Book Review - Andy Hill's 'Scoring the Screen - the Secret Language of Film Music
By Ivo Witteveen
If you want to study film music with the intention of becoming better at writing film music yourself, there are a lot of resources you can use - but most of them are relatively indirect. Of course, you can (and should) listen to scores and watch films and try to figure out what's happening. There are books that can help in a range of fields, from music theory to film studies. But not many books focus on exactly what we, as composers, are most interested in: how was this piece of film music written, why does it work and how can I use this knowledge?
Andy Hill's 'Scoring the Screen - the Secret Language of Film Music' however, aims for exactly that. As he writes in his introduction on how to use the book: "The process is a little like reverse scoring: the (film scoring) work has been done, and now the mystery - and the learning - lies in discovering how it was done." Mr. Hill's background makes him just the right man for the job: As vice president of music production for Walt Disney Pictures, he supervised the music for films like Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, working closely with composers like Hans Zimmer and Alan Menken. Later, he was involved in the development of film music master courses at Columbia University and Berklee. And if that wasn't enough, he has also published three novels... so we can assume he knows how to write.
And the book doesn't disappoint - let me admit right away that I'm a fan. What I like very much is the direct, hands-on approach of this book in combination with the depth and erudition. Hill discusses roughly 15 movie scores in 15 chapters and mentions plenty of others along the way, ranging from classics like Vertigo (Herrmann) and To Kill a Mockingbird (E. Bernstein) to more contemporary scores like The Social Network (Ross/Reznor) and Inception (Zimmer). To make good use of the book, you must be able to read music - but not necessarily full scores, as useful reductions are provided. A basic knowledge of music theory is assumed but the book is written in such a way that readers with various levels of expertise can benefit. For instance, when Hill discusses Thomas Newman's use of harmony, he includes references to Wagner's Das Rheingold and Neo-Riemannian triad transformation, so you can dive into that if you want - but he also shows that on a more basic level it just means that Newman tends to go from an E major to a C major chord quite a lot. Throughout the book, the author keeps a clear focus on the practical aspect of composing music: he won't go to town for 10 pages about the work of Roland Barthes on semiotics, but rather addresses the (very relevant) studies of musical semiotics in a sidebar. For the eager and impatient composer reading the book hunting for inspiration, there is always a direct way back to 'what can I do with this?'. For the more studious composer, the book offers plenty of possibilities for additional exploration.
'Scoring the Screen' is more than just a series of film music analyses, though: Hill uses the films and scores he discusses to weave a larger narrative. For instance, chapter three offers a great introduction into the aspects that provide meaning to (film) music. Another chapter uses examples from more recent scores to develop a broader point about the changing aesthetic of film music. Although the book is very useful as a study book (and I have started using it in my own teaching to bachelor film music students) it is not laid out as a course material leading from A to B with increasing complexity. To me, that is a good thing: all chapters have depth, insightful analysis and sidebars, and above all inspiring film music examples. Rather than a book you read once, I'd say it is a book that you keep coming back to.
As a fan of printed books, I am reviewing the paperback edition - but this might be one of the rare cases where I'd prefer the digital version of the book (which I haven't seen). It might be more practical that way to combine book, movie and soundtrack recording on one screen. The book is accompanied by a website (scoringthescreen.com) or perhaps it would be better to say the book and the author are introduced by a website. The website will give you a good impression of the contents of the book and the philosophy of the author. There are also some interesting blog posts, and you can find your way to the various consulting services Andy Hill offers. The website does not, as one might have hoped, offer additional audiovisual content to support the book. In an ideal world, a student would have access to the actual film clips with the score running in parallel - but understandably, that would be near impossible in terms of copyrights, so that is not fair to expect. I think, however, there are opportunities to support a book like this with digital materials. On the other hand, there is a lot you can do yourself: I have started to collect the films mentioned in the book and most of them are readily available on streaming services, iTunes or good-old DVD. I expect watching all films and scores discussed in the book and actively 'reverse score' them will take me a few years more - if I ever get to that point. And I mean that as a compliment: the book is a real treasure trove of film music wisdom.
