Preexisting Music as a Disruptive Element in Historical Fiction Film
The study of film music has become a significant discipline within musicology and film studies. While preexisting music has gained considerable popularity in recent cinema practice, early cinema used preexisting music sparingly. As a result, academic study of film music has largely engaged the subject of the classical Hollywood score, or a musical work designed to complement a specific film.Throughout the twentieth century, filmmakers expanded the art form in new and creative ways; one such undertaking was to use alternate music selections that could contribute deeper sources of meaning. In the new millennium, preexisting music in film has become something of a new standard, and scholars have recently begun to address these features. Though preexisting music does not impart significant meaning in every case, it is worth considering when, how, and in what ways preexisting music can bring denotative and connotative material alongside it. Such an additive meaning may not only enhance narrative signification, as is the general practice of the classical Hollywood score, but in some cases, meaning can be altered via the expression of social, cultural, economic and/or political associations stemming from the music’s origins.Historical fiction film presents, but is not limited to, narratives hinged upon true historical events or actual persons from history, while in many cases theorizing specific interactions that are not historically documented. As fictionalized narratives, they offer insight into what could have been, or what history might not tell us. Like any cinematic genre, historical fiction film includes classical scoring techniques and/or preexisting music. Musicological research has provided clear ways to evaluate whether a historical film includes accurately contemporaneous music. Interestingly, this is usually not the case. Filmmakers have largely depended on nineteenth-century compositional conventions, even to accompany narrative from previous centuries. In special cases,musical sources can contribute to a given scene or situation by addressing contemporaneousness itself. As such, the historical fiction film provides its own unique area of inquiry.The intent of this dissertation is to provide close readings of three historical fiction films, Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002), Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006), and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012). Each of these films use a considerable number of preexisting musical sources from various eras and with diverse musical styles. By examining connotative and denotative values of the preexisting musical sources in each, I attempt to interpret the intertextual relationship between image, dialogue, narrative, and music.
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