For my submission for Sound Studies and Aural Cultures, I am exploring the guitar as an instrument throughout the 20th century and as a volatile tool used in cinema for composition. The topics I am covering range from blues roots to using the guitar as a performative character in modern films. I am currently referencing ‘Dr. No’, ‘A Fistful of Dollars, ‘Deadman’, and ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.

The script for my audio essay and composition acts as an academic essay that explores the role the guitar has grown to play in film as a result of its creation, utilization, and cultural influence. In referencing books and texts including, ‘Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues’ by Paul Oiver, ‘Theory and Practice: Film Sound’ by Elizabeth Weis and John Belton, and ‘Ennio Morricone’s The Good the Bad and the Ugly’ by Charles Leinberger, I quickly fell into the intense history of the role of the guitar as an instrument and evocative tool. Rewatching the films and focusing on the role of the guitar in their individual scores I began to interlock the roots the instrument holds in blues and classical music styles to its use in film through the intense psyche of the instrument’s history.

The main challenge I am facing is condensing the material into a duration of under 10 minutes including the score and performative components I am currently experimenting with for the audio essay. This includes minimizing discussion about certain aspects of the history and careful placement of the music for the assignment as well.

For the score, I am planning on doing a live acoustic and electric guitar performance that includes a combination of original improvisation and improvisation around the themes and riffs I discuss in the narration as well.

These are screenshots of the rough outline of my script.