Identifying And Interpreting Incongruent Film Music (palgrave Studies In Audio-visual Culture)

This book explores the concept of incongruent film music, challenging the idea that this label only describes music that is inappropriate or misfitting for a film’s images and narrative. Defining incongruence as a lack of shared properties in the audiovisual relationship, this study examines various types of incongruence between a film and its music and considers the active role that it can play in the construction of a film’s meaning and influencing audience response. Synthesising findings from research in the psychology of music in multimedia, as well as from ideas sourced in semiotics, film music, and poststructuralist theory, this interdisciplinary book provides a holistic perspective that reflects the complexity of moments of film-music incongruence. With case studies including well-known films such as __Gladiator__ and __The Shawshank Redemption__, this book combines scene analysis and empirical audience reception tests to emphasise the subjectivity, context-dependency, and multi-dimensionality inherent in identifying and interpreting incongruent film music. Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Introduction (David Ireland)....Pages 1-25 Front Matter ....Pages 27-27 Interrogating (In)congruence: The Incongruent Perspective (David Ireland)....Pages 29-66 Identifying (In)congruence (David Ireland)....Pages 67-104 Front Matter ....Pages 105-105 Introduction to Part II (David Ireland)....Pages 107-112 Intradomain Incongruence in the Opening Battle Sequence from Gladiator (David Ireland)....Pages 113-139 Mozart, Harmonicas, and Aesthetic Incongruence in The Shawshank Redemption (David Ireland)....Pages 141-165 Jazz, Kazoos, and Conceptual Incongruence in The Informant! (David Ireland)....Pages 167-194 Duran Duran and Semantic Incongruence in L4yer Cake (David Ireland)....Pages 195-219 Conclusions (David Ireland)....Pages 221-235 Back Matter ....Pages 237-248