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Musical Modernism and German Cinema from 1913 to 1933

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Examines the connections between musical modernism and German cinema from the Autorenfilm movement (1913-14) through the dawn of the recorded sound film (1932-33)

  • Analyses a corpus of original compositions, films, and aesthetic writings

  • Documents how modernist composers from the Austro-German area approached film music composition and engaged with cinema as an aesthetic phenomenon

  • Reconstructs the connections between modernist composers and the film music universe through historically verifiable collaborations

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
  2. Introduction: The Cinematic Paradigm

    • Francesco Finocchiaro
    Pages 1-12
  3. Prologue: Cinema and the Arts

    • Francesco Finocchiaro
    Pages 13-28
  4. Cinema and Expressionist Drama

    • Francesco Finocchiaro
    Pages 29-43
  5. Paul Hindemith and the Cinematic Universe

    • Francesco Finocchiaro
    Pages 45-66
  6. Edmund Meisel: The Cinematic Composer

    • Francesco Finocchiaro
    Pages 67-84
  7. Der Rosenkavalier: A Problematic Remediation

    • Francesco Finocchiaro
    Pages 85-103
  8. Alban Berg, Lulu, and Cinema as Artifice

    • Francesco Finocchiaro
    Pages 127-148
  9. New Objectivity and Abstract Cinema

    • Francesco Finocchiaro
    Pages 149-194
  10. Between Film Music and Chamber Music

    • Francesco Finocchiaro
    Pages 195-220
  11. Epilogue: The Dawn of Sound Cinema

    • Francesco Finocchiaro
    Pages 221-237
  12. Back Matter

    Pages 239-259

About this book

This book investigates the relationship between musical Modernism and German cinema. It paves the way for anunorthodox path of research, one which has been little explored up until now. The main figures of musical Modernism, from Alban Berg to Paul Hindemith, and from Richard Strauss to Kurt Weill, actually had a significant relationship with cinema. True, it was a complex and contradictory relationship in which cinema often emerged more as an aesthetic point of reference than an objective reality; nonetheless, the reception of the language and aesthetic of cinema had significant influence on the domain of music. Between 1913 and 1933, Modernist composers’ exploration of cinema reached such a degree of pervasiveness and consistency as to become a true aesthetic paradigm, a paradigm that sat at the very heart of  the Modernist project. In this insightful volume, Finocchiaro shows that the creative confrontation with the avant-garde medium par excellence can be regarded as a vector of musical Modernism: a new aesthetic paradigm for the very process – of deliberate misinterpretation, creative revisionism, and sometimes even intentional subversion of the Classic-Romantic tradition – which realized the “dream of Otherness” of the Modernist generation.


Reviews

“Finocchiaro’s study delivers compelling insights into the relationship between Musical Modernism and German silent and early sound cinema. Approaching cinema from the vantage point of its engagement with modernist composers manages to move beyond the boundaries between “high” and “low” art, opening up the wider field of the cultural status of cinema in relation to coexisting art forms at a crucial historical moment.” (Anna K. Windisch, University of Salzburg, Austria. Co-Editor of The Sounds of Silent Films. New Perspectives on History, Theory and Practice, 2014)

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Francesco Finocchiaro

About the author

Francesco Finocchiaro is Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Musicology of the University of Vienna, Austria. His research interests focus on the points of connection between composition, theory and aesthetics in Twentieth-century music. He edited Arnold Schönberg’s Il pensiero musicale (2011) and has also published extensively on film music, with special regard to the relationship between cinema and musical avant-gardes. He has taught in Italy at the Universities of Bologna, Milan, Florence, as well as at Ferrara Conservatory, and in Austria at the University of Vienna.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Musical Modernism and German Cinema from 1913 to 1933

  • Authors: Francesco Finocchiaro

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58262-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-58261-0Published: 18 January 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-86362-7Published: 04 June 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-58262-7Published: 16 December 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIX, 259

  • Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Screen Studies, Music, European Culture, Cultural History

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access