A History of Film Music
"As cinema's second century gathers place and the film soundtrack acquires ever greater critical respectability, the need for a good, compact, one-volume survey of its evolution from solo piano afterthought to a meticulously planned, fully integrated element as crucial to the success of a film as cinematography,lighting or direction, has become increasingly necessary.    Mervyn Cooke's A History of Film Music gets magnificently close to being just such a book. ...Written in a clean, clear prose shot through with a lightly-worn, concisely-argued scholarship, this is a considerable achievement and an essential read for anyone interested in this vital and still developing genre."  --Classical Music Magazine"'Cooke hasn't written merely "a" history of film music... this will surely be "the" history of film music. ...An authoritative read, written with the cracking pace of a Bond thriller."   --Classic FM Magazine"Cooke writes accessibly yet with as much intellectual rigor on the propagandistic songs of Shostakovich as on MTV's impact on Flashdance.   ....Crammed with source acknowledgement for further reading, this is nothing short of essential reading for anyone with an interest in film."  --BBC Music Magazine"Cooke has written a book useful to readers with or without musical background...they [readers] will appreciate a historical study that incorporates music and film studies and keeps the film music, not the films, its focus."  --Choice"The real charm of Mervyn Cooke's A History of Film Music, however, and one with which the reader is abundantly left, is the sheer breadth of coverage and the passion with which this coverage is conveyed. Never before has a work attempted such a wide-ranging, vivid, and well-documented sweep of film music and, for this reason among many others, it is a work thoroughly to be recommended."                 --Music & Letters