TITOLO DEL PROGETTO (IT-ENG)

IT.

FILMUSP – Editoria musicale e cinema: per una storia produttiva della colonna sonora in Italia (1958-1976)

ENG.

FILMUSP – Music Publishing and Film: Toward a Production History of the Soundtrack in Italy (1958-1976) 

 

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DESCRIZIONE DEL PROGETTO (ABSTRACT)

FILMUSP aims to study the role of the music publishing industry within the production chain of film music in the “golden age” of Italian cinema (1958-1976). The project will combine the research on archival and oral sources with the implementation of a dataset and a web interface, drawing on the theoretical paradigms of production studies and media industry studies and applying methods of advanced data visualisation.

Unlike other contexts, the Italian music publishing industry has mostly taken on the investments and revenues linked to the production and commercial exploitation of film soundtracks throughout cinema’s history. It is hence strategic to pinpoint the node of music publishing in its relational dynamics with film and music production. By identifying the publishers as links between musicians on the one hand, and the film and record industries on the other, it will be possible to grasp the aesthetic, sociocultural and economic implications of Italian film music from a material history perspective.

Along this line, FILMUSP targets the professional networks and the creative agencies involved at several different stages of the soundtrack production process and turn them into research means. So as to develop a multilayered rendering of the cultural and creative processes involved in the production of soundtracks, FILMUSP will map the relational networks in place between specialised film music publishers and other relevant actors such as firms (record labels, film production and distribution houses, synchronisation studios) and individuals (composers, singers and bands, lyricists, arrangers, session players, sound personnel).

While FILMUSP aims for systematising large-scale information extracted from existing data repositories and making it accessible for research purposes, it will additionally track first-hand documentation in archives of musicians and producers that will enable an in-depth analysis of the creative and industrial synergies underpinning soundtrack production in Italy.

The main output of the research will consist of a specifically designed, open-access web interface for research, professional use and public dissemination. The FILMUSP interface will allow significant progress in the retrieval and analytical visualisation of data for digital mapping and foster awareness of the cultural and material role of the junctions of the musical production chain in relation to the film soundtrack.

The project capitalises on the interdisciplinary background of the research team, referring to two distinct scholarly areas: music studies (Milan, Pisa and Pavia units, the latter focusing on popular music) and film studies (Bologna unit). The broad range of expertise covered by the consortium will allow tackling the wealth of musical practices implicated in Italian cinema of the time – e.g. popular music, film music proper, library music and a film macro-genre like the musical film – and guarantee a multi-angle approach to the subject.

 

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LINEA DI FINANZIAMENTO E ANNO

PRIN 2022 – Missione 4 – Componente 2 – Investimento 1.1

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PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR E ISTITUZIONE CAPOFILA

Maurizio Corbella – Università degli Studi di Milano 

 

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ALTRE ISTITUZIONI COINVOLTE, E RESPOSABILI DELLE UNITÀ DI RICERCA LOCALI

Claudio Bisoni – Università di Bologna

Alessandro Bratus – Università di Pavia

Alessandro Cecchi – Università di Pisa