Description
Book SynopsisAlmost since films were first shown to the public, music has played a critical component in their success. Film and Television Music: A Guide to Books, Articles, and Composer Interviews compiles over 100 years of writings devoted to the subject of film and television music and its practitioners, offering an awareness of the vast literature on film and television music to a larger audience. This indispensable resource tool includes bibliographic citations and supplementary information on books, academic dissertations, composer and songwriter biographies, music for the accompaniment of silent films, and a wide range of film, music, and general interest periodicals. Providing context, background, accuracy, and breadth of coverage, the entries in this book assist researchers with thoughtful and succinct synopses of the contents of books and articles from the silent era to the digital age. The material is organized in 11 sections: books on film and television music; academic dissertations and theses; composer, songwriter, and lyricist biographies; books with material on film and television music; music for the accompaniment of silent films; film music periodicals; composer society journals and newsletters; film and media periodicals; music periodicals; and general interest and other periodicals. This authoritative reference is for anyone interested in the history of film music.
Trade ReviewCompiles over 100 years of writings devoted to the subject of film and television music and its practitioners, offering an awareness of the vast literature on film and television music to a larger audience. An authoritative reference for anyone interested in the history of film music, this indispensible resource tool includes bibliographic citations and supplementary information. * Overture *
Film Film and Television Music: A Guide to Books, Articles, and Composer Interviews, Compiled and Edited by Warren M. Sherk (Scarecrow Press) is, as its title indicates, an exhaustive work running 667 oversized pages; the index alone takes up about 80 of those pages. It will undoubtedly become an indispensible reference tool for anyone who wants to study or write about film music. Where else can one find a fully indexed guide to film periodicals, books, and even academic dissertations dealing with composers and their scores? Silent-film buffs will take particular interest in an annotated list of music publishers’ folios and guide to film accompaniment, beginning with a 1909 publication titled Motion Picture Piano Music: Descriptive Music to Fit the Action, Character or Scene of Moving Pictures. As a longtime staff member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library, and a musician himself, Sherk is the ideal person to have tackled this Herculean task. * Leonard Maltin’S Movie Fan *
In the introduction, we read that Film and Television Music: A Guide is to be an authoritative work representing a comprehensive listing of materials on the subject-and it very much is. Sherk's (Margaret Herrick Lib., Acad. of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) book is divided into 11 sections; in addition to materials listed in the title, it includes academic dissertations and theses, silent film music, and songwriter and lyricist biographies....Recommended for film and music reference collections. * Library Journal *
Sherk, a "music specialist" at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library, is also a composer and orchestrator who has worked on a number of Hollywood films. He spent nearly 30 years compiling vast lists of practically everything of substance ever published on the subject of music for film and television, and the result is this remarkably vast treasure trove of information. It's a mind-boggling 586 pages of data (and another 80 pages of index!)....Sherk's book not only lists tens of thousands of articles and books – in many cases the author provides a succinct synopsis of the content of each. Film and Television Music is nothing less than a landmark reference work – an indispensable book for anyone who researches or writes about this field. * The Film Music Society *
In a world filled with the Net Generation, Millennials, and Web 2.0, where academic libraries are encountering “web scale discovery” at every turn, there’s something pleasantly and pleasingly anachronistic about a paper volume devoted to cataloging other bits of paper. Warren M. Sherk’s Film and Television Music, a Guide to Books, Articles and Composer Interviews combines all the best elements of excellent reference material, and reminds us that sometimes the most valuable research resources are un-Google-able. This reference book absolutely has a specific niche appeal. But boy does it fills that niche completely. Can one recommend this to reference libraries? Absolutely. You simply cannot get this level of detail, and passion from searching online. Ranganthan’s third law suggests “Every book its reader”. This volume’s readers may be few and far between, but once the reference librarian has pointed them in the right direction, they will rejoice in this remarkable volume. This is an affordable and important addition to the reference shelves. * s *
There are very few bibliographic resources on film and television music currently available. This work attempts to fill that gap. It is a fairly comprehensive listing of books and articles on this topic from 1906 through 2005. Only books and articles in English are included, which provides overall coverage for the film industries in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and India. The book is divided into 11 chapters, with a good introduction and guide to the book at the beginning. The chapters are: "Books on Film and Television Music," "Academic Dissertations and Theses," "Composer Biographies," "Songwriter and Lyricist Biographies," "Books with Material on Film and Television Music," "Music for the Accompaniment of Silent Films," "Film Music Periodicals," "Composer Society Journals and Newsletters," "Film and Media Periodicals," "Music Periodicals," and "General Interest and Other Periodicals." Overall, this is a huge and timely reference work that covers a largely unmined topic in twentieth-century music history. * American Reference Books Annual *
