Speech, Music, Sound [Paperback]

This book explores what speech, music and other sounds have in common. It gives a detailed description of the way perspective, rhythm, textual quality and other aspects of sound are used to communicate emotion and meaning. It draws on a wealth of examples from radio (disk jockey and newsreading speech, radio plays, advertising jingles, news signature tunes), film soundtracks (The Piano, The X-files, Disney animation films), music ranging from medieval plain chant to drum 'n' bass and everyday soundscapes.This book explores what speech, music and other sounds have in common. It gives a detailed description of the way perspective, rhythm, textual quality and other aspects of sound are used to communicate emotion and meaning. It draws on a wealth of examples from radio (disk jockey and newsreading speech, radio plays, advertising jingles, news signature tunes), film soundtracks (The Piano, The X-files, Disney animation films), music ranging from medieval plain chant to drum 'n' bass and everyday soundscapes.

Introduction.- Perspective.- Time.- Interacting Sounds.- Melody.- Voice Quality and Timbre.- Modality.- Afterword.- Index and Bibliography.

THEO VAN LEEUWEN is a filmmaker, jazz musician and semiotician. He is Chair in Language and Communication at Cardiff University. Previously, he worked at the London School of Printing and at Macquarie University, Australia. He is the co-author, with G. Kress, of Reading Images.Theoretical originality of approach
Wide range of examples used from radio, film, TV and classical as well as popular music
Practical approach (including exercises at the end of chapters and a glossary of key terms at the back of the book) makes this an idea teaching text for both vocational/practical media studies courses and for academic/theoretical ones