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Does anyone know any good books or magazines about soundtracks?

I know there were a couple of magazines until several years ago, that have now died. Being kept up-to-date and reading reviews about new soundtracks would be interesting enough.

However, I am really looking for books either about specific composers and their oeuvre, or at least something general like the '1001 books/movies/records you have to read/see/hear before you die' style of books that present the major and most important (or obscure, as it is) soundtracks in film history.

I have a general grasp of soundtracks, and know the major works and composers, but I would really like to get a firmer knowledge of the subject, in order for me to dive into a store's inventory in a much more targetted way.

Can anyone help?

Some stuff I found.

http://www.amazon.com/Album-Cover-Art-S ... DTRACK+art

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/096435 ... =thdi06-20

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/082232 ... =thdi06-20

For horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, this four-volume series is quite informative: http://www.creaturefeatures.com/shop/bo ... ntastique/. I've read the first one so far; the new versions of the other three volumes aren't out yet. It can be a bit dry, but it did increase my list of items to listen to, and I learned a lot. As the volumes move into the '70s and later, I think they'll be that much more interesting (to my interests, anyway).

Philip Brophy's "100 Modern Soundtracks" is also interesting -- it's most "imagistic," slightly stream of consciousness writing. This is one I want to go back to. I don't think I spent enough time with it when I first read it.

I picked up a book in Italy at Christmas - it's by Alessandro Tordini and called 'Cosi Nuda Cosi Violenta: Enciclopedia della Musica nei Mondi Neri del Cinema Italiano' loosely translated as 'So Naked So Violent: Encyclopedia of the Dark World of Italian Cinema' lists soundtracks by composer with label info cat numbers etc. usable even if you have no Italian language... Nice colour illustrations in the center.

Wow DeepDown, that book sounds great to have on a bookshelf.

Royally Bland. It is a fantastic book. I picked up a couple of books about Giallo and Italian cinema... In part to help me learn Italian.

The Cover...



Mid section.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions.

@jdub cool finds, I will definitely try to find the Cover Artbook, didn't know such a book was out

@reddye Will get those two as soon as the budget is there. And typing those into amazon gave me other suggestions as well

@deepdown you got me, this seems to be exactly what I was looking for. My Italian is very rudimentary, but this seems to be as good a time as any to refresh it. And thanks for the pics ... this jumped onto my wishlist so fast

I also found this site: http://italiansoundtrackodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ It's still a bit too young to be useable as valuable database, but he's doing what I'm trying to find in bookform.

Still new here (about ten minutes) and already bought something due to the forum,awesome!Thank you Deepdown,just ordered the 'Cosi nuda,cosi violenta' book.

My pleasure Badge666 hope you enjoy. And welcome - this forum may bankrupt you

This book looks great - how many pages has it got? Is it mostly photos or is there loads of text as well? My Italian is beyond basic!!

I'll answer in full when I get home, but essentially it is text based with a small illustrated section in the middle. It is all in Italian, but organised by composer and then by movie and then details the release info that is usable if you have no Italian. I can take a photo of a text page if you like

There are 382 pages. Here's a sample

Couple of good resources.

The best book i have read (on film music) is the history of film music by Mervyn Cooke,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Film-Mu ... 0521010489

Also FSMOnline is a good resource. They do a monthly emag for $5 (about £3)

And moviemusicuk.us is a good resource for reviews and is free

I'm just packing up my books to move house and came across these (probably more to follow!).

A general guide to soundtracks...



This book is great. A guide to records that somehow connect to a heavy consciousness with a chapter on soundtracks.



A bit more academic, but a nice book.

So I am loving my copy of Cosi Nuda Cosi Violenta and am wondering if anyone has heard of any efforts to do an English translation?

@jmctodo

+ 1 from me - would love that to happen as just getting into the whole giallo movie canon on the back of all these soundtracks. Looks like a pretty comprehensive read too.

Maybe someone would employ Red Goblin (see AMS thread) to have a crack?

> Looks like a pretty comprehensive read too.

there-in lies the rub. 380+ pages of small print...

a veritable goldmine I believe - just out of my mono-lingual reach!

There's also this book, translated into English from the Italian, but not cheap:



UK LINK HERE

Thanks spun, but that is a very different kind of a book.
'Cosi...' is like an encyclopedia for these kinds Italian movies and their soundtracks. Each film/score gets a page or two - organized by composer and roughly by genre (horror, crime, etc). It has seperate ratings for the films and their soundtracks, some basic OST release info, etc.

In my opinion, it is worth grabbing even if you don't speak Italian, and probably essential if you do.