Mervyn Cooke provides a comprehensive and lively introduction to the major trends in film scoring from the silent era to the present day, focussing not only on dominant Hollywood practices but also offering an international perspective by including case studies of the national cinemas of the UK, France, India, Italy, Japan and the early Soviet Union. The book balances wide-ranging overviews of film genres, modes of production and critical reception with detailed non-technical descriptions of the interaction between image track and soundtrack in representative individual films. In addition to the central focus on narrative cinema, separate sections are also devoted to music in documentary and animated films, film musicals and the uses of popular and classical music in the cinema. The author analyses the varying technological and aesthetic issues that have shaped the history of film music, and concludes with an account of the modern film composer’s working practices.

Contents
Preface; 1. The `silent` cinema; 2. Sound on track; 3. Hollywood`s Golden Age: narrative cinema and the classical film score; 4. Stage and screen; 5. The mainstream divides: postwar horizons in Hollywood; 6. `Never let it be mediocre`: film music in the United Kingdom; 7. Defectors to television: the documentary film; Animation; 8. Film music in France; 9. Global highlights: early sound films in the Soviet Union; India: Bollywood and beyond; From Italy to Little Italy; Japan; 10. Popular music in the cinema; 11. Classical music in the cinema; 12. State of the art: film music since the New Hollywood.

`Written in a clean, clear prose shot through with a lightly-worn, concisely-argued scholarship, this is a considerable achievement and an essential read for anyone interested in this vital and still developing genre.` (Classical Music Magazine)
`If you can only buy one film music book, make it this one … This is perhaps one of the most clear and cogently conceived overviews of music that one is likely to see … one is struck by the fine choices Cooke makes to illustrate his point, whether he is discussing a Virgil Thomson score, or why a Scott Bradley animated short score works best. … With no room for subsequent updates or supplements, this may very well be `the` film music book for some time to come. … this is a book that every lover of film music should have on their shelves. It is a book not so much to be read but to be savoured and enjoyed.` (Film Music Review)