Dr Alexander Binns
As Lead Tutor in Music, I oversee all aspects of the teaching of music in college. My interests in music focus on late-nineteenth and twentieth-century music as well as music for film and image and in the philosophy of music. I am also interested in music in Japanese visual culture. My teaching, however, is wider and I cover most of the undergraduate topics in music in small group tutorials at Pembroke. I teach all music students throughout their time as undergraduates at Pembroke and I very much enjoy talking with music students in Pembroke about all aspects of the subject and in supporting their interests as well as their career aims.
My research focuses on music in film, the use of music in Japanese culture, musical modernism, opera and, more broadly, music as an interdisciplinary phenomenon and its relationship with space and geography, particularly the city. I have published within these areas and I have received external research funding from a range of bodies including the Anglo-Daiwa Foundation, the Sasakawa Foundation and the AHRC.
I am fascinated by the ways in which music shapes not only creative practice, but also daily life and I like to ask broad questions about how we should consider these powerful effects.
Manhattan Sounds: music in the films of Woody Allen (under contract, Routledge)
‘Reading Music Visually: Japanese cultural representations of sound, music and spectacle’ (forthcoming).
‘Parody, Comedy, Subversion: Music in Japanese Comedy Cinema’ in Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema eds. Emilio Audissino and Emile Wennekes (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), 465-480.
‘Music and Comedy in the Films of Woody Allen’ in Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema eds. Emilio Audissino and Emile Wennekes (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), 729-744.
‘Japanese Cinematic Music’ in The Palgrave Urban Literary Studies ed. Jeremy Tambling (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2022), 1036-42.
‘Recomposing the Past: Representations of Early Music on Stage and Screen’ in Music & Letters 100:1 (2019), 38-52.
‘Cozarinsky’s La Guerre d’un seul homme and Musical Categories: (Re)-Framing Pfitzner, Strauss, Schreker, and Schoenberg Cinematically’ in Music, Modern Culture and the Critical Ear eds. Nicholas Attfield and Ben Winters (New York: Routledge, 2017), 139-64.
‘‘Sounding’ Japanese: Traditions of Music in Japanese Cinema’ in The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound eds. Miguel Mera, Ron Sadoff, Ben Winters (New York: Routledge, 2017), 428-39.
‘Looking and Listening: Music and Sound as Visual Trope in Ukiyo-e’ in Routledge Companion to Music and Visual Culture eds. Anne Leonard and Tim Shephard (New York: Routledge, 2014), 120-27.
‘‘Children’s Film Music’, in American Music and Culture ed. Jacqueline Edmondson (Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2013) 197-201.
‘Music and Fantasy Types in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands' in Music of Fantasy Cinema ed. Janet Halfyard (Sheffield: Equinox Press, 2012), 132-47.
‘The Development of Film Musicology', in The Continuum Companion to Sound in Film ed. Graeme Harper (New York: Continuum Press, 2009), 725-38.
‘Women through music in Golden Age Hollywood Cinema', in The Continuum Companion to Sound in Film ed. Graeme Harper (New York: Continuum Press, 2009), 375-87.
‘Desiring the diegesis: music and self-seduction in the films of Wong Kar-Wai', in Cinemusic? Constructing the Film Score, Eds. David Cooper, Christopher Fox, Ian Sapiro (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholar Press, 2008), 127-140.
Reviews:
‘Music and the sound image in Japan’, review of The Culture of the Sound Image in Prewar Japan
eds. ‘Michael Raine and Johan Nordström (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020), in MSMI 17:1 (2023), 71-5.
Review article of The Cambridge Companion to Film Music ed. Mervyn Cooke and Fiona Ford (Cambridge University Press, 2016), in H-Music: H-Commons Network Music in History (2019).
‘Film Music', review of A History of Film Music, Mervyn Cooke (Oxford University Press: 2008), in Music & Letters 91:1 (2010), 135-6.
‘Music in the movies', review of Beyond the Soundtrack: representing music in cinema ed. Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer and Richard Leppert (University of California Press: 2007) in Twentieth Century Music 6:1 (2010), 120-4.
‘Music and media', review of Music, Meaning and Media ed. Erkki Pekkilä, David Neumeyer, Richard Littlefield (International Semiotics Institute: 2006), in Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, in Music, Sound, and the Moving Image 3:1 (Spring 2009), 151-55.
‘Changing Tunes', review article of Changing Tunes: the use of pre-existing music in film ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell (Ashgate: 2006), Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, in Music, Sound and the Moving Image 1:2 (Autumn 2007), 83-89.
‘Stravinsky', review of The Cambridge Companion to Stravinsky ed. Jonathan Cross (Cambridge University Press: 2003) British Journal of Aesthetics 44:4 (October 2004), 447-9.
‘Hanslick on the Musically Beautiful', review of Geoffrey Payzant's Hanslick on the Musically Beautiful: Sixteen Lectures on the Musical Aesthetics of Eduard Hanslick (Cybereditions: 2002), British Journal of Aesthetics 44:2 (April 2004), 204-5.
Dr Alexander Binns
As Lead Tutor in Music, I oversee all aspects of the teaching of music in college. My interests in music focus on late-nineteenth and twentieth-century music as well as music for film and image and in the philosophy of music. I am also interested in music in Japanese visual culture. My teaching, however, is wider and I cover most of the undergraduate topics in music in small group tutorials at Pembroke. I teach all music students throughout their time as undergraduates at Pembroke and I very much enjoy talking with music students in Pembroke about all aspects of the subject and in supporting their interests as well as their career aims.
My research focuses on music in film, the use of music in Japanese culture, musical modernism, opera and, more broadly, music as an interdisciplinary phenomenon and its relationship with space and geography, particularly the city. I have published within these areas and I have received external research funding from a range of bodies including the Anglo-Daiwa Foundation, the Sasakawa Foundation and the AHRC.
I am fascinated by the ways in which music shapes not only creative practice, but also daily life and I like to ask broad questions about how we should consider these powerful effects.
Manhattan Sounds: music in the films of Woody Allen (under contract, Routledge)
‘Reading Music Visually: Japanese cultural representations of sound, music and spectacle’ (forthcoming).
‘Parody, Comedy, Subversion: Music in Japanese Comedy Cinema’ in Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema eds. Emilio Audissino and Emile Wennekes (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), 465-480.
‘Music and Comedy in the Films of Woody Allen’ in Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema eds. Emilio Audissino and Emile Wennekes (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), 729-744.
‘Japanese Cinematic Music’ in The Palgrave Urban Literary Studies ed. Jeremy Tambling (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2022), 1036-42.
‘Recomposing the Past: Representations of Early Music on Stage and Screen’ in Music & Letters 100:1 (2019), 38-52.
‘Cozarinsky’s La Guerre d’un seul homme and Musical Categories: (Re)-Framing Pfitzner, Strauss, Schreker, and Schoenberg Cinematically’ in Music, Modern Culture and the Critical Ear eds. Nicholas Attfield and Ben Winters (New York: Routledge, 2017), 139-64.
‘‘Sounding’ Japanese: Traditions of Music in Japanese Cinema’ in The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound eds. Miguel Mera, Ron Sadoff, Ben Winters (New York: Routledge, 2017), 428-39.
‘Looking and Listening: Music and Sound as Visual Trope in Ukiyo-e’ in Routledge Companion to Music and Visual Culture eds. Anne Leonard and Tim Shephard (New York: Routledge, 2014), 120-27.
‘‘Children’s Film Music’, in American Music and Culture ed. Jacqueline Edmondson (Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2013) 197-201.
‘Music and Fantasy Types in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands' in Music of Fantasy Cinema ed. Janet Halfyard (Sheffield: Equinox Press, 2012), 132-47.
‘The Development of Film Musicology', in The Continuum Companion to Sound in Film ed. Graeme Harper (New York: Continuum Press, 2009), 725-38.
‘Women through music in Golden Age Hollywood Cinema', in The Continuum Companion to Sound in Film ed. Graeme Harper (New York: Continuum Press, 2009), 375-87.
‘Desiring the diegesis: music and self-seduction in the films of Wong Kar-Wai', in Cinemusic? Constructing the Film Score, Eds. David Cooper, Christopher Fox, Ian Sapiro (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholar Press, 2008), 127-140.
Reviews:
‘Music and the sound image in Japan’, review of The Culture of the Sound Image in Prewar Japan
eds. ‘Michael Raine and Johan Nordström (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020), in MSMI 17:1 (2023), 71-5.
Review article of The Cambridge Companion to Film Music ed. Mervyn Cooke and Fiona Ford (Cambridge University Press, 2016), in H-Music: H-Commons Network Music in History (2019).
‘Film Music', review of A History of Film Music, Mervyn Cooke (Oxford University Press: 2008), in Music & Letters 91:1 (2010), 135-6.
‘Music in the movies', review of Beyond the Soundtrack: representing music in cinema ed. Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer and Richard Leppert (University of California Press: 2007) in Twentieth Century Music 6:1 (2010), 120-4.
‘Music and media', review of Music, Meaning and Media ed. Erkki Pekkilä, David Neumeyer, Richard Littlefield (International Semiotics Institute: 2006), in Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, in Music, Sound, and the Moving Image 3:1 (Spring 2009), 151-55.
‘Changing Tunes', review article of Changing Tunes: the use of pre-existing music in film ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn Stilwell (Ashgate: 2006), Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, in Music, Sound and the Moving Image 1:2 (Autumn 2007), 83-89.
‘Stravinsky', review of The Cambridge Companion to Stravinsky ed. Jonathan Cross (Cambridge University Press: 2003) British Journal of Aesthetics 44:4 (October 2004), 447-9.
‘Hanslick on the Musically Beautiful', review of Geoffrey Payzant's Hanslick on the Musically Beautiful: Sixteen Lectures on the Musical Aesthetics of Eduard Hanslick (Cybereditions: 2002), British Journal of Aesthetics 44:2 (April 2004), 204-5.