This book offers a fresh approach to British film music by tracing the
influence of Britain's musical heritage on the film scores of this era.
From the celebration of landscape and community encompassed by pastoral
music and folk song, and the connection of both with the English Musical
Renaissance, to the mystical strains of choral sonorities and the
stirring effects of the march, this study explores the significance of
music in British film culture. With detailed analyses of the work of
such key filmmakers as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Laurence
Olivier and Carol Reed, and composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams,
William Walton and Brian Easdale, this systematic and in-depth study
explores the connotations these musical styles impart to the films and
considers how each marks them with a particularly British inflection.