AMERICAN MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
BENJAMIN J. HARBERT
American Music Documentary
FIVE CASE STUDIES OF CINÉ-ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
© 2018 Benjamin J. Harbert
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Typeset in Aller and Arnhem types
by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Harbert, Benjamin J. author.
Title: American music documentary: five case studies of ciné-ethnomusicology / Benjamin J. Harbert.
Description: Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2018. | Series: Music/Interview | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Includes filmography. | Identifiers: LCCN 2017036468 (print) | LCCN 2017042746 (ebook) | ISBN 9780819578020 (ebook) | ISBN 9780819578006 (cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780819578013 (pbk.: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Documentary films—United States—History and criticism. | Motion picture music—United States—History and criticism.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.D6 (ebook) | LCC PN1995.9.D6 H295 2018 (print) | DDC 070.1/8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017036468
5 4 3 2 1
Cover illustration: soundwave © yewkeo/iStockphoto.
To Marina Goldovskaya
CONTENTS
1 Where Is the Music? What Is the Music?
Albert Maysles, Gimme Shelter (1970) 24
2 Representing the Margins and Underrepresenting the Real
Jill Godmilow, Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman (1974) 67
3 The Use and Abuse of Musicological Concepts
Shirley Clarke, Ornette: Made in America (1985) 108
D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Depeche Mode: 101 (1988) 156
5 Cinematic Dub and the Multitude
Jem Cohen and Fugazi, Instrument (1999) 200
Epilogue: Toward a Ciné-Ethnomusicology
Appendix A: Extended Music Filmography 255
Appendix B: Cited Interviews and Archival Material 259
Appendix C: Glossary of Terms: Sounds, Shots, and Editing Techniques 261
ILLUSTRATIONS
1.1. Structure of “Wild Horses” sequence 37
1.2. Head position matching chord changes and shoulder motion matching plagal cadence 47
1.3. Unknown to Jagger, a hand from the crowd reaches toward him 55
1.4. Dancing man becomes concerned 61
1.5. Man smiles while woman weeps, both moving their heads to the music 63
2.1. Framing Brico’s anger 81
2.2. Freeze-frame at end of kitchen sequence 83
2.3. Juxtaposed spaces of stage and home brought together through performance 88
3.1. Geodesic dome on top of Caravan of Dreams (still from the film) 114
3.2. The real Ornette Coleman connects with the “young” Ornette Coleman played by Demon Marshall 122
3.3. A cut that presents Coleman as if he were watching George Russell talk about Coleman 127
3.4. Two poles of interview: John Rockwell interview framed in a cartoon television set and Coleman with Fort Worth friends 128
3.5. The new buildings of downtown Fort Worth loom behind young Ornette Coleman in his neighborhood 139
3.6. Intermittent reharmonization of Coleman and his music across two different spaces and times 140
3.7. Two cutaway shots of places during the opening movement of Skies of America 140
4.1. Transcription of “Pimpf,” the leitmotif of the film 168
4.2. Harmonic transformations represented on a matrix and transformational network 177
4.3. Basic harmonic transformations represented on a Tonnetz map 178
4.4. Tonnetz map analysis and transformational loop for “The Things You Said” 179
4.5. Scale-degree analysis of “The Things You Said” 179
4.6. Vocal line, keyboard melody, and visual sequence for “The Things You Said”