The Magic of Film Music

How a Score Changes What You're Watching

Dr Matt Lawson has spent his career picking apart why a swell of strings can make you well up before you've registered why, and this talk is him walking an audience through that mechanism directly rather than leaving it to work on you unnoticed. He researches film music at Oxford Brookes University, and for one evening the Corn Exchange gets the lecture theatre version of that work.

The talk runs from the piano accompanists of the silent-film era through to the scores behind today's blockbusters, tracing what a century of composers learned about pacing, structure and emotional manipulation. Expect audio and film clips played alongside the commentary, anecdotes drawn from decades of scores, and a working explanation of how music decides what you feel before the dialogue catches up.

You will not watch a film the same way again after this one.

Saturday 5 September 2026 · Corn Exchange, Market Square, Witney, Oxfordshire OX28 6AB · Starts 7:30pm