Perspectives on the Berlin sound movie operetta (1929-1944): media, technology and reception
<p>This thesis investigates the sound movie operetta and sound movie hit song genres that developed between 1929 and 1933 in Weimar Germany. Understanding these genres as mediatised, (technologically) mediated phenomena, I explore the ways in which they interacted with audiences such that part...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2022
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| _version_ | 1811141198519205888 |
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| author | Arend, S |
| author2 | Ouzounian, G |
| author_facet | Ouzounian, G Arend, S |
| author_sort | Arend, S |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis investigates the sound movie operetta and sound movie hit song genres that developed between 1929 and 1933 in Weimar Germany. Understanding these genres as mediatised, (technologically) mediated phenomena, I explore the ways in which they interacted with audiences such that particular reception attitudes were embedded amongst those audiences. In the process, a new social fabric of sound was woven. Evidence is drawn from a wide array of materials ranging from technologies to contemporary press, archival materials, and trade periodicals. All chapters take as case studies a variety of sound movie operettas, hit songs, and artists of the time.</p>
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<p>Each chapter zooms in on a different perspective on the sound movie operetta and its interwovenness with other domains and audiences. First, I explore how the cross-referencing network of media channels that emerged around the sound movie operetta and hit song fostered the formation of new reception patterns. Second, I theorise a dichotomy in limbo between the live and recorded to account for the ambiguous boundaries that were created by the increasing mechanisation and mediatisation of music during this time. Ruptures and continuities within prior musical practices of both the cinema and entertainment music worlds further manifested this ambiguous mode of reception. Third, I analyse the disconnect between representations of sound technologies in sound movie operettas and the actual processes of these technologies. Such ambiguities helped accustom cinemagoers to the ever-developing, imperfect sound technologies represented. Finally, I jump forward to the National Socialist period to consider how the sound movie operetta was superseded by the revue film, and how such films were not just blunt tools of ideological coercion but also allowed for more subversive modes of reception through their incorporation of Weimar Era and other stylistic tropes.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:34:04Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:cb654ab5-3078-4348-a173-bc03617298e5 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:34:04Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:cb654ab5-3078-4348-a173-bc03617298e52024-09-05T15:59:02ZPerspectives on the Berlin sound movie operetta (1929-1944): media, technology and receptionThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:cb654ab5-3078-4348-a173-bc03617298e5Motion picture musicMusicEnglishHyrax Deposit2022Arend, SOuzounian, GTunbridge, LDavison, A<p>This thesis investigates the sound movie operetta and sound movie hit song genres that developed between 1929 and 1933 in Weimar Germany. Understanding these genres as mediatised, (technologically) mediated phenomena, I explore the ways in which they interacted with audiences such that particular reception attitudes were embedded amongst those audiences. In the process, a new social fabric of sound was woven. Evidence is drawn from a wide array of materials ranging from technologies to contemporary press, archival materials, and trade periodicals. All chapters take as case studies a variety of sound movie operettas, hit songs, and artists of the time.</p> <br> <p>Each chapter zooms in on a different perspective on the sound movie operetta and its interwovenness with other domains and audiences. First, I explore how the cross-referencing network of media channels that emerged around the sound movie operetta and hit song fostered the formation of new reception patterns. Second, I theorise a dichotomy in limbo between the live and recorded to account for the ambiguous boundaries that were created by the increasing mechanisation and mediatisation of music during this time. Ruptures and continuities within prior musical practices of both the cinema and entertainment music worlds further manifested this ambiguous mode of reception. Third, I analyse the disconnect between representations of sound technologies in sound movie operettas and the actual processes of these technologies. Such ambiguities helped accustom cinemagoers to the ever-developing, imperfect sound technologies represented. Finally, I jump forward to the National Socialist period to consider how the sound movie operetta was superseded by the revue film, and how such films were not just blunt tools of ideological coercion but also allowed for more subversive modes of reception through their incorporation of Weimar Era and other stylistic tropes.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Motion picture music Music Arend, S Perspectives on the Berlin sound movie operetta (1929-1944): media, technology and reception |
| title | Perspectives on the Berlin sound movie operetta (1929-1944): media, technology and reception |
| title_full | Perspectives on the Berlin sound movie operetta (1929-1944): media, technology and reception |
| title_fullStr | Perspectives on the Berlin sound movie operetta (1929-1944): media, technology and reception |
| title_full_unstemmed | Perspectives on the Berlin sound movie operetta (1929-1944): media, technology and reception |
| title_short | Perspectives on the Berlin sound movie operetta (1929-1944): media, technology and reception |
| title_sort | perspectives on the berlin sound movie operetta 1929 1944 media technology and reception |
| topic | Motion picture music Music |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT arends perspectivesontheberlinsoundmovieoperetta19291944mediatechnologyandreception |