Conference Agenda
The Online Program of events for the 2026 AMS Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early November.
Use the "Filter by Track or Type of Session" or "Filter by Session Topic" dropdown to limit results by type. Some of the sessions are also color-coded: purple indicates performances, grey indicates paper forums, and orange indicates sessions which have been organized by one of the regional associations of IMS (ARLAC or IMSEA). (Sessions which are both IMS sessions and performances are only colored orange.)
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Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 1st Sept 2026, 02:57:46am EDT
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Daily Overview |
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Film Music Franchises Session Chair: Shannon Draucker Discussant: Berthold Hoeckner | |
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Replaying the Past: Franchise Memory and Musical Historiography in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny University of Missouri - St. Louis Film music scholarship has long emphasized leitmotif as a principal means of narrative coherence. Studies of franchise scoring likewise tend to focus on thematic recurrence and brand identity. Yet less attention has been given to a related but distinct practice: the reappearance of non-leitmotivic cues drawn from earlier franchise installments. This paper examines that practice in John Williams’ music for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. In the film’s extended opening flashback sequence, passages from earlier Indiana Jones films are reintroduced. These moments do not function as recurring character themes; rather, they involve the reuse and adaptation of specific non-leitmotivic cue material from earlier films. By reinstating this material, the score participates in the film’s broader effort to situate its aging protagonist within a recognizable musical past. Rather than functioning as character signifiers or even "Easter eggs," these cues reconstruct a prior sonic environment through the reinstatement and recontextualization of earlier materials. This positions the film as a form of musical historiography: the score curates and stabilizes its own past, highlighting moments central to the franchise’s musical identity. Considered alongside broader theories of musical borrowing, this practice suggests that self-quotation in franchise cinema functions not only as reference but also as a means of shaping the franchise’s musical memory. The selective revival of particular cues—especially from The Last Crusade—reveals an internal logic through which the series structures its musical past, providing a context for observing processes of musical memory and historical positioning in practice. | |