Sounds of the Future: Essays on Music in Science Fiction Film

by Mathew J. Bartkowiak (Editor)

Overview

Covering titles ranging from Rocketship X-M (1950) to Wall-E (2008), these insightful essays measure the relationship between music and science fiction film from a variety of academic perspectives. Thematic sections survey specific compositions utilized in science fiction movies; Broadway's relationship with the genre; science fiction elements in popular songs; the conveyance of subjectivity and identity through music; and such individual composers as Richard Strauss (2001: A Space Odyssey) and Bernard Herrmann (The Day the Earth Stood Still).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786456505
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	03/10/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	239
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mathew J. Bartkowiak is a former associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of American Studies at Michigan State University.
Mathew J. Bartkowiak is a former associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of American Studies at Michigan State University.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Introduction     
—Mathew J. Bartkowiak

PART I. “OPEN THE POD DOOR, HAL”: A SURVEY OF MUSIC’S ROLE IN SCIENCE FICTION FILM
1. A Familiar Sound in a New Place: The Use of the Musical Score Within the Science Fiction Film     
—Cara Marisa Deleon
2. A Popular Avant-Garde: The Paradoxical Tradition of Electronic and Atonal Sounds in Sci-Fi Music Scoring     
—Lisa M. Schmidt

PART II. “GIVE MY REGARDS TO THE BARYCENTER”: BROADWAY’S RELATION TO SCIENCE FICTION FILM
3. “Hello WALL-E!”: Nostalgia, Utopia, and the Science Fiction Musical     
—Kathryn A.T. Edney and Kit Hughes
4. Just Imagine: The Musical Effacement of Dystopia in an Early Sound Film     
—Katherine Spring

PART III. BECOMING THE STAR-CHILD: MUSIC AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF SUBJECTIVITY
5. Ambient Reverberations: Diegetic Music, Science Fiction, and Otherness     
—Seth Mulliken
6. Sci-Fi Film and Sounds of the Future     
—Matthias Konzett

PART IV. MOON/SPOON/CROON: SCIENCE FICTION AND POPULAR MUSIC
7. “It’s Hip to Be Square”: Rock and Roll and the Future     
—Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper
8. The Intergalactic Lounge: Barbarella and Hearing the Future     
—Mathew J. Bartkowiak
9. Proposing an Alter-Destiny: Science Fiction in the Art and Music of Sun Ra     
—Jerome J. Langguth

PART V. “ALL THOSE MOMENTS”: INSTANCES THAT SHAPED OUR AUDITORY FUTURE
10. Suspended Motion in the Title Scene from The Day the Earth Stood Still     
—Stephen Husarik
11. Strauss, Kubrick and Nietzsche: Recurrence and Reactivity in the Dance of Becoming That Is 2001: A Space Odyssey     
—Gregg Redner

PART VI. “SETTING THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN”: COMPOSERS AND COMPOSITIONS IN SCIENCE FICTION FILM
12. Rocketship X-M: The Sounds of a Martian Breeze     
—John C. Tibbetts
13. Seeing Beyond His Own Time: The Sounds of Jerry Goldsmith     
—Cynthia J. Miller

About the Contributors     
Index     

Editorial Reviews

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From the Publisher

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