Music, Sound, and the Moving Image (MSMI) is the first international scholarly journal devoted to the study of the interaction between music and sound in moving image media, including film, television, music video, advertising, computer games, mixed-media installation, digital art, live cinema, et alia.
The editors of MSMI invite scholars at all stages of their career or study to submit work that is themed around the relationship between music, sound, and the moving image, in line with the remit of this journal. In our recent issues, we began the new initiative of including audiovisual contributions, which are being published alongside written open-access components on the journal’s website. The written statement (250–500 words) accompanying the audiovisual essay is also being published in the pages of the journal with a link to the audiovisual work.
Submitted audiovisual works to the journal have been double-anonymous peer-reviewed, and we will continue to do so. Unless there is a voice-over that gives away the identity of the maker, the process will involve reviewing work with no other personal identifiers. To this end, we invite submissions with no identifying credits attached to the work. As far as we are aware, MSMI will be the first journal to offer such an approach in what has become a rapidly growing field of videographic film criticism.
This initiative has come about due to the specialisations within the editorial team. Both Neepa Majumdar and Liz Greene make audiovisual essays. Majumdar is a co-editor of the prestigious journal [in]Transition and Greene has guest edited special issues of Necsus on sound and music for screen media. We envision each future issue of the journal to contain at least one audiovisual essay, in addition to the usual three written essays and book reviews section, but there are already plans in place for themed and guest-edited audiovisual essay issues of the journal.
– Editors:
Ben Winters, The Open University
Neepa Majumdar, University of Pittsburgh
Liz Greene, Liverpool John Moores University
Submit your work
If you are interested in submitting this type of work to the journal, please take a look at our submission guidelines and get in touch with the editors of the journal at msmijournal@gmail.com.
Audiovisual Essays
Video Essay: Footsteps
By Evelyn Kreutzer
MSMI Volume 16.2
Due in part to Hitchcock’s careful, hierarchical approach to sound balance, and perhaps also to historical and technological conventions in sound recording and mixing as well as trends in shoe manufacturing and fashion, the sounds of Cary Grant’s, Tipi Hedren’s, and James Stewart’s heels seemed to produce more distinct and/or affirmative sounds than those of my own world and time, and they became attached to my Ur-fascination with cinema’s ability to capture and replay a moment in time.
Evelyn Kreutzer
Read the full written statement >
Video Essay: Insincere Inclusion? Ignorant Appropriation? A Symphony Orchestra Plays South Indian Film Music
By Sureshkumar P. Sekar
MSMI Volume 17.1
I kept thinking about the meaning lost in translation, both in Hindi dialogues and lyrics and English subtitles. The meaning of the spoken word was not the only element that was lost in translation; some of the meaning of the score was also lost. Melodic parts that were played with traditional Indian instruments in the film’s recorded score were reproduced on stage with non-Indian instruments. This caused the film/music to lose some of its cultural specificity and therefore its syncretic affectivity.
Sureshkumar P. Sekar
Read the full written statement >
Video Essay: Active Ambiance in No Country for Old Men
By Miguel Mer
MSMI Volume 17.2
The ambient sound in No Country for Old Men (2007) represents more than just the stasis of landscape or location. The film does not feature a conventional musical score but I argue that its sonic structure is fundamentally musical, articulated through aural contrast as well as agogic and dynamic accentuation. Using several graphical representation approaches, I open a methodological door to an understanding of long-form processes of sound mixing as musical phrasing, as well as providing new mechanisms for analysing the integrated soundtrack.
Miguel Mer
Read the full written statement >
Video Essay: Choosing Death Row Songs
By John Gibbs
MSMI Volume 18.1
This audiovisual essay draws on primary research into the production process to develop perspectives on creative choices, the factors that shaped them, and their consequences for audience experience and understanding. Using the methodology of the audiovisual essay enables the research findings to be articulated dynamically and experientially, making use of the formal potential of soundtrack, image, and duration in a way which brings both the filmmakers’ journey and its implications for their audience to life.
John Gibbs
Read the full written statement >
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