When the score tells more: music and connotations in Raiders of the Lost Ark

Audissino, Emilio (2014) When the score tells more: music and connotations in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In: 20th SERCIA Conference, 'Movies and Music: National and Transnational Approaches', 18-20 Sep 2014, Nijmegen, Netherlands. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Film theory has long been influenced by a “visual bias:” images are more important than sound. This has produced the traditional distinction between music as a “counterpoint/comment” to the images and music as a “parallel accompaniment,” which implies a “separatist conception” of film music. The visuals and the music are seen as two separate entities, with music either subserviently complying with the images or fiercely fighting against them. With the “audiovisual paradigm” overruling the visual bias and taking the lead from the 1980s onwards, traces of the old separatist conception are nonetheless still visible. The reason is the choice of semiotics and psychoanalysis as theoretical frameworks – combined in the post-structuralist paradigm that launched academic film studies and still exerts some influence. After explaining why post-structuralism prompts a separatist conception – which is something to be rejected in a truly “audiovisual” paradigm – I submit that the adoption of neoformalism as a theoretical framework and analytical approach is a good way to a “non-separatist conception,” and I propose “music with a cognitive function” as a non-separatist replacement for the old visual-biased “counterpoint/asynchronism.”

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects: Film and television
Music
Depositing User: Emilio Audissino
Date Deposited: 16 Feb 2016 15:40
Last Modified: 28 Aug 2021 07:19
URI: https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1653

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