Rachel Portman and the Joy Luck Club

• Author / Creator

  Maltby, Sylvia

• Rachel Portman is a successful female film score composer known for her rich orchestral scores, many for films that can be classified as women's films. Portman has collaborated on several films with the Chinese-American film director Wayne Wang who in many of his films has explored the issues of ethnicity, identity and family relationships, particularly Chinese-American identity and the reconciliation of the traditions of the old homeland with the culture of the new-found home in America. The most well known of these films is The Joy Luck Club (1993), based on the novel of the same name written by Amy Tan in 1989. I have examined the means by which Portman's score has reinforced Wang's narrative in the use and juxtaposition of traditional Chinese music with modern American musical styles, as well as examining the women's film genre, its musical codification and Portman's style of composition.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Rachel Portman
  • Film score

• Graduation date

  Fall 2011

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3X91Q

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.