The representation of space in musical numbers

Abstract

My area of research is best described as the promotion of a new methodological approach to the study of film. It is an approach that is founded upon a spatial reading, based on an exploration into abstract aesthetics and pays particular attention to the interactions between sound and image. Whilst this methodological approach can be utilised to read any film, this thesis looks particularly at the musical genre and, more specifically, the musical number and its representation of space. The need to delimit my study notwithstanding, the musical has been taken as a case study in order to demonstrate how this spatial methodology should pay attention to, and be aware of, the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies that genres encapsulate. My thesis challenges the dominance of cognitive theory by providing an approach based upon gestalt theory, making use of ‘forensic’ analysis to remove aesthetics from their narrative context. Theorists such as Rick Altman (1989, 1999) and Jane Feuer (1993) have long discussed the structural qualities of the musical genre in an attempt to delimit the musical number from that which surrounds it. A different representation of space emerges in the musical number, one that permits a deeper exploration into the negotiated relationship between sound and image. In this thesis I examine this space closely utilising a range of innovative analytical techniques including virtual reconstruction and diagrammatic notation. This ‘forensic’ analysis is considered within the overarching framework of gestalt theory: that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. This thesis studies film as an audio-visual medium and considers a range of different spatial realms in order to best understand the complex negotiations between sound and image. Previous scholars of the musical genre have largely focused upon narrative readings of either new or canonical filmic texts. I argue that these narrative readings, whilst
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providing significant contributions to the field, are ultimately deficient as they fail to adequately explore the finer qualities of film language.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Michael Williams: orcid.org/0000-0001-5386-5567

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