Book cover of Hollywood Harmony: Musical Wonder and the Sound of Cinema

Book description

Film music often tells us how to feel, but it also guides us how to hear. Hollywood Harmony explores the inner workings of film music, bringing together tools from music theory, musicology, and music psychology. Harmony, and especially chromaticism, is emblematic of what we commonly recognize as film music sound…


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Why read it?

1 author picked Hollywood Harmony as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Lehman brilliantly explores how recent film scores are constructed and why they are so effective in conveying a sense of wonder.

While he goes deeply into music theory (specifically a branch of theory called Neo-Riemannian) it is all lucidly explained and illustrated with score examples. There is also a comprehensive website with recordings of the examples, so you don’t necessarily have to read music to make sense of what Lehman is saying.

This is one of the most ambitious books on film music, as Lehman is trying to come up with a whole analytical system to explain how film music…

From Gregory's list on film music.

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Book cover of The Rosewood Penny

The Rosewood Penny by J.S. Fields,

2023 Queer Indie Award Nominee!

The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction.

On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band they rob from the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive…

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