After the Silents: Hollywood Film Music in the Early Sound Era, 1926-1934
Michael SlowikSlowik follows filmmakers' shifting combinations of sound & image, recapturing the volatility of this era & the variety of film music strategies that were tested, abandoned, & kept. He explores early film music experiments & accompaniment practices in opera, melodrama, musicals, radio, & silent films & discusses the impact of the advent of synchronized dialogue. He concludes with a reassessment of King Kong & its groundbreaking approach to film music, challenging the film's place & importance in the timeline of sound achievement.
Michael Slowik is assistant professor of television, film, & new media at San Diego State University. His work appears in Cinema Journal; American Music; The Journal of American Culture; Journal of Popular Film & Television; Music, Sound, & the Moving Image; Nineteenth-Century Theatre & Film; & Quarterly Review of Film & Video.