Famous for his painstaking attention to detail and for the craftsmanship and artistry he brought to his work, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick is by now long established as both the subject of an entire sub-field of scholarly inquiry, and as the object of all levels of cinema studies pedagogy. His oeuvre, developed over nearly 50 years, traverses an immensely broad variety of film genres and subjects and has long been studied and understood in terms of its narrative, thematic, and striking visual elements. However, unique and often startling encounters between music and the moving image are central trademarks of Kubrick''s style; witness the powerful effects of Strauss''s "Also Sprach Zarathustra" in 2001: A Space Odyssey and of Beethoven''s 9th Symphony in A Clockwork Orange, each excerpt hand-picked by Kubrick himself.We''ll Meet Again argues that some of the most compelling and understudied aspects of Stanley Kubrick''s films are musically conceived. Author Kate McQuiston illustrates that, for Kubrick, music is neither post-production afterthought nor background nor incidental, but rather core to films'' themes and meanings. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which identifies the building blocks in Kubrick''s sonic world and illuminates the ways in which Kubrick uses them to substantiate his characters and to define character relationships. The second section delves into the effects of Kubrick''s signature musical techniques, including the use of texture, recurrence, and inscription to render and reinforce psychological ideas and particular spectator responses. The third and final section presents case studies in which the history of the music Kubrick chooses plays a vital and dynamic role. Throughout the author''s arguments, the book locates Kubrick as a force in music reception history by examining the relationship between his musical choices and popular culture.
Industry Reviews
"Kate McQuiston 's We'll Meet Again: Musical Design in the Films of Stanley Kubrick stands as a conversation, informative yet melodic, stimulating and poetic. McQuiston engages with Kubrick's work on multiple levels, including those of technical production, artistic conviction, and aesthetic experience, honoring each film as an intricate piece of art and resisting mundane deconstruction...McQuiston accomplishes deeply exploratory insights into one of
cinema's most complex and stunning bodies of work, forges new and important pathways in connecting musical design technically and artistically in cinema, and develops a useful syntax for discussing the potent
interaction of the two." --Caitlin Zera, "Take Two", Film Matters
"Her model for thorough breakdowns of scene and soundscape can very easily be viewed as a precedent by which the musical design of any film is just as ripe for such intensive discourse. While the world might always be in shortage of auteurs as effectively meticulous as Kubrick, it should never mean that musical direction, be it a famous song or utter silence, should be left without just as much examination and analysis as the filmed image." --Matt Herzog, "Take
Two", Film Matters
"For years people have been discussing these films' ever-fascinating layers of narrative and imagery. Now McQuiston, fresh from time spent at the recently-opened Kubrick archives in London, joins the conversation with brilliant commentary on the films' sound and music. Kubrick fans will love this book." - James Wierzbicki, author of "IFilm Music: A History"R
"No director was more attentive to music than Stanley Kubrick. And now, here is a thoroughly researched, gracefully written book that does justice to what Kubrick achieved with his music. McQuiston has made an essential contribution to the literature on music and cinema." -- Krin Gabbard, author of Hotter Than That: The Trumpet, Jazz, and American Culture
"This book tackles the musical aesthetic and practice of one of the most influential filmmakers in the post-classical period. The level of archival detail it engages in is impressive and stands to revise not just our understanding of Kubrick's films but the definition of auteurism and soundtrack compilation practice since the 1960s." - Julie Hubbert, Associate Professor of Music, University of South Carolina
"We'll Meet Again is aimed at the serious admirer of Kubrick's films but delivered in a style that will be accessible to the undergraduate."--Journal of the Society for American Music
