Bøger af James Wierzbicki

This book examines the American Sixties, and how that period¿s socio-political essence was reflected and refracted in certain forms of the period¿s music. Its five main chapters bear the names of familiar musical categories: ¿Folk,¿ ¿Rock,¿ ¿Jazz,¿ ¿Avant-Garde,¿ ¿Classical.¿ But the book¿s real subject matter¿treated at length in the Prologue and the Epilogue but spread throughout all that comes between¿is the Sixties¿ tangled mess of hopes and frustrations, of hungers as much for self-identity as for self-indulgence, of crises of conscience that bothered Americans of almost all ages and regardless of political persuasion.

A revealing portrait of a legend of American classical music

Forbidden Planet is a product of the MGM studio, which at the time of the production of this film was hardly in the business of making science-fiction films. Originally planned as a "e;B"e; picture, the 1956 Forbidden Planet was praised for its spectacular special effects and brilliant color cinematography. The plot practically tingles with sexual innuendo and the dialogue is rich in references to Freudian psychology. However, in spite of all this, the film was marketed to a juvenile audience.Notwithstanding its uncommon look and "e;feel,"e; perhaps the most unusual aspect of the film is the way it sounds. Never before had a major Hollywood effort utilized a score generated entirely by electronic means, yet seldom does one find commentary on how Louis and Bebe Barron's score again and again challenges Hollywood norms.In addition to placing the composers and film in historical context, James Wierzbicki's study offers a deep and thorough analysis of not only the music as used in the film, but also of the decontextualized music as presented by the Barrons on the 1977 "e;original soundtrack album."e; The text is generously illustrated with transcriptions and graphs, and can serve as a model for the examination of other extended works of electronic music for which no written score has ever existed.