Den vilda västerns ljudlandskap : En komparativ analys av musiken i hollywood- och spaghettiwesternfilm

Sammanfattning

This study examines similarities and differences between the music of traditional Hollywood western and Italian spaghetti westerns, with a particular focus on instrumentation, melody, harmony, and narrative musical functions. Through comparative analysis of films and soundtracks composed by Hollywood composers such as Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin, as well as spaghetti western composers including Ennio Morricone and Luis Bacalov, the study compares musical characteristics and narrative functions within the western genre. It furthers examines how musical conventions were adapted, transformed, and challenged between the 1950s and 1970s. The analysis focuses on instrumentation, melodic and harmonicstructures, leitmotifs, diegetic and non-diegetic music, musical topics, and the relationship between music and film narrative. The study also examines whether Ennio Morricone developed an individual musical style in comparison to other central spaghetti western composers, or if Morricone style became a general tradition within the spaghetti western genre. The results suggests that spaghetti western music both inherits and transforms musical conventions established in classical Hollywood westerns. While both traditions employ leitmotifs, folk-inspired musical conventions, diegetic saloon music, spaghetti western music generally emphasizes repetition, timbre, rhythmic intensity, and psychological ambiguity over symphonic development and heroic romanticism. The study further concludes that Morricone played a particularly significant role in redefying the musical language of the western genre through a more experimental and narratively independent compositional style.