Music has been an essential part of virtually every movie ever made. In the words of the great director D. W. Griffith, "The music sets the mood for what your eye sees; it guides your emotions; it is the emotional framework for visual pictures." Or, as composer Bernard Herrmann said, "Movies need the cement of music.".

Listening to Movies is the lay person's guide to the exciting world of film music. Featuring 100 photographs, including stills from classic films as well as portraits and candid shots of the creators of film music, this book tells how music for the movies is written, performed, recorded, and mixed; how composers work with directors and producers; and how the whole process evolved.

Fred Karlin surveys the history of this very special kind of music, from the era when pianists and live orchestras accompanied silent films, through the great days of the Hollywood studio orchestras and the ground-breaking work of composers like Korngold, Herrmann, and Rozsa, on to the present, when electronic scores, crafted through a dizzying array of high-tech hardware and software, exist side by side with symphonic scores.

Throughout, Karlin draws on his interviews with key figures in the industry to personalize the world of film music.

Listening to Movies reveals not only how film music is made but how it can be crucial in establishing tone, setting a pace, and involving the audience. Through numerous examples, Karlin helps the reader to understand and appreciate exactly how the music on the soundtrack enhances the movies we see. Here are just a few of the other perspectives this book provides: a unique cue-by-cue breakdown of the music for eight classic movies, from The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) to The Untouchables (1987), demonstrating in detail how the music works with the action; a revealing chapter on the Academy Awards that takes the reader behind the scenes for an inside look at the Oscars telecast and untangles the complicated rules that govern the awards for songs and scores; a selective Filmography listing composers for 1,500 movies; and a complete listing of Oscar winners for Best Original Score and a guide to help the reader locate soundtrack recordings.