Award Date
May 2017
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)
Department
Music
First Committee Member
Jonathan R. Lee
Second Committee Member
William Bernatis
Third Committee Member
Daniel Brown
Fourth Committee Member
Nathan Tanouye
Fifth Committee Member
David Loeb
Sixth Committee Member
Beth Mehocic
Number of Pages
115
Abstract
This document examines John Williams’s use of the tuba in his film scores. This unique timbral element has significant narrative implications in these movies. Film music scholarship is more often concerned with the questions of psychoanalysis, gendered readings, and other theoretical apparatuses than with how film composers score for individual instruments. My research aims to shift this focus by demonstrating that Williams used the tuba in his scores for more than typical “underscoring” or standard sectional playing, but as an integral part of the film narrative to be noticed and “read” by audiences. In both Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the role of the tuba is significant to the aural and musical framework of their storylines.
Keywords
Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Film; Film Music; Jaws; John Williams; Tuba
Disciplines
Film and Media Studies | Fine Arts | Music
File Format
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Repository Citation
Turner, Stephen Davis, "Of Sharks and Spaceships: The Role of the Tuba in John Williams's Film Scores for Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (2017). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 3053.
http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/10986219
Rights
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