by Zbigniew Preisner) much: every chapter of this book offers deep insights focuses on the multidimensional role music may into the riches and the diversity of European assume in a few minutes of film only, contributing cinema and of the complex relationship between to the decisive and dense prefiguration of the visual aspects of the film and music in various narrative to come within the first moments of a genres, groups, and periods of film in Europe. film. In her essay on silence, music, and masculinity A critical voice might, of course, ask many 5 in Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999), Heather Laing questions: what about Eastern European cinema? exposes one of the most fascinating facets of film’s What about Northern Europe—Scandinavia with its sound track, which generally receives far too little very own culture, a mix of individual nationalities attention in studies on film music and sound: (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland) and a closely silence as a dramatic and dramaturgical element. connected cultural sphere, being quite distinct from As Laing sophisticatedly shows in her discussion of Middle European traditions? What about many the main character Galoup, silence besides being a smaller countries like Benelux (Belgium, Luxembourg, meaningfully applied element of the sound track, Netherlands), the Balkan, Turkey (whose integration assumes a more general, universal significance in into the European Community has been hotly Beau Travail. Laing argues that it symbolizes both discussed for some years now), and what about the masculinity and the failure to communicate due to former Soviet states Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia? Not to the repression of emotions. David Burnand finally mention the Alpine countries Switzerland and Austria? offers a very special contribution to round off this Besides geography, what about famous or infamous remarkable anthology. Scoring “This Filthy Earth”—a periods in national film, as the light-hearted musicals, first-hand look into the practice-led experiences the sticky Heimatfilme, and the rebellious Halbstarken of a film composer, into his discussions with the movies that are inseparably linked to German culture director, into the complex process of composing, and politics in the 1950s? What about The Beatles’ fitting, cutting out, reusing, and discarding some films? What about the movies that occasionally short musical passages. As composer and Head of the achieved Hollywood format without giving up a single Centre for the Study of Composition for Screen at the grain of their Europeanness like the most famous of all at the Royal College of Music, Burnand summarizes submarine films, Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981)? To go on would ask for laughter: there is no end to questions of this kind in regard to the richness 3 Quoted in P. Cronin, ed., Herzog on Herzog (London: Faber and Faber, of European culture and film tradition, to go on 2002), p. 256; here quoted from Donnelly’s essay, p. 128. 4 An approach focussing on the interaction of sound effect, speech, and asking them would reach the brink of parody. Just music, is currently being developed by the author of this review and as Europe in its incredible cultural diversity, from will be presented in detail in her forthcoming book on music and sound in submarine films. See also Linda Maria Koldau, “U-Boot–Filme, ihre Geräusche und ihre Musik,” in 100 Jahre U–Boote in deutschen Marinen, 5 Although an example by the Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski is Proceedings of the 9th Forum Wilhelmshaven, Stefan Huck, and Jörg integrated into the book, Three Colours: Red, the film of the same title does Hillmann, eds (Bochum, Germany: Winkler, 2009, forthcoming). not represent an Eastern European environment or theme.

the oriental regions of Turkey up to the wintry audience than does cinema, which has turned into world of Iceland, from Southern Spain to Russian- an increasingly elite phenomenon with the general tinged and yet culturally independent Estonia, spread of television from the 1950s onwards. If you European cinema cannot be summarized in a slim watch German TV channels for a certain period, paperback. In European Film Music, it was the aim you will soon become familiar with specifically of the editors to offer a selection of highlights from German subjects, with present-day German European cinema, focussing on the question of settings, present-day German problems, with the what music does to contribute to the film as an art foremost German actors turning up again and again. form; thus, the twelve essays offer a fascinating German TV will tell you a lot about the German cross section, but they also show how much is nation—this notion can be applied to every single left out, how much could and should be done. country in Europe, with very different foci on their There is one, perhaps especially European, aspect societies and media. And music, too, is part of it. of the book that is noticeably missing. European There is much to do in European film studies. cinema is for a very large part historical cinema. Miguel Mera and David Burnand’s anthology offers a Europe does not only offer an incredible richness of highly encouraging impulse to go on, digging further cultures, but also of events, of history, and therefore beneath the surface, in order to produce or impel in- of stories. In order to understand these stories, depth examinations of the film music of European though, the historical and cultural context must be cinema. The selection of films examined provides understood. How would one understand a cinema solid examples of their film music; however, film success like Das Wunder von Bern, celebrating the music scholars would likely hope to have seen these spectacular victory of the German National Football scores discussed in much further detail. Overall, Team in the 1954 world contest, if one were unaware many of the authors touch upon stylistic features, of the oppressive atmosphere among the ruins of explaining compositional techniques, but they the German Ruhrgebiet in the early 1950s, of the could go much further by investigating some scores irreparable splits in German families, whose fathers themselves and providing careful interpretations of had been prisoners of war for many years and came how musical passages (offering more music examples) home to children they did not recognize? How would may align with or serve as contrast to the film genre one understand the films of Italian neo-realism, if or to certain film scenes. The anthology nevertheless one is unfamiliar with Italian history and culture of will inspire these avenues of further film music the 1940s and 1950s? What is Swedish midsummer’s study, especially for those who perceive European night, if one does not know the archaic, almost film as a priority of study, research, and writing. heathen significance of the light-flooded summer period in the northernmost European countries? It Linda Maria Koldau, PhD, is currently the Chair is a challenge to a film scholar, and equally a film of Music and Cultural Studies at Aarhus Universitet, music scholar, to grasp the rich cultural–historical Institut for Æstestiske Fag. Previously, she was Chair underlay of every single European film—but it is worth and Director of the Institute of Musicology at the it, otherwise we will never understand certain films University of Frankfurt am Main.. Besides working from European countries. And likewise, we will not on music in women’s convents in the Middle Ages grasp the intricate interaction of music with the film and the Early Modern Period, as well as on music and as well as the other elements of the sound track.6 nationalism, she specializes in film music, introducing Finally, a last question should not pass unnoticed, a new cultural historical approach to this issue. taking us back to an important issue of the editors’ Koldau is currently working on a book on the U-Boat introduction: as mentioned above, there exists a myth in film, media, and music, and on a general general, often unconscious conviction that European German textbook about film music and its analysis cinema has a specifically high aesthetic standing. in the context of visual and acoustic aspects of film. But what about European B-films? And what about television films—a genre that tells much more about the needs and expectations of a general

6 A few examples of what such a cultural–historical approach may add to our understanding of a film and its music are offered in Linda Maria Koldau, U–Boote, ihre Geräusche, ihre Sprache und ihre Musik. Die Interaktion von auditiver Schicht und kulturgeschichtlichem Hintergrund in U-Boot–Filmen, in Kieler Beiträge zur Filmmusikforschung 1 (2008), pp. 86–101.