Situated Listening ─ The Sound of Absorption in Classical Cinema

Screenwriters and film directors have long been fascinated by the challenges of representing the listening experience on screen. While music has played a central role in film narrative since the conception of moving pictures, the representation of music listening has remained a mysterious occurrence.
In Situated Listening: The Sound of Absorption in Classical Cinema, author Giorgio Biancorosso argues for a redefinition of the music listener as represented in film. Rather than construct the listener as a reverential concertgoer, music analyst, or gallery dweller, Biancorosso offers a new way of thinking about listening in film as distributed experience, an activity made public and shareable across vast cultural spaces rather than an insular motion. As Biancorosso argues, many films have perpetuated a long-existing paradox of music as a means of silencing. Consider an aggressive score overlaying battle scenes, the comedic use of classical music juxtaposed with narrative chaos, or a romantic theme conveying unspoken intimacy. In the place of conversational exchange exists an omniscient narrator in the form of music, and Situated Listening explains why this function influences both the course of interpretation and empathy experienced by film spectators. By focusing on the cinematic, physical, and emotional scenery surrounding a character, viewers can recognize aspects of their own lives, developing a deeper empathy for each fictional character through real and shared listening practices.Situated Listening proves that cinema functions as not only a reservoir of established modes of listening, but also an agent in the development of new listening practices.

Giorgio Biancorosso is Associate Professor in Music, The University of Hong Kong. His work on the history and theory of listening practices reflects a long-standing interest in musical aesthetics, film music, and the history of global cinema. Biancorosso is also active in Hong Kong as a programmer and curator.