《The Art of Film Music》

Burt, a music professor with extensive film scoring experience, offers what amounts to a textbook for aspiring film composers, one that employs many musical examples from film scores by composers ranging from Erich Wolfgang Korngold, biggest gun among 1930s Hollywood composers, to John Williams, the most successful contemporary exponent of the trade. Burt especially emphasizes, however, the work of four other composers--Hugo Friedhofer, Alex North, David Raksin, and Leonard Rosenman--and uses their work to illustrate topics ranging from creating character through music to how to pace action with music. Particularly useful are extended discussions on how specific sequences in such famous movies as East of Eden, Laura, and The Best Years of Our Lives were scored. Burt concludes with a chapter emphasizing such practical details as timing, synchronization, use of the synthesizer, and mixing and dubbing. Although fairly technical, Burt's effort will interest, besides budding film composers, those interested in the nuts and bolts of film scoring. Libraries with hefty film collections can safely add this. John Shreffler

Burt (music, Rice Univ.), himself a composer and former student of Babbitt, Mil- haud, and Sessions, is well qualified to offer this inside look at a complex art. He covers a lot of ground in just six chapters, making extensive use of dozens of musical excerpts and scene summaries from classic films from the 1930s through the 1980s. The author examines philosophical, aesthetic, and highly technical aspects in the course of discussions with leading film composers Hugo Friedhofer, Alex North, David Rakson, and Leonard Rosenman. Burt's credentials will lure the serious musician/composer, but this book's range of information will appeal also to the avid film enthusiast, though an ability to read music is key to fully appreciating the book. Notes and a glossary are included. For a more encyclopedia-style account and time period expansion, see William Darby and Jack Du Bois's American Film Music: Major Composers, Techniques, Trends (LJ 11/15/90).

Cynthia Ann Cordes, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.

Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.