Sound Theory, Sound Practice

Rick Altman

Sound Theory/Sound Practice is divided into three major sections: Theoretical Perspectives, Historical Speculations, and Neglected Domains. The entire volume is marked by a revised understanding of cinema and particularly film sound. Individual essays cover such diverse topics as the conversion to sound, cartoon sound, documentary sound, and voices of women in third-world cinema. This collection combines unpublished articles by established scholars who first attracted academic attention to cinema sound – Altman, John Belton, Michel Chion, and Alan Williams – with work written by a new generation of sound-sensitive scholars. Dramatically broadening the previous field of research on sound, Sound Theory/Sound Practice promises to renew the debate over the importance of sound to cinema, from a theoretical as well as a historical perspective.