Slvains oJ Ulopia Oendev, NoslaIgia, and HoIIvood FiIn Music I CavI FIinn

Beviev I Nanc Bevnan

Noles, Second Sevies, VoI. 50, No. 4 |Jun., 1994), pp. 1420-1422
FuIIisIed I Music LiIvav Associalion
SlaIIe UBL http://www.jstor.org/stable/898328 .
Accessed 31/01/2014 1236
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
Music Library Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Notes.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 128.205.57.218 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 12:36:01 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
NOTES,
June
1994
NOTES,
June
1994
such speculation)
that Norma's music does
not contain" (p. 170). Well, of course, a
man certainly may
not risk such a specu-
lation, and neither may
a woman these
days. Littlejohn
goes
on to cite Maria
Callas as the embodiment of the
"supreme
and independent
difference of
gender."
Strange
attributions for a critic who
spends
paragraphs
of his introduction denying
commonality
of affect. Unfortunately,
Lit-
tlejohn
has missed entirely
Clement's point
that Norma and other operas
with such
characters inscribe the
"dangerous
woman"
as an icon, and then annihilate her. Clem-
ent does not seek
representation
of "sis-
terhood" or "defiant
independence
of
men" in either Norma the character nor in
Norma the work, but in her own subversive
response
to the
composer's
and librettist's
creation, their "imitation dead women"
(Clement, 177).
Littlejohn
treads a delicate line between
curiosity shop
and the
truly
informative.
His obvious and
deep
love of
opera
in the
end makes up
for most of the book's short-
comings.
Don't miss the
preface
and the
suggestions
for further reading:
in these,
he
explains
the
genesis
of the
essays
and
apologizes
for the lack of
consistency
in
footnotes (since the
essays
were
originally
written as liner notes for a
program,
foot-
notes were not needed, and it was
impos-
sible to recreate some of the sources). His
offer to the reader to contact him for fur-
ther information is
generous,
but
probably
won't be of much use to the scholar. In
any
case, this book is not
geared
to the scholar,
but to a sort of
generalized operagoer:
someone who is familiar with the
repertory,
not too adventuresome in taste, but neither
ignorant
nor fixated on ten or twelve stan-
dards. Someone such as
Littlejohn
himself.
A more
thoughtful harmony
between
pic-
tures and prose,
and color
photographs
instead of black-and-white, would have
greatly
enhanced the volume.
RENEE COLWELL
Hunter
College, City University of
New York
Strains of
Utopia: Gender, Nostalgia,
and
Hollywood
Film Music.
By Caryl
Flinn. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1992. [195 p.
ISBN 0-691-
04801-0. $39.50.]
such speculation)
that Norma's music does
not contain" (p. 170). Well, of course, a
man certainly may
not risk such a specu-
lation, and neither may
a woman these
days. Littlejohn
goes
on to cite Maria
Callas as the embodiment of the
"supreme
and independent
difference of
gender."
Strange
attributions for a critic who
spends
paragraphs
of his introduction denying
commonality
of affect. Unfortunately,
Lit-
tlejohn
has missed entirely
Clement's point
that Norma and other operas
with such
characters inscribe the
"dangerous
woman"
as an icon, and then annihilate her. Clem-
ent does not seek
representation
of "sis-
terhood" or "defiant
independence
of
men" in either Norma the character nor in
Norma the work, but in her own subversive
response
to the
composer's
and librettist's
creation, their "imitation dead women"
(Clement, 177).
Littlejohn
treads a delicate line between
curiosity shop
and the
truly
informative.
His obvious and
deep
love of
opera
in the
end makes up
for most of the book's short-
comings.
Don't miss the
preface
and the
suggestions
for further reading:
in these,
he
explains
the
genesis
of the
essays
and
apologizes
for the lack of
consistency
in
footnotes (since the
essays
were
originally
written as liner notes for a
program,
foot-
notes were not needed, and it was
impos-
sible to recreate some of the sources). His
offer to the reader to contact him for fur-
ther information is
generous,
but
probably
won't be of much use to the scholar. In
any
case, this book is not
geared
to the scholar,
but to a sort of
generalized operagoer:
someone who is familiar with the
repertory,
not too adventuresome in taste, but neither
ignorant
nor fixated on ten or twelve stan-
dards. Someone such as
Littlejohn
himself.
A more
thoughtful harmony
between
pic-
tures and prose,
and color
photographs
instead of black-and-white, would have
greatly
enhanced the volume.
RENEE COLWELL
Hunter
College, City University of
New York
Strains of
Utopia: Gender, Nostalgia,
and
Hollywood
Film Music.
By Caryl
Flinn. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1992. [195 p.
ISBN 0-691-
04801-0. $39.50.]
The romantic ideals and aesthetic
prev-
alent in film music of the classical Holly-
wood era (1930s and 1940s), as well as in
the critical discourse surrounding it, con-
tributed to a sense of
utopian plenitude
for
the viewer-auditor. In Strains
of Utopia:
Gender, Nostalgia,
and Hollywood
Film Music,
Caryl
Flinn situates this utopian
ideal and
the romantic aesthetic used to create it
within the actual conditions of studio work
and production procedures,
and within the
conditions of
reception
and subjectivity
in-
herent in the
process
of
upholding
such an
ideal. In so
doing,
she
critiques
the nos-
talgic, utopian
tendencies of the music and
its critical discourse, while exposing
the
dystopic pressures
inherent in the
support-
ing ideological systems
and
processes
of
production
and consumption.
Thus the
word "strains" in the title can be under-
stood to refer not
only
to the strains of
music and the accompanying
strain of dis-
course used to create utopian ideals, but
also to the inherent strain (in the sense of
force or
pressure)
that threatens the co-
hesion and stability
strived for in
creating
such ideals.
Flinn presents
two of her most compel-
ling
ideas in the introduction.
Using
Jean-
Louis Comolli's concept
of the "ideology
of
the visual" she
exposes
the
epistemological
privileges
accorded to
sight
at the
expense
of
hearing (pp. 6-7). In film, as in Western
culture, sound functions as
sight's "other";
the visual is associated with knowledge
and rationality ("I see"
=
"I understand"),
while sound is associated with the irrational
and emotional ("I hear you"
=
"I
empa-
thize"). In film, music can serve to under-
mine the semiotic
processes
of the narrative
provided by image,
thus
acting
as the "ruin
of
representation" (p. 7). This
brings
us to
the second important point,
which is the
potential
of music to
rupture
or otherwise
disturb the narrative of the
image-track.
This
concept provides
an important
basis
for Flinn's examination of music as social
surfeit or excess, which she
develops
in her
discussion of
Julia
Kristeva and Roland
Barthes in
chapter 2 and Ernst Bloch in
chapter 4; and in
chapter
5 she
incorpo-
rates this idea into her
analyses
of classical
genres.
Chapter
1 serves not
only
to outline the
history
of the use of music in film and
the concurrent history
of music's
place
in
The romantic ideals and aesthetic
prev-
alent in film music of the classical Holly-
wood era (1930s and 1940s), as well as in
the critical discourse surrounding it, con-
tributed to a sense of
utopian plenitude
for
the viewer-auditor. In Strains
of Utopia:
Gender, Nostalgia,
and Hollywood
Film Music,
Caryl
Flinn situates this utopian
ideal and
the romantic aesthetic used to create it
within the actual conditions of studio work
and production procedures,
and within the
conditions of
reception
and subjectivity
in-
herent in the
process
of
upholding
such an
ideal. In so
doing,
she
critiques
the nos-
talgic, utopian
tendencies of the music and
its critical discourse, while exposing
the
dystopic pressures
inherent in the
support-
ing ideological systems
and
processes
of
production
and consumption.
Thus the
word "strains" in the title can be under-
stood to refer not
only
to the strains of
music and the accompanying
strain of dis-
course used to create utopian ideals, but
also to the inherent strain (in the sense of
force or
pressure)
that threatens the co-
hesion and stability
strived for in
creating
such ideals.
Flinn presents
two of her most compel-
ling
ideas in the introduction.
Using
Jean-
Louis Comolli's concept
of the "ideology
of
the visual" she
exposes
the
epistemological
privileges
accorded to
sight
at the
expense
of
hearing (pp. 6-7). In film, as in Western
culture, sound functions as
sight's "other";
the visual is associated with knowledge
and rationality ("I see"
=
"I understand"),
while sound is associated with the irrational
and emotional ("I hear you"
=
"I
empa-
thize"). In film, music can serve to under-
mine the semiotic
processes
of the narrative
provided by image,
thus
acting
as the "ruin
of
representation" (p. 7). This
brings
us to
the second important point,
which is the
potential
of music to
rupture
or otherwise
disturb the narrative of the
image-track.
This
concept provides
an important
basis
for Flinn's examination of music as social
surfeit or excess, which she
develops
in her
discussion of
Julia
Kristeva and Roland
Barthes in
chapter 2 and Ernst Bloch in
chapter 4; and in
chapter
5 she
incorpo-
rates this idea into her
analyses
of classical
genres.
Chapter
1 serves not
only
to outline the
history
of the use of music in film and
the concurrent history
of music's
place
in
1420 1420
This content downloaded from 128.205.57.218 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 12:36:01 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Book Reviews
the critical discourse on film; it also
pre-
sents readers with one of the essential
par-
adoxes of classical film music and its con-
temporary
critical discourse: while music
was considered subservient to the narrative
presented by
the
image-track,
it was also
acknowledged
to
provide
a sense of con-
tinuity, uniformity,
and
(ironically)
realism
that the film
image ontologically lacked;
music restored a sense of the human which
had been obliterated in the
technological
processes
of film
production. Thus the film
score carried
meaning only inasmuch as it
compensated
for lacunae within the text,
the
filming apparatus,
or the moment of
consumption. According
to Flinn, this com-
pensatory function
"suggests
that what ul-
timately preoccupies
the classical tradition
is not so much the
representational
defi-
ciencies of film music but the deficiencies
and
inadequacies
of human
subjectivity
and the cinema more
generally" (p. 40).
The
enlarged subjectivity perceived
in the
late romantic
style
of music used in classical
film held
great importance for all
aspects
of film
production
and
consumption.
This first
chapter highlights both the
strong points
and the more
problematic as-
pects
of Flinn's
project.
The
comparison
of
the romantic aesthetic used in classical film
music with the
contemporary critical dis-
course is at times rather
confusing,
al-
though
in the end it is the interface be-
tween the two which reveals the most
interesting relationships.
For instance,
Flinn asserts that the sense of
completion
and
synthesis
evoked
by
the interaction of
music with other cinematic elements is "an
effect
produced by
a vast
array
of
support-
ing discourses and
technologies" (p. 48).
While she devotes a fair amount of
space
to
exploring
the
technological construction
of
completion
and
synthesis, she does not
adequately explain
what role the critical
discourse
plays
to that end for the
average
moviegoer: surely
film
theory books were
not sold at the counter
along
with the
pop-
corn; presumably
the less viewers-auditors
knew about how the illusions were con-
structed, the more
convincing
the construc-
tion would be.
Flinn's views on the
importance of
gen-
der issues in film music
crystallize in
chap-
ter 2, when she examines, from the
point
of view of
psychoanalysis, Barthes's and
Kristeva's discussions of music; other
gen-
der and music issues, however, seem to
jump
off the
page
but
go seemingly
un-
noticed
by
Flinn. The
chapter
on Barthes
and Kristeva is essential in
establishing
the
aspect
of
anteriority granted music
by
psychoanalytic
and
contemporary
critical
theory,
which understand music as
being
related to the lost maternal
object,
to an
irretrievable sense of
plenitude linked to
the sounds and the sense of
unity expe-
rienced
by
an infant
during
the
pre-
Oedipal, preverbal stage
of
development.
Thus
anteriority
becomes feminized, and
the desire for the lost maternal
object
is
partially fulfilled in the
plenitude and
unity
of music; but because the coherence of mu-
sic is constructed, a sense of loss still
pre-
vails. Flinn's
exploration of Kristeva raises
important issues with
regard
to the
poten-
tial for feminine
subjectivity
in narrative,
issues which are taken
up by
Flinn in her
analysis of the maternal melodrama
Penny
Serenade
(pp. 137-50).
However, Flinn could have
pursued
more
explicitly the common association-
particularly
marked in the romantic aes-
thetic and ideals of the classical film-of
both women and music with
passivity,
in-
completion, non-self-sufficiency, irrational-
ity, the subconscious, and subservience to
and
contingency upon the
typically male,
privileged position of narrative and dis-
course.
Perhaps, understandably, Flinn has
no desire to reinscribe these associations.
Still, the
subject merits further
exploration
in the context of film
production, con-
sumption, and critical discourse.
By far the weakest element of Flinn's
book is her
poor understanding
of and
consequent generalizations
concerning
the technical
aspects
of music. While she
does
explain in the introduction that she
does not have musical
training,
this does
not
prevent her from
making statements
which, although perhaps easily accessible to
the
general reader, persistently detract
from her
arguments. Furthermore, her
technically limited
grasp
of music weakens
her discussion of Theodor Adorno in
chap-
ter 3.
Although she does
try to account
for Adorno's
ambiguous feelings of loss
and
nostalgia and
consequent desire for
unity
in music, she does not
fully elucidate
Adorno's
concept
of
unity as a dialectic
reconciliation of
opposites, and
thereby
misses a crucial dimension of his
thought
1421
This content downloaded from 128.205.57.218 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 12:36:01 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
NOTES,
June
1994
NOTES,
June
1994
-a dimension that she could have devel-
oped
in her own analyses. Still, despite
problems
of technical terminology
and pre-
cision, Flinn is one of the few scholars to
attempt
to discuss some of the most in-
teresting
and important
issues underlying
the roles of music in film.
Given her limited ability
to discuss music
qua music, it is
appropriate
that in her de-
tailed analyses
of film noir and the ma-
ternal melodrama, Flinn focuses on films in
which music functions both diegetically
(that is, as part
of the narrative, for in-
stance, when a character actually plays
an
instrument or a record), and nondiegeti-
cally (that is, music composed
to "accom-
pany"
the
image-track). Just
as the inter-
-a dimension that she could have devel-
oped
in her own analyses. Still, despite
problems
of technical terminology
and pre-
cision, Flinn is one of the few scholars to
attempt
to discuss some of the most in-
teresting
and important
issues underlying
the roles of music in film.
Given her limited ability
to discuss music
qua music, it is
appropriate
that in her de-
tailed analyses
of film noir and the ma-
ternal melodrama, Flinn focuses on films in
which music functions both diegetically
(that is, as part
of the narrative, for in-
stance, when a character actually plays
an
instrument or a record), and nondiegeti-
cally (that is, music composed
to "accom-
pany"
the
image-track). Just
as the inter-
face between music and criticism sheds new
light
on the production
of meaning,
so too
the interface between diegetic
and nondi-
egetic
music in both these films exposes
various levels of meaning
and narrative
functions fulfilled by
the music.
The most successful aspect
of her anal-
yses,
and of the book in
general,
is Flinn's
ability
to show how both music and critical
discourse can serve potentially dystopic
functions, straining
the idealized notions of
utopia
that dominated the classical film,
and exposing
them for what she claims they
were: nostalgic
constructions of false unity.
NANCY BERMAN
McGill University
face between music and criticism sheds new
light
on the production
of meaning,
so too
the interface between diegetic
and nondi-
egetic
music in both these films exposes
various levels of meaning
and narrative
functions fulfilled by
the music.
The most successful aspect
of her anal-
yses,
and of the book in
general,
is Flinn's
ability
to show how both music and critical
discourse can serve potentially dystopic
functions, straining
the idealized notions of
utopia
that dominated the classical film,
and exposing
them for what she claims they
were: nostalgic
constructions of false unity.
NANCY BERMAN
McGill University
THEORY,
ANALYSIS
THEORY,
ANALYSIS
The Harmony
of the
Spheres:
A
Sourcebook of the Pythagorean
Tra-
dition in Music. Edited
by Joscelyn
Godwin. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Tradi-
tions International, 1993. [xiii,
495
p.
ISBN 0-89281-265-6. $29.95.]
Mathematical Models of Musical
Scales: A New
Approach. By
Mark
Lindley
and Ronald Turner-Smith.
(Orpheus-Schriftenreihe
zu Grund-
fragen
der Musik, 66.) Bonn:
Verlag
fur
systematische
Musikwissenschaft,
1993. [308 p.
ISBN 3-922626-66-1.
DM72.00.]
Joscelyn
Godwin's Sourcebook of
the
Pythagorean
Tradition is an anthology
of
fifty-two excerpts
from Greek, Latin, Ara-
bic, Hebrew, Italian, French, German, and
English treatises, from the 5th century
B.C.E. to the nineteenth century C.E., con-
taining
music-theoretic interpretations
of
the structure of the universe, the move-
ments of the planets,
and the
geometry
of
the zodiac. Most of the excerpts
are elab-
orations of Timaeus's description,
in Plato's
famous dialogue,
of the demiurge's
musical
plan
for the cosmos.
The treatises excerpted range
from
the inevitable (Plato, Ptolemy, Boethius,
Marsilio Ficino, Henricus Glareanus, Rob-
ert Fludd, Johannes Kepler,
Athanasius
Kircher) through
the
unexpected (St.
Atha-
The Harmony
of the
Spheres:
A
Sourcebook of the Pythagorean
Tra-
dition in Music. Edited
by Joscelyn
Godwin. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Tradi-
tions International, 1993. [xiii,
495
p.
ISBN 0-89281-265-6. $29.95.]
Mathematical Models of Musical
Scales: A New
Approach. By
Mark
Lindley
and Ronald Turner-Smith.
(Orpheus-Schriftenreihe
zu Grund-
fragen
der Musik, 66.) Bonn:
Verlag
fur
systematische
Musikwissenschaft,
1993. [308 p.
ISBN 3-922626-66-1.
DM72.00.]
Joscelyn
Godwin's Sourcebook of
the
Pythagorean
Tradition is an anthology
of
fifty-two excerpts
from Greek, Latin, Ara-
bic, Hebrew, Italian, French, German, and
English treatises, from the 5th century
B.C.E. to the nineteenth century C.E., con-
taining
music-theoretic interpretations
of
the structure of the universe, the move-
ments of the planets,
and the
geometry
of
the zodiac. Most of the excerpts
are elab-
orations of Timaeus's description,
in Plato's
famous dialogue,
of the demiurge's
musical
plan
for the cosmos.
The treatises excerpted range
from
the inevitable (Plato, Ptolemy, Boethius,
Marsilio Ficino, Henricus Glareanus, Rob-
ert Fludd, Johannes Kepler,
Athanasius
Kircher) through
the
unexpected (St.
Atha-
nasius, Gioseffo Zarlino, Isaac Newton,
Jean-Philippe
Rameau, Giuseppe Tartini,
Arthur Schopenhauer)
to the obscure (Cal-
cidius, Isaac ben Haim, Alphonse
Tous-
senel, Peter Singer).
Their quality ranges
from Proclus's
provocative commentary
on
Timaeus's plan
to Censorinus's supersti-
tious
speculation
on birthdays.
Taken to-
gether, they
make the case for close study
of a tradition whose polythetic
richness is
compensation
for its monothetic improb-
ability.
The greater
number of the translations
are the editor's (four, however, apparently
made from French and German versions of
the Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew originals).
Godwin's consistent style
is evidence of his
knowledge of, and conviction about, the
tradition. As for the other translations, the
decision to use Thomas Taylor's
of Plato
and Proclus (and
not to use Charles Wallis's
of
Kepler)
is evidence of his
good
taste.
Godwin's modest notes are intended to
get nonspecialist
readers over the
rough
spots;
for a more systematic
account of the
tradition, see his monograph
Harmonies
of
Heaven and Earth (Rochester,
Vt.: Inner
Traditions International, 1987). His
fre-
quent
references here to that work and to
another anthology (Godwin's Music, Mysti-
cism and
Magic:
A Sourcebook [London:
Routledge
&
Kegan Paul, 1986]), together
with the fact that these excerpts
suffer
from lack of context, point up
the non-
divisibility
of esoteric traditions into
parts
assimilable by
conventional disciplines.
nasius, Gioseffo Zarlino, Isaac Newton,
Jean-Philippe
Rameau, Giuseppe Tartini,
Arthur Schopenhauer)
to the obscure (Cal-
cidius, Isaac ben Haim, Alphonse
Tous-
senel, Peter Singer).
Their quality ranges
from Proclus's
provocative commentary
on
Timaeus's plan
to Censorinus's supersti-
tious
speculation
on birthdays.
Taken to-
gether, they
make the case for close study
of a tradition whose polythetic
richness is
compensation
for its monothetic improb-
ability.
The greater
number of the translations
are the editor's (four, however, apparently
made from French and German versions of
the Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew originals).
Godwin's consistent style
is evidence of his
knowledge of, and conviction about, the
tradition. As for the other translations, the
decision to use Thomas Taylor's
of Plato
and Proclus (and
not to use Charles Wallis's
of
Kepler)
is evidence of his
good
taste.
Godwin's modest notes are intended to
get nonspecialist
readers over the
rough
spots;
for a more systematic
account of the
tradition, see his monograph
Harmonies
of
Heaven and Earth (Rochester,
Vt.: Inner
Traditions International, 1987). His
fre-
quent
references here to that work and to
another anthology (Godwin's Music, Mysti-
cism and
Magic:
A Sourcebook [London:
Routledge
&
Kegan Paul, 1986]), together
with the fact that these excerpts
suffer
from lack of context, point up
the non-
divisibility
of esoteric traditions into
parts
assimilable by
conventional disciplines.
1422 1422
This content downloaded from 128.205.57.218 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 12:36:01 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions