This book contains the biographies and feature film credits of over 252 composers who have written music for the movies. The author indicates that there are a number of books available on this topic since the 1970s, but that they all cover the same group of 30 or so composers, all well-known and well-researched. This book covers the large gap of little-known, often-forgotten composers of movie and film music. An example is the famous Wizard of Oz movie: Harold Arlen wrote the music and E.Y. Harburg wrote the lyrics, but much of the non-singing parts of the movie were written by Herbert Stothart, including many of the memorable themes like that of Miss Gulch on her bicycle. The 819-page encyclopedia provides an expansive and comprehensive scholarly treatment of film composers since the inception of the silent movie.
Each entry begins with the name, birth and death dates and extensive biographical information on the composer, followed by a discussion of the composer's work. A list of feature film credits is provided in a grayed box; for each movie, the year of release includes any awards won or nominated for, director and the country or countries that produced the film. Foreign-language movies are indicated by their English title if released in the USA. If the film was released with a different title in other countries, the alternative title is listed as aka (also known as).
A quick look at some of the composers illustrates the variety and proficiency of the film music industry. Mark Isham (b. 1951) was discovered by director Carroll Ballard playing jazz trumpet and New Age music in 1983; since then, his film credits fill two full pages in the encyclopedia, over 100 scores between 1984 to the present, including Romeo Is Bleeding; Blade, the Vampire Slayer; Rules of Engagement; The Black Dahlia, and 42: The Jackie Robinson Story, just to name a few. Philippe Sarde (b. 1945?) is a French composer who has written more than 200 scores for films since 1970, many unknown in the USA; some of these include A Happy Divorce, Cold Cuts, Outlaws, The Bear, Jealousy, and Me and My Sister. Shirley Walker (1945-2006) was one of the first important female composers in Hollywood before her untimely death, and the first woman to receive solo composing credit on a major American movie. Her credits include Escape from LA, the three Final Destination movies (2000, 2003 and 2006), along with animated sequences for a number of Batman cartoons.
Having seen many of the encyclopedias and dictionaries of film music and their composers over the past several years, I must say that this stands out for its volume and detail. The film title and name indices themselves are priceless; I highly recommend this tome as an essential addition to any music and movie print reference collection.
