Il potere del fischio. Un percorso tra usi e riusi cinematografici

Abstract

Since the advent of sound cinema, human whistling has been used in a wide range of situations, from the light-hearted to the eerie. Despite their apparent simplicity, whistled melodies can play a central role in the sonic dramaturgy of a film, thanks in part to their timbral characteristics, which place whistling in a fluid space between the vocal and instrumental domains. This educational path is addressed to students of theory, analysis, and composition, as well as to students of music history in music high schools, and to students of related musical disciplines in conservatories and university courses. The aim is to provide analytical tools for understanding the fundamental role of such music in multimedia communication by analyzing some illustrative film sequences with whistled music. For that purpose, some key concepts will be explained to frame audiovisual construction strategies, providing research methods and skills applicable to other soundtrack elements. Finally, attention is drawn to the processes of re-semantization activated by the citation of pre-existing music, taking into account intertextual and intermedial references.