The Not-so-fantastical Gap Between Music Studies and Film Studies

Abstract

The way is surveyed in which film music has been traditionally and typically approached by Music Studies, on the one hand, and Film Studies, on the other, highlighting the limitations that can be detected in each field—besides a disciplinary bias in which music is seen more as a music text (a score) rather than an element of the film, there is a ‘separatist conception’ in which music and film are seen as separate entities instead of two interacting elements of the same filmic system. Moreover, the preference for a communications model makes interpretation of meaning more important than the analysis of agency.