Do you hate film scores? I'm assuming you don't if you'd be interested in picking up this book at all, so you should beware that the author has a serious axe to grind here. In this book on the aesthetics of film scores, he puts up an argument -- right in the introduction -- that one need not be a "composer" to write a film score, that one might not even need to consider them music at all, and proceeds to hammer home this thesis with chapter after chapter of prejudiced, bitter conjecture. The author is apparently a concert-hall composer, you see, and is therefore qualified to put together large-scale works in which he skillfully and artistically develops his musical material in ways that film scores need not. A "composer," you understand, puts things together over the course of an extended piece in very sophisticated ways, ways not required by film scores due to their segmented nature, the need to serve the drama, or the fact that they may be trying to be (gasp) "commercial."

Sound like academic, ivory-tower, longhair snobbery to you? Oh, you bet. Page after page of insufferably biased commentary from a musician who obviously considers himself superior to most of those working in the medium of film music. The book is only worthwhile for the interviews with Elmer Bernstein, Leonard Rosenmann, Bernard Herrmann, and so on - great film composers (yes, composers!) who don't necessarily share Bazelon's point of view and who offer insights into their work that one can enjoy without taking into account Bazelon's slant.

Why this book would appeal to anyone interested in the art of film scoring is beyond me - it denigrates its subject with every page! Out of print, and thank God. I'm writing this review only so you don't get suckered into buying it used. There's fantastic books on film scoring out there; why read one that insults the very people who would be initially attracted to read it?