Description
Classical music is everywhere in video games. Works by composers like Bach and Mozart fill the soundtracks of games ranging from arcade classics, to indie titles, to major franchises like BioShock, Civilization, and Fallout. Children can learn about classical works and their histories from interactive iPad games. World-renowned classical orchestras frequently perform concerts of game music to sold-out audiences. But what do such combinations of art and entertainment reveal about the cultural value we place on these media? Can classical music ever be video game music, and can game music ever be classical? Delving into the shifting and often contradictory cultural definitions that emerge when classical music meets video games, Replay Value offers a new perspective on the possibilities and challenges of trying to distinguish between art and pop culture in contemporary society.
About the Author
William Gibbons is Associate Professor of Musicology at Texas Christian University, where he is also Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts. He is the author of Building the Operatic Museum: Eighteenth-Century Opera and Fin-de-siecle Paris and co-editor of Music in Video Games: Studying Play.
Reviews
Unlimited Replays occupies a significant place in game music scholarship. It is the first book devoted to ever-intriguing instances of classical music in video games, and through addressing that topic, it seeks to build a bridge from ludomusicology toward more longstanding fields of enquiry ... an accessible, thoughtful, and thought-provoking work on a topic of interest across academic disciplines, and beyond -- classical-music concert programmers and critics might find much to consider here in regard to the music's future, for instance. Indeed, the book could be recommended to almost anybody with an interest in its topic. * Jonathan Godsall, Journal of Sound and Music in Games *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190265250
Author William Gibbons
Format Hardback
Page Count 210
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 502g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 163mm * 19mm
About the Author
William Gibbons is Associate Professor of Musicology at Texas Christian University, where he is also Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts. He is the author of Building the Operatic Museum: Eighteenth-Century Opera and Fin-de-siecle Paris and co-editor of Music in Video Games: Studying Play.
Reviews
Unlimited Replays occupies a significant place in game music scholarship. It is the first book devoted to ever-intriguing instances of classical music in video games, and through addressing that topic, it seeks to build a bridge from ludomusicology toward more longstanding fields of enquiry ... an accessible, thoughtful, and thought-provoking work on a topic of interest across academic disciplines, and beyond -- classical-music concert programmers and critics might find much to consider here in regard to the music's future, for instance. Indeed, the book could be recommended to almost anybody with an interest in its topic. * Jonathan Godsall, Journal of Sound and Music in Games *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190265250
Author William Gibbons
Format Hardback
Page Count 210
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 502g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 163mm * 19mm
