Unit:
Department of Music StudiesLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Author:
Zacharopoulos Konstantinos
Dissertation committee:
Γεώργιος Ζερβός, επίκουρος καθηγητής, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών, ΕΚΠΑ.
'Ιρμγκαρντ Lerch-Καλαβρυτινού, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών, ΕΚΠΑ.
Μάρκος Τσέτσος, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα μουσικών σπουδών, ΕΚΠΑ.
Νικόλαος Μαλιάρας, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών, ΕΚΠΑ.
Ιάκωβος Σταϊνχάουερ, Επίκουρος καθηγητής, Τμήμα μουσικών σπουδών, ΕΚΠΑ.
Παύλος Σεργίου, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών, ΕΚΠΑ.
Ιωάννης Φούλιας, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών, ΕΚΠΑ.
Original Title:
Η κινηματογραφική μουσική του John Williams (1975-2018): μελωδία, αρμονία, μορφολογικά πρότυπα και θεματική ενότητα
Translated title:
The film music of John Williams (1975-2018): melody, harmony, formal archetypes and thematic unity
Summary:
The present dissertation aims to outline John Williams’s style, as it is evident through his film music themes (1975-2018), from a sample of 71 films.
In the introductory chapter the definitions of style and theme are clarified while the historical significance of 1975 with Jaws – as the starting year of study of the composer’s style – is pointed out. The present bibliography around Williams that has to do mainly with the narrative nature of the themes is touched upon onward, the chapters of the research are summarized and the methodology that was used for the writing of the project is presented.
The first chapter examines the horizontal axis, namely melody. The composer’s difficulty in building melodies that sound inevitable is noted, while some common melodic features of his themes are mentioned like a distinctive rhythmic design that gives melody breath, distinctive note patterns with large leaps from the very first bars, unique to the composer’s style, as well as well-defined phrases with strict borders that remind of neoclassical themes. Fourths, fifths and seconds constitute dominant intervals in melodic building, while Aeolian mode is dominant among the composer’s modal melodies.
The second and largest chapter of the dissertation concerns harmony which is mainly chromatic but tonal, an amalgamation of older styles and composers. Harmonic occurrences that pertain to the quality of the chords like modal inflections, specific harmonic progressions like the “tarnhelm” progression and the progression that includes the raised subdominant, double dominants, parallel harmony etc. are presented in specific examples, while the nature of their structure like in quartal harmony, in seventh etc. chords, in added-note chords and in pedal, doesn’t remain unexplored.
In the third chapter of formal archetypes some of the most basic syntax types of the total volume of Williams’s themes are pointed out, with sentence and period – both originating from classical prototypes – dominating. In the meantime some “new” types are mentioned like the sentence with a dissolving third statement, the trifold sentence or the developing sentence, all more modern versions of the classical sentence. A summarized statistical table is presented in the end of the chapter, that examines each type’s frequency in the themes under analysis, as well as some conclusions that are hidden under the numbers.
Thematic unity constitutes the subject of the fourth and final chapter. After the need for connective elements between the themes of a film is examined, the chapter moves on to 11 examples from films where the phenomenon is more or less evident. These connections consist of motivic similarities in the foreground or background, while the analyses are influenced in a large degree from Reti’s, The thematic process in music.
The epilogue, after formulating in its beginning the dissertation’s contribution to the academic world, namely the grouping and systematic presentation of the general stylistic traits of Williams as a film composer, summarizes and recaps its basic points.
Main subject category:
Fine arts - Entertainment
Keywords:
John Williams, film music, melody, harmony, form
Number of references:
646
