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Shankar_Symphonies of Horror (1).pdf (1.99 MB)

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Symphonies of Horror: Musical Experimentation in Howard Shore's Work with David Cronenberg

Shankar, Vikram A
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4932-7763
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1493750469131887

Abstract Details

2017, BA, Oberlin College, Music.
With a career spanning almost forty years, Canadian composer Howard Shore has become one of the most respected and sought after film composers working in the industry today. Much of his work, in particular his scores for the Lord of the Rings films, have received much academic attention; his longstanding working relationship with Canadian horror filmmaker David Cronenberg, however, has not yet benefited from such academic inquiry. Using the films The Brood, Videodrome, The Fly, and Naked Lunch as case studies, this thesis examines the way that Shore uses the arena of Cronenberg’s films as a laboratory for personal musical experimentation. Examples include Shore’s use of electronic synthesizer sounds alongside a string orchestra for Videodrome, implementations of against-the-grain writing for The Fly, and the incorporation of free-jazz aesthetics in Naked Lunch. Using as sources Howard Shore’s words and what academic inquiry exists in this field, but more often utilizing my own analysis and observations of the music and films, I argue that Shore’s scores incorporate such musical experimentation to work in tandem with Cronenberg’s own experimental art. As such, Shore’s scores for Cronenberg’s films are a prime illustration of the practical value of experimental composition, showing that there is room for experimental composition in music outside of the realm of academia and indeed that such music can have commercial potential.
Stephen Hartke (Advisor)
Charles Edward McGuire (Committee Chair)
Rebecca Fülöp (Committee Member)
Jesse Jones (Committee Member)
87 p.
Film Studies; Music
david cronenberg; howard shore; the brood; naked lunch; the fly; videodrome; film composition; film scoring; experimentation; experimental composition; film studies; film music studies; musicology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Shankar, V. A. (2017). Symphonies of Horror: Musical Experimentation in Howard Shore's Work with David Cronenberg [Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1493750469131887

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Shankar, Vikram. Symphonies of Horror: Musical Experimentation in Howard Shore's Work with David Cronenberg. 2017. Oberlin College, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1493750469131887.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Shankar, Vikram. "Symphonies of Horror: Musical Experimentation in Howard Shore's Work with David Cronenberg." Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1493750469131887

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

oberlin1493750469131887
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© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Oberlin College Honors Theses and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12