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Indiana Theory Review (1998) - The Musical Function of Sound in Three Films by Alfred Hitchcock

Details

  • article: The Musical Function of Sound in Three Films by Alfred Hitchcock
  • author(s): Helen Cox
  • journal: Indiana Theory Review (1998)
  • issue: volume 19, issue 1-2, pages 13-33
  • journal ISSN: 0271-8022
  • publisher: School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington
  • keywords: Cinema, Drama, Film Directors, Film Music, Filmmakers, Films, Music and Other Literary/Performing/Visual Arts, Sound, Soundtracks, Alfred Hitchcock, Lifeboat (1944), Rear Window (1954), Rope (1948)

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Abstract

Analyzes film director Alfred Hitchcock's use of music in his films "Lifeboat" (1944), "Rope" (1948) and "Rear Window" (1954). Comments that not only did Hitchcock impose spatial limits of one or more dimensions on each of the films, he also imposed limits in the use of music. Notes that in each film, nondiegetic music (background music) is used only in the main-title and end-credit sequences, and diegetic (source) music is used to create suspense out of a heightened sense of both reality and time. Explains that Hitchcock deployed music from realistic sources; Notes that "Rear Window," the diegetic soundtrack includes a popular song gradually "composed" by the main character's neighbors. Attributes the intensity of these films, in part, to their very different soundtracks, each of which creates an atmosphere distinct to that particular film and forms an integral part of the suspense and claustrophobia characteristic of drama and image.