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Skip to Main ContentThis guide was created in May 2020 for Dr. Andrew Harry’s online course, Music for Films. It’s designed to provide supplementary resources on film music and composers. Since it’s an online course (and as of May 2020 the library is closed because of COVID-19), the emphasis is on online resources, but I’ve included some physical items in the hope that this guide will be useful for students on campus when the library re-opens.
If you’re taking Dr. Harry’s course in summer 2020 and not finding the information you want, please e-mail arobinson@lagrange.edu or refdesk@lagrange.edu and specify what you need (e.g., “resources on the music for Gone with the Wind”). If I can’t find an online source, I may be able to scan and e-mail pages from our print books. You may want to look at the “Print books” box on this page. If a book looks useful, you can (usually) access the table of contents in the online catalog, then e-mail to indicate what you want (e.g., “the chapter on Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo music from Scoring the Screen”).
Use our online catalog to find books about film music. You can search in several ways:
The following are sample subject headings; you can click on the links to find books with that subject heading. To restrict your search to e-books, use the “Limit Search Results” option (on the left of the catalog record) to select “Electronic books” or “Electronic resources.”
Motion picture music -- History and criticism.
Motion picture music -- United States -- History and criticism.
Here are a few of the e-books you can access through our catalog; click on the title to access the book.
Biographical information:
Books on individual composers:
The Gale eBooks database includes the five-volume Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (2nd ed. 2011) which has entries on many films and some film composers, including Leonard Bernstein and Henry Mancini.
You can also search the full text of our e-books.
To search the full text of our ProQuest e-books:
To search the full text of our EBSCO e-books:
Print books on film music are on the upper level with call numbers beginning ML 2075.
If you’re taking this course online, you can use the online catalog to view the table of contents (for most of these books). If a chapter looks useful, e-mail refedsk@lagrange.edu and ask for a scan of the chapter you want, or the pages on a specific film or composer (we can’t scan the entire book). Use your LaGrange College e-mail account; this service is available only to currently enrolled students.
Reference books:
We don’t have feature films online, but you may want to check our Films on Demand database for streaming documentaries, such as:
Series “Cinema Sound: Music” (2017)
If you’re able to come to Lewis Library (and we’re open), you can check out DVDs of many films. Use our online catalog to see if we have a film, or browse the DVDs of feature films on the main level (they're more or less in alphabetical order). You can do a title search for the film, or an “All Fields” search for a composer; this may display some (though not necessarily all) films we have with his or her music. You can either look for items with call numbers beginning DVD or, if you get too many results, select the “Video disc” option under “Format” at the left.
Our Naxos Music Library database allows you to stream music for many recordings. You can browse by composer or do a keyword search (“john williams and star wars”).
To look for CDs, browse the CD M 1527 area on our upper level (we have about 70 CDs of film music), or use our online catalog. Do an “Author” search for the composer and limit the results to “Audio disc.” We have CDs of several film scores, for example:
You can use GALILEO to search for articles, or “Search Databases A-Z” for specific databases. For newspaper articles since the 1980s (if you want to find film reviews, or interviews with composers), try the News & Newspapers database. If you need assistance, e-mail refdesk@lagrange.edu ; be specific about what you want (e.g., “articles about John Williams’s score for Jaws”).
Normally you can order articles that aren’t available in full text on interlibrary loan. This may or may not be possible in summer 2020 because of COVID-19; e-mail the reference librarian at refdesk@lagrange.edu (paste the citation into an e-mail) to inquire.
Lewis Library has Film Score Monthly from 2001 to 2005 in print; if you’re taking the online course in summer 020, the reference librarian can scan individual articles for you. You can do an “Advanced Search” in GALILEO for journal title Film Score (it changed its name to Film Score Magazine in 2005; you can also search for ISSN 10774289) plus other search terms (“john williams,” “lord of the rings”) and limit the “Published date” from 2001 to 2005. If you find good articles or reviews, paste the complete citation into an e-mail and send it to arobinson@lagrange.edu .