Epic Sound: Music in Postwar Hollywood Biblical Films
ISBN: 9780253014597
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Indiana University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Motion picture music -- History and criticism; Bible films -- United States; Film composers;

"A well-researched and thorough book examining what the author finds to be a unique facet of film music of the late 1940s and early 1950s." --Soundtrax Lavish musical soundtracks contributed a special grandeur to the new widescreen, stereophonic sound movie experience of postwar biblical epics such as Samson and Delilah , Ben-Hur , and Quo Vadis . In Epic Sound , Stephen C. Meyer shows how music was utilized for various effects, sometimes serving as a vehicle for narrative plot and at times complicating biblical and cinematic interpretation. In this way, the soundscapes of these films reflected the ideological and aesthetic tensions within the genre, and more generally, within postwar American society. By examining key biblical films, Meyer adeptly engages musicology with film studies to explore cinematic interpretations of the Bible during the 1940s through the 1960s. "A major contribution to the field of film music studies and ought to be widely read by musicologists with an interest in film. Really, it ought to be read by film scholars as well: although the depth of Meyer's engagement with the music is felt on almost every page, this is also a powerfully sustained exploration of the biblical epic as a film genre." --American Music "Meyer's clear and articulate study promises to be a welcome addition to the reading list of anyone interested not just in film but in mid-century music history." --Journal of the Society for American Music "An ambitious and fascinating book." --James Buhler, The University of Texas at Austin

Stephen C. Meyer is director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture (CSC) and a founder of the intelligent design movement and of the CSC. Dr. Meyer is a Cambridge University-trained philosopher of science, the author of peer-reviewed publications in technical, scientific, philosophical and other books and journals. His signal contribution to ID theory is given most fully in Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, published by HarperOne in June 2009.

Meyer graduated from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, in 1981 with a degree in physics and earth science. He later became a geophysicist with Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) in Dallas, Texas working in digital signal processing and seismic survey interpretation. As a Rotary International Scholar, he received his training in the history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University, earning a PhD in 1991. He returned to Whitworth College in 1990 to teach philosophy. He left Whitworth in 2002, giving up a tenured position, to found and direct the CSC at Discovery Institute.

Meyer's many other publications include a contribution to, and the editing of, the peer-reviewed volume Darwinism, Design and Public Education (Michigan State University Press, 2004) and the innovative textbook Explore Evolution (Hill House Publishers, 2007). He is also the author of New York Times bestseller Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design HaperOne June 2013.

Meyer has been widely featured in media appearance on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox News, PBS, and the BBC. In 2008, he appeared with Ben Stein in Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. He's also featured prominently in two other science documentaries, Icons of Evolution and Unlocking The Mystery of Life.

(Bowker Author Biography)


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