Nuance Music - Film & Music Resources

Click to Order	ON THE TRACK: A Contemporary Guide to Film Scoring by Fred Karlin and Rayburn Wright, Foreward by John Williams This is without a doubt the most comprehensive book ever written on the subject of film scoring. I've often referred to this as the "instructions to scoring a film". It includes chapters on spotting a film, budgets and schedules, orchestration and dubbing to name a few. It also includes a complete Click Book by Alexander R. Brinkman. No film composer should be without this book in their library!
Click to Order	FILM COMPOSERS DIRECTORY (1998-1999) 5th Ed. by Vincent-Jacquet Francillion This book is a valuable resource for filmmakers and composers alike. If you were ever wondering "Who wrote the music to that film?" or "What films did John Williams score?", this book is for you. You can look up a score by film title or look up the complete filmography by composer. It even contains a seperate section for filmographies of golden and silver age composers.
Click to Order	KNOWING THE SCORE by Davide Morgan This collection of interviews with Hollywood composers offers the most intimate look ever at the process of writing musics for the movies. From getting started in the business to recording the soundtrack, from choosing a musical style to collaborating with directors, including Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, the Coen brothers, Terry Gilliam, Kenneth Branagh, and Ken Russell, from learning to deal with editing to writing with time-sensitive precision, the leading practitioners in the field share their views on one of the most important, and least understood aspects of filmmaking: the motion picture art that's heard but not seen.
Click to Order	TWENTY FOUR FRAMES UNDER: A Buried History of Film Music by Russell Lack Twenty Four Frames Under is a history of film music combined with an examination of music's emotional impact on the film audience. Russell Lack traces the development of film music aesthetics as well as differing traditions of accompaniment, describing the evolution of music recording alongside film technology. He combines insights from the fields of musicology, philosophy and psychology with cogent descriptions of films from many different countries and genres, from 1896 to the present day. This is an enormously informative and lively account that casts light on the history of film and on the history of music, and will be a definitive work on the subject.
Click to Order	THE REEL WORLD: Scoring for Pictures by Jeff Rona Written by one of Hollywood's top up-and-coming composers, this how-to guide takes you inside the world of creating music for film and television. To help you get started and succeed in scoring, it focuses on the composer's key concerns: ensuring musical aesthetics, using the most effective technology and techniques, and understanding the business side of things. Packed with case studies and insider's tips, this book lets you learn by example. YouÕll find tried-and-true strategies, plus pitfalls to avoid, drawn from actual scoring projects by industry pros. And because of the collaborative nature of scoring, you'll learn how to nurture positive relationships with music editors, directors, producers, recording engineers, musicians, music executives--even your own agent.
Click to Order	HOLLYWOOD RHAPSODY: Movie Music and Its Makers, 1900 to 1975 by Gary Marmorstein The history of movie music-from classic silents to modern blockbusters. Hollywood Rhapsody is the first complete history of American movie music, from the days of the so-called "silent" movies to today's lavish productions. Even in the era of silent film, scores were written for keyboardists and pit bands for performance while the films were shown. But when sound came in, movie music really took off. Some of the greatest songwriters of all times were placed under contract at the various studios in the late twenties and thirties, as well as distinguished European and American classical composers. Hollywood Rhapsody covers everything from the brooding soundtracks of pulp film noires to the boisterous songs of the great Disney animated musicals, from the heyday of Henry Mancini and Michel Legrand to the great rock scores of the sixties and seventies.
Click to Order	LISTENING TO MOVIES: The Film Lover's Guide to Film Music by Fred Karlin There are few books about movie music, but most of them are good. Ditto Karlin's, which, striving for comprehensiveness, covers how film music is composed, recorded, and mixed into a soundtrack; how to listen to it appreciatively; how it actually functions in eight movies famous for their music (including such classics as The Adventures of Robin Hood [1938] and North by Northwest); how it has been reviewed by intelligent critics; and how it was and is used in silent and nondramatic sound films.
Click to Order	MUSIC FOR THE MOVIES by Tony Thomas Film music fans have eagerly awaited this fully updated and greatly expanded edition of Tony Thomas's popular history of Hollywood film music (from the thirties through the nineties) as viewed through portraits of many of its foremost practitioners.
Click to Order	SOUNDTRACKS: An International Dictionary of Composers for Film by Stewart R. Craggs This book is another great resource on film composers, filmographies and films.
Click to Order	A HEART AT FIRE'S CENTER: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann by Steven C. Smith This book documents the life and career of one of the most influencial film composers in history. Bernard Herrmann made a name for himself early in his career by composing great scores for radio dramas. The then took the leap into film along side Orsen Welles with "Citizen Kane". Herrmann was also the composer for most of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpieces including NORTH BY NORTHWEST, PSYCHO, and VERTIGO. This book is a great study of one film music's greatest geniuses.
Click to Order	Complete Guide to Film Scoring by Richard Davis This is a comprehensive guide, essential for anyone interested in he business, process, and procedures of writing music for film or television. It covers topics such as the film-making process, preparing and recording a score, and the business side of film scoring including contracts, fees, publishing, royalties, and copyrights. The book is rounded off with amazing interviews with 19 established film scoring professionals like Michael Kamen (Mr. Holland's Opus, Brazil), Alf Clausen (The Simpsons, Naked Gun), Alan Silvestri (Forrest Gump, Contact), Mark Snow (X-Files, Millenium), and Elmer Bernstein (To Kill a Mockingbird, Airplane, Rainmaker) The Emmy and Annie winning composer Alf Clausen writes "This is splendidly-constructed reference manual with a winning combination of technical expertise and the human touch of a film composer's life experiences. This guide has captured it all, from the history of film music to modern-day trends, as well as providing invaluable information about the music business." I've seen the other options, and no other book out there comes close to this one in its knowledge and presentation of the film scoring.
Click to Order	The Score: Interviews with Film Composers by Michael Schelle A unique collection of lively, in-depth, musically savvy conversations with composers of every style, background, and position in Hollywood's hierarchy, THE SCORE brings together a broad cross-section of current thoughts about the process of film composing, styles of film music, and working within today's entertainment industry. It includes interviews with John Barry, Elmer Bernstein, Terence Blanchard, Bruce Broughton, Paul Chihara, John Corigliano, James Newton Howard, Mark Isham, Daniel Licht, Joel McNeely, Thomas Newman, Marc Shaiman, Howard Shore, Shirley Walker, and Christopher Young.
Click to Order	ANATOMY OF A HOME STUDIO: How Everything Really Works, from Microphones to Midi by Scott Wilkinson, Steve Oppenheimer, Mark Isham This book gives a general overview of what you have to keep in mind when you want to start your own home studio. It describes theoretical concepts like acoustics as well as the more practical stuff like setting up proper electrical wiring. It also gives a clear overview of the different types of audio equipment you can encounter in your search for the perfect studio. The book is well structured and there are some ironic touches added as well.
Click to Order	THE ART OF MIXING: A Visual Guide to Recording, Engineering, and Production (Mix Pro Audio Series) by David Gibson, George Petersen (Editor) This book is a great primer for the art of mixing. It talks about the similarities and differences between mixing different styles of music and also gives a 3-D visual guide for each concept in order to help the audio engineer ÒvisualizeÓ the mix. ItÕs a great addition to any audio enthusiastÕs library.
Click to Order	THE HOME STUDIO GUIDE TO MICROPHONES by Loren Alldrin, George Petersen (Editor), Michael Molendra, Michael Molenda (Editor) This is the encyclopedia of microphones. Wondering what mic to use when and why? This book explains it all.