Contextualising music at a cinematic Tudor court

Fountain, Daniela Gisela

Abstract

Music plays an important function in the production of meaning in sound films. In particular, its role in the construction of historical sensibilities and musico-historical identities in film narratives is significant, capitalising on the underscore’s dependency on dominant referential clichés and generic categories. Taking this stance as the point of departure, this thesis examines the deployment of sixteenth-century music in film with the aim of developing both an enriched theory of film music, but also a theory that involves the idea of musico-historical constructs as a crucial ideological property.

The five chapters centralise the three components in this construct – film, history and music – as well as their textual interplay. By critically engaging with film music literature on the subject of music and anteriority in history films, issues of musico-historical awareness in film soundtracks are examined and inconsistencies revealed. History is presented as a dialogical construct of narrative and nostalgia and by drawing on hermeneutics and psychoanalysis the notion of the musico-historical feel is deconstructed. The functional and categorical status of sixteenth-century music and the idea of early music in mass-entertainment period films form the focus of investigation together with a critical consideration of early music’s relation to media in order to understand the cinematic representation of Tudor history in a twenty-first century context.

The central theoretical premise of this thesis draws on interdisciplinary approaches proposed by, among others, Butt (2002); Flinn (1992); Gadamer (1960); Gorbman (1987); Kassabian (2001) and Clarke (2005). Among other history films, this thesis focuses on the following in more detail to demonstrate the theoretical approach adopted by this thesis: Young Bess (1953); A Man For All Seasons (1963); Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) and Elizabeth (1998).

Citation

Fountain, D. G. Contextualising music at a cinematic Tudor court. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4217154

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 1, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 23, 2023
• Keywords: Music
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4217154
• Additional Information: Department of Music, The University of Hull
• Award Date: Sep 1, 2014