Prof. Julie Hubbert's visit to class, last week, was a real treat.
Indeed (as gentle colleague Jenn pointed out), the inclusion of so many reproduced primary sources in her forthcoming tome is part of what really 'wows,' even the casual observer, about Hubbert's publication. Somewhat akin to the model of Waller's "Moviegoing in America," her readers will be able to enjoy some of the more fun and fruitful research gold up-front, rather than by hunting in the footnotes and in microfilm dungeons. Let's hope she can afford a graphic designer to, at least, mimic the original (and likely poorly microfilmed) look and layout of the pieces.
Considering the integral role music seems to have always played with the theatrical exhibition of moving images, the newness of her discoveries was somewhat shocking—even given the relatively nascent state of Cinema Studies, vis-à-vis other academic disciplines. (I guess people were too busy thinking about phallic semiology.) But, while Hubbert's primary source research is top-notch, I found her arguments surrounding the resurgence of the 'compilation' score in the late 1960s, and the early, MTV-influenced 1980s, less convincing. The line of argument seemed to be that during the 'pre-soundies' era, accompanying piano/organ/orchestral scores consisted of variations on already extant and published musical themes, motifs, etc. Then, after a period of prolific, dedicated, and specific score-based accompaniments, the 'compilation' score mode reemerged (first with films like Kubrick's 2001, Mean Streets, and that motor-biking hippie drug movie) and grew into the dominant mode (Str
eets of Fire, Eddie and the Cruisers).
I suppose that while a contemporary superhero picture like "Spiderman 3" might include a pop song by a bunch of stoner rock Vancouverites, parallel superhero serials from the 1940s would be less likely to sonically graft popular 'songs of the day' onto actions sequences. But, that doesn't necessarily mean that "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" would have been heard to emanate from the piano, over rescue scenes in 'pre-soundie' action pictures. I can understand the two kinds of 'compilation' scores (pre-soundie vs. generation MTV) Hubbert discussed are broadly similar, but also see them as radically different: one was live, the other pre-recorded and physically married to celluloid; one 'pre-existed' overwhelmingly in published scores, the other on circular discs and in the documents of lawyers' filing cabinets; one was played more, or less, continuously throughout a film, the other (save for in Scorsese!) more sporadically (and usually mixed in with some degree of composed scor
e); one was 'organically familiar' to audiences (from concerts, radio broadcasts, and participatory instrument playing at home), while the other could be argued to be less culturally widespread in familiarity and more rooted in marketing ploys and money-making (esp. the MTV-era influences).
Taking nothing away from Dr. Hubbert's work, I think that the parallels in chronological iterations of 'compilation' scores are fascinating but are more heavily tied to developments in the music industry. I am eager to read more detailed analysis on this topic in her book.
-Walter Forsberg
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