Saying It With Songs

Katherine Spring is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario. Her articles on film music have appeared in Cinema Journal, Film History, and Music and the Moving Image. The recipient of a development grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, she is presently undertaking a study of film music in contemporary Hong Kong and Hollywood cinemas.

• Acknowledgments ; Introduction ; Chapter 1. Singing a Song: The Culture and Conventions of Popular Music in the 1920s ; Chapter 2. Owning a Song: The Restructuring of Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley ; Chapter 3. Plugging a Song: The Discrete Charm of the Popular Song, From Broadway to Hollywood ; Chapter 4. Integrating a Song: The Threat to Narrative Plausibility ; Chapter 5. Curtailing a Song: Toward the Classical Background Score ; Conclusion: The Fate of the Motion Picture Song ; Appendix 1: Confirmatory License Issued by Music Publishers Protective Association (1929) ; Appendix 2: "Tieups of Film and Music" as Reported by Variety ; Appendix 3: Timeline of Relationships Between Film and Music Companies ; Appendix 4: Agreement between Al Dubin, The Vitaphone Corp., and Music Publishers Holding Corporation ; Appendix 5: Summary of Agreement between Vitaphone Corporation, M. Witmark & Sons, and Ray Perkins ; Bibliography ; Credits ; Index

Springs emphasis on songs during the conversion periodmatters not just because it helps us better grasp corporate relationships and cinematic storytelling, but also because it complicates the generally accepted reading of classical Hollywoods romantic score. Indeed, Spring claims that conversion-era film offers early examples of both the popular song score and orchestral score thatwould become typicalmuch later. Her careful retelling of this periods history is therefore important for anyone who wants to understand Hollywood film music in any era.