Just published and completly open access – thanks to FWF funding – the edited collection When Music Takes Over in Film.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-89155-8

“This book is a significant addition to the literature of song in film. The scholars in this collection dig deep into musical moments when affect overwhelms the image, revealing new insights into what happens when music is unconstrained by narrative, emotionally unleashed, and powerfully disruptive. Attuned to the ontological, ideological, affective, and political dimensions of such moments, the scholars in this collection bring fresh theoretical perspectives, as well as an international scope and interdisciplinary focus. The introduction crystallizes the core issues involved in the performance of song in film with clarity and vision. Taken collectively, the scholars here offer a thought-provoking revision, a brilliant read on what we thought we knew.” —   Kathryn Kalinak, Professor, Rhode Island College, USA

“The editors of this inspiring collection speak of the musical moments that are its focus as offering ‘a kaleidoscope of intensities’, and the phrase could equally apply to the collection itself. Taking off from the very special and cherishable feelings evoked when music and song themselves take off from spoken and acted narrative in film, the collection is wonderfully rich in its range, reaching back to silent and early sound film and on to the most recent works. It is globally generous and revealing, equally at home with classic as with contemporary theory, and astonishing in its revelation of the joyous and disturbing things musical moments can do.”

— Richard Dyer, Professor, King’s College London, UK


“This is an eclectic and wide-ranging collection that offers an interesting addition to the field of study.  The disciplinary focus is broad, with writers drawing on post-structuralist theory as well as more historicist frameworks for their thinking, and there are some highly original analyses of hitherto marginalised film texts. I particularly like the way Phil Powrie’s useful model of the ‘crystal song’ is developed across the contributing essays alongside the idea of the ‘musical moment’, since both concepts express the way music can pull together, hold in tension, and intensify a film’s meaning and affective power.  The essays here will appeal to film scholars and music specialists alike.”

— Estella Tincknell, Associate Professor, UWE Bristol, UK

The book includes chapters by Amy Herzog, Phil Powrie, Dominique Nasta, Laraine Porter, Rajinder Dudrah, Junko Yamazaki, Yifen Beus, Jaqueline Avila, Katja Hettich and Rhiannon Harris.

With a forword by Claudia Gorbman