Current Issue
Volume 6.1 Click here to view Contents
[https://journals.equinoxpub.com/JFM/issue/current]
EDITORS
William H.Rosar
REVIEWS EDITOR
Please send books for review to:
Melissa Goldsmith
c/o Tony Fonseca, Library Director
Alumnae Library
Elms College
291 Springfield Street
Chicopee, MA 01013-2389
USA
The Journal of Film Music is a forum for the musicological study of
film from the standpoint of dramatic musical art. The analytical tools
and methodologies of historical, systematic, cognitive, and
ethnomusicology all are relevant and essential to this study, which
seeks to both document and illuminate film practice through source
studies, analysis, theory, and criticism.
Film, though a product of late 19th century technological innovation,
viewed historically as a dramatic art form, only emerged as such after
the turn of the 20th century, with a musical practice that underwent
almost continual development and changes throughout that time to the
present day: The advent of sound in theatrical motion pictures
precipitated an adaptation in silent film accompaniment, such that
techniques were developed to combine it with onscreen music
performance, dialog, and sound effects, while also placing increased
value on original composition over the use or adaptation of existing
music. The tradition and techniques of this practice carried over into
radio, television, computer, and other communications media. In a
historical framework, This journal examines film and its allied media
not only in terms of its own shared tradition, but in terms of its
roots, precursors, and parallels throughout music of the theatre and
other fields of music, both “classical” and popular, from which it
has borrowed: incidental music for plays, 19th century stage
melodrama, Vaudeville, opera and operetta, musical comedy,
melodeclamation, ballet, dance and music hall, as well as forms of
dramatic concert music such as oratorios, cantatas, and tone poems.
The juxtaposition and clash of musical idioms from the traditions of
Western theatre and art music with those of popular music partly
accounts for the eclecticism that has always characterized film since
the silent days. Hybrid styles were born, for example, that which came
to be widely known as the “Hollywood style,” in which jazz was
combined with European art music (“classical” music). The wide
ranging and multifarious background that has contributed to the
development of music for Western cinema also influenced non-Western
cinema as well, particularly because of the prevalent use of European-
and American-published “photoplay music” throughout the world
during the silent era which, in effect, produced a veritable
international film practice, if one with regional variations, that
persisted into the sound era. Systematic, cognitive, and
ethnomusicological research endeavors to document and analyze these
cultural differences as well as commonalities across cultures and time
periods are all welcome topics for this journal.
INDEXING AND ABSTRACTING
FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Plus
[http://www.proquest.co.uk/en-UK/catalogs/databases/detail/fiaf.shtml]
International Index to Music Periodicals
[http://iimp.chadwyck.com/marketing.do]
The Music Index
International Index to Film Periodicals [http://www.fiafnet.org/]
ProQuest Central
[http://www.proquest.co.uk/en-UK/catalogs/databases/detail/proquestcentral.shtml]
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature [http://rilm.org/]
European Reference Index (ERIH Plus)
[https://dbh.nsd.uib.no/publiseringskanaler/erihplus/about/index]
PUBLISHED TWICE A YEAR: April and September
ISSN: 1087-7142(print)
ISSN: 1758-860X (online)
EDITORIAL ADDRESS: Send all queries to William H. Rosar
Department of Psychology
University of California, San Diego
Mandler Hall - Room 2541
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0109
