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SUMMARY:No Strings or Cheek to Cheek? Song and structure in Top Hat. - Wil
 liam Brooks (The University of York)
DTSTART:20130227T170000Z
DTEND:20130227T180000Z
UID:TALK42991@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:30200
DESCRIPTION:[Top Hat] was one of the best [pictures] I ever did with Ginge
 r Rogers\, and it\nwas the first I ever made with Irving Berlin's music\, 
 which helped a lot.\n(Fred Astaire\, 1948)\n \nMuch has been written about
  the glories of Top Hat and about Astaire's\ninnovative integration of nar
 rative and character with dance.  Irving Berlin's\nsongs\, written in Holl
 ywood especially for the film\, are invariably praised\,\nand the connecti
 ons between his lyrics and the story-line are noted.  But\nBerlin's contri
 butions extend beyond the literary to the structure and content\nof the mu
 sic itself.  The five songs trace a clear line of musical development\,\nw
 ith their increasing complexity and subtlety furthering the development of
 \ncharacter and plot and enhancing the potential of choreography.\n \nThis
  paper considers the music of the five songs\, taken sequentially.  I will
 \nshow that evolving formal designs and harmonic and melodic details compl
 ement\nthe narrative\, choreography\, and cinematography to create a morph
 ology that is\nlarger than each of its components.  In this sense\, despit
 e lacking a\ncontinuous score\, Top Hat is a worthy precursor of the integ
 rated film musicals\nof the 1940s and 1950s\; and Berlin's songs––comp
 osed specifically for this\ncontext––mark a significant advance in wri
 ting for film.
LOCATION:Recital Room\, Faculty of Music\, West Road
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