The Marvel Sonic Narrative . . .

Walker, Anthony James. The Marvel Sonic Narrative: A Study of the Film Music in Marvel’s The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019.

This is a highly specialized look at the music of three of the four films of the Marvel Avengers enterprise as of its writing, i.e. 2019. The three films are: Marvel’s The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. The second film of the series, Avengers: Age of Ultron, was not examined. The reason to include this here is that the Avengers are avenging something. There is always conflict. Conflict seems to be at the core of their existence with them being the “good guys” going after the “bad guys”. (I am not an aficionado of the series but read some of the comic books as a child in the 1960s.)

For instance, imdb.com sums up “Marvel’s The Avengers” thus: “Earth’s mightiest heroes must come together and learn to fight as a team if they are going to stop the mischievous Loki and his alien army from enslaving humanity (np)”. This seems to me to have the same core setup as the comics of yore.

So! Function and continuity of the music in the three films is the basis of the essay. Somewhat akin to Mozart and Verdi operas and Wagner’s Ring cycle, the music is an integral part in identifying and emphasizing character, situations, emotions, and plot points. “Ultimately , this document will uncover vital themes that progress the sonic narrative in the Avengers soundscape” (Description).

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Transferring real life on battlefields, in camps, training, fighting, entertaining troops or civilians, whiling away time to the “big screen” and fictional characters and stories, this dissertation shows how much music is important to films that depict conflict. How much it is integral to crafting sonic landscapes for maximum impact of story lines, just as in real life. Only in real life the story lines have true consequences not just plot outcomes. But instructive nonetheless.

IMDb. The Avengers, 1990-2021, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848228/. Accessed 20 May 2021.