Dr. Lee's Music Academy
Announcing a new six-week series of illustrated talks:
Music in Film
Hosted at the iconic Valvona & Crolla
on Elm Row in their Little Theatre, the series kicks off on
Wednesday, 6th May at 4:00 PM. Over six weeks Dick Lee,
whose career spans five decades in jazz, folk, and classical music,
will dissect how composers use sound to manipulate our emotions, from
the chilling strings of Hitchcock’s Psycho to the epic western
soundscapes of Ennio Morricone.
The series is designed
for everyone from casual moviegoers to dedicated musicians. Attendees
will explore the evolution of the craft, including the transition
from silent film accompaniment to the lush orchestral scores of the
Golden Age and the experimental textures of modern cinema, with the
help of plenty of video and audio examples on the Laser Display
Screen and some played live by Dick on clarinet/sax/recorder.
Film
music is often the invisible actor in a movie. It tells you what to
feel before a word is even spoken. In these talks, we’re going to
listen to these masterpieces with fresh ears.
Event
Details:
• What: Music in Film – a 6-part series of
illustrated talks.
• When: Every Wednesday from 6th May to
10th June, 16:00 – 17:45.
• Where: Valvona & Crolla, 19
Elm Row, Edinburgh, EH7 4AA.
• Tickets: £20 per talk or £96
for all 6 (20% reduction), available from Eventbrite, scan to
connect:
Headings
for each talk:
Wednesday
6th May: The Invisible Art: Diegetic vs. Non-Diegetic Sound
Establishing the difference between Diegetic music
(source music the characters can hear, like a radio or band) and
Non-Diegetic music (the underscore only the audience hears).
|
Wednesday
27th May: The Wild West and Beyond: The Timbres of Ennio Morricone
A study of timbre (tone colour) and instrumentation as
primary narrative tools. Moving away from the conventional full
orchestra to embrace solo instruments, human voices, and sound
effects.
|
Wednesday
13th May: The Wagnerian Method: John Williams and the Leitmotif
Delving into the use of the leitmotif (a short,
recurring musical theme for a character, object, or idea), tracing
its roots from Richard Wagner's operas to the modern orchestral
score.
|
Wednesday
3rd June: Synthesizers and Soundscapes: The Electronic Score
Revolution
Tracking the shift from the dominance of the
orchestra to the emergence of the electronic and ambient film
score in the 1970s and 80s, and its modern resurgence.
|
Wednesday
20th May: Psycho-Acoustics: Bernard Herrmann and Dissonance
Exploring the power of dissonance and texture over
traditional melody. This talk centres on the psychological impact
of music that disrupts harmonic comfort, specifically by using
ostinato (repeated rhythmic figures) and unusual orchestration.
|
Wednesday
10th June: The Song Score: Music's Commercial and Cultural Impact
Examining the use of pre-existing popular music and
original title songs within a film, and how this contrasts with a
traditional orchestral underscore.
|
•
About Dick Lee:
Dick is a prominent figure in the
Scottish music scene, known for his work with Dick Lee's Chamber Jazz
and Dr. Lee's Prescription, among many others, and his extensive
contributions to jazz and educational lecturing (U3A, Edinburgh
University etc.). There are plenty of examples of Dick's music from
the last 5 decades on the YouTube channel Dick Lee's Sonic Meltdown:
https://www.youtube.com/@DickLeesSonicMeltdown2075
Return
Home