Abstract

Film music has often been criticized for being a product of the past, not in line with the process of renewal of the compositional means characterizing twentieth-century western art music. However, although Hollywood cinema has been seen as a conservative and strongly codified system, it has stimulated a fervent discussion on the experimental possibilities of music and its implications for spectators. This article focuses on some key issues in the Hollywood "new music" debate. The contribution of theoreticians and composers not only overcame a monolithic view of the subject, but it also stimulated the rethinking of interpretive categories for musical modernism inside and outside the cinematic context. Cinema is no longer seen as a place for standardized music, but as a place where the experience of musical modernity on a larger scale can be conveyed.