John Williams’s Film Music: Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the Return of the Classical Hollywood Music Style by Emilio Audissino (review)

Abstract

John Williams's Film Music: of the Lost Ark, and the Return of the Classical Hollywood Music Style. By Emilio Audissino. (Wisconsin Film Studies.) Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2014. [xxvi, 317 p. ISBN 9780299297343 (paperback), $29.95; ISBN 9780299297336 (e-book). $24.95.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index. Filling an important lacuna in music studies, Emilio Audissino's John Williams's Film Music: Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the Return of the Classical Hollywood Music Style is a compelling, well-researched investigation of John Williams's role in the Hollywood music industry. Ultimately labeling Williams's compositional style as neoclassic, Audissino argues that the composer's blending of classic and contemporary music was not only commercially successful, but also responsible for bringing the classic Hollywood music style and its canon into the limelight and restor[ing] dignity to a neglected facet of the Hollywood tradition (p. 203). Supporting this argument throughout, the text focuses on three main topics. The first investigates Hollywood's classic style from the 1930s through the 1950s, the second discusses Williams's revival of this Golden Age practice, while an examination of Williams's lasting legacy concludes the study. Before even introducing John Williams's music, however, Audissino provides an overview of his methodology within the preface. Effectively preparing the reader for his argument in clear concise prose, Audissino's text takes an important step in furthering the unification of terminology and analysis techniques within this relatively young field. In the introduction, Audissino states clearly that he does not take a musicological stance within the text, but rather approaches his study as a scholar. While the author does demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of Hollywood's classic era as well as Williams's position in New Hollywood over twenty years later, Audissino also reveals a thorough knowledge of music. His discussions of music examples, leitmotifs, and music history are both sensitive and accurate, and the connections he makes between Williams and previous composers and musical styles are astute. In fact, Audissino's ability to address both and music scholars in one accessible and engaging text is one of the study's greatest strengths. With thorough consideration of historical, aesthetic, and theoretical elements, in both and music, Audissino strikes a successful balance in his study, clearly addressing scholars in each discipline. This historical background is particularly evident in chapters 1 through 3. In the first, 'The Classical Hollywood Music': A Chronicle, Audissino provides a succinct overview of music's developing role within Hollywood film. Beginning with silent cinema and advancing through the first and second generation of composers, this section provides the reader with an understanding of music's development throughout the 1940s before concluding with a discussion of stylistic changes during the 1950s. The first chapter leads smoothly into the second, 'The Classical Hollywood Music': A Stylistic Definition, which details the standard sound of a classic Hollywood score. Introducing this section, Audissino explains that film music style should be divided into four areas: language, techniques, musical means, and typical formal functions, which he elaborates upon throughout the chapter (p. 26). Though the current section focuses more specifically on music than chapter 1, it nevertheless remains accessible for the nonmusic reader. Chapter 2 successfully explains music's primary responsibilities within Golden Age films while tackling such questions as, why does romantic nineteenth-century sound dominate the practice, and why do viewers largely ignore scores? With a concise historical context and an informative analysis of Golden Age music, the first two chapters not only provide a useful introduction for one new to the field, but also a background against which to compare Williams's scoring approach and use of music from the 1960s onward. …