Totality of experience: sound, music and mythology in Gus Van Sant’s “Death Quartet”

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dc.check.date9999-01-01
dc.check.embargoformatNot applicableen
dc.check.embargoformatE-thesis on CORA onlyen
dc.check.infoThe full text of this thesis is unavailable due to a restriction requested by the author.en
dc.check.opt-outNot applicableen
dc.check.reasonNo embargo requireden
dc.check.typeNo Embargo Required
dc.contributor.advisorKulezic-Wilson, Danijelaen
dc.contributor.advisorMorris, Christopheren
dc.contributor.authorShine, Jessica
dc.date.accessioned2015-11-27T11:37:05Z
dc.date.available2015-11-27T11:37:05Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.date.submitted2015
dc.description.abstractReflecting on Gus Van Sant’s films Gerry (2003) Elephant (2004) and Last Days (2005), the director’s long-term sound-designer Leslie Shatz observed that “You have to get into the totality of the experience and not just the dialogue”. Shatz’s comment expresses something fundamental about the experimental approach to cinema and to soundscapes undertaken by Van Sant in these three films, unofficially known as the “Death Trilogy”. This thesis contends that Van Sant makes deliberate aesthetic choices which do indicate a distinctly “auteurist” leaning. However, I also argue that intertextual elements, prior knowledge, and audience participation in meaningmaking enhance the experience of, and reveal the nuances in, the soundtracks themselves. This thesis aims to contribute to a growing body of work within filmmusic scholarship concerned with resisting a traditional bias in the field: that film music should be understood as a means of characterisation and as emotional signifier. The films of the “Death Quartet”, which includes Paranoid Park (2007), I believe, offer fertile ground on which to explore these new approaches. It is my contention that these films deconstruct the traditional approach to soundtracking and the relationship between soundtrack and character, and that only an approach sensitive to the aesthetic and philosophical functions of music and sound can adequately acknowledge their unique cinematic qualities.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Version
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationShine, J. 2015. Totality of experience: sound, music and mythology in Gus Van Sant’s “Death Quartet”. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.en
dc.identifier.endpage291
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/2112
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2015, Jessica Shine.en
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/en
dc.subjectFilm musicen
dc.subjectGus Van Santen
dc.subjectFilmen
dc.subjectMusicen
dc.thesis.opt-outfalse
dc.titleTotality of experience: sound, music and mythology in Gus Van Sant’s “Death Quartet”en
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral Degree (Structured)en
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD (Arts)en
ucc.workflow.supervisord.kulezicwilson@ucc.ie
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