Sounds of the Future: Essays on Music in Science Fiction Film by Mathew J. Bartkowiak

English | Publisher: McFarland, 2010 | 239 Pages | PDF | 1,7 MB
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).

From The Day the Earth Stood Still, to Star Wars, to WALL-E, music and musical effects affect how we understand film. In science fiction, music plays an especially important role.

Music can be our guide to navigating strange, new places, and to encountering new people and forms. In both utopian and nightmarish settings, music acts as a fundamental part of the narrative, guiding us through these foreign territories flickering in front of our eyes.

Film-makers critique, poke fun of, and challenge our thoughts of alternate realities and the future using musical cues that are created to guide the players onscreen and the players off screen (us, the dedicated voyeur). One wave of the hand in front of the theremin or one chord played on the piano can create a shorthand that speaks to us more than any screenwriter could hope to affect with dialogue.