Film Music Notes

Understanding the art of film music

New Course!

Turn your short ideas into large, well-structured themes and suites! Learn how to expand 8-bar themes and construct forms with a contrasting B section like rounded binary and rondo. Write large themes of flexible length called “continuous themes” from short units of just a few bars. And learn tried-and-true practices for connecting themes into a suite like those for end credits, main titles, and the like.

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New in 2024

Learn how film themes express certain emotions with chromatic chords and changes of key. We cover emotional expressions, voice leading, and harmonic progressions for a wide range of harmonies and modulations, focusing on their film-specific uses. We also explore many uses that are not covered in other sources, like deceptive leading-tone dominants, tritone-polyrooted chords, and modulation cycles. Tailor your use of chromatic chords and modulations to your expressive needs.

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Music Theorist

Mark Richards, PhD

I worked as a Professor of Music Theory for several years in universities, specializing in film music, Beethoven, and rock music in my teaching and research. For more than two decades, I have taught music theory and analysis to all ages and at all levels from the community music school to the large university. I have published articles on film music and have a chapter on John Williams’ Star Wars themes in Film Music Analysis: Studying the Score published by Routledge Music.

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