a Breif overview of the history of music in film

1. A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF
MUSIC IN CINEMA

2. ROOTS
 The root of music in film harks back to the Greek melodrams a
cross between a play and fledgling opera in which spoken word is
accompanied by music
 Melodrams then developed into opera’s, then number opera’s (those
composed of a collection of closed pieces) , continuous operas (those
including nonstop music),
 This resulted in the invention of leitmotifs or themes recurring throughout
a work that were meant to evoke associations with an idea, character, or
place ( Wagner)
 Wagner pioneered the idea of pairing all of the arts together in an opera
- for example, music (the score), poetry (libretto), and painting (scenery)
- without giving precedence to any of them.
 Named it ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’, it was a revolutionary idea, but didn’t
gain popularity

3. PROGRESSION (SILENT MOVIES)
 First known pairing of music in film was December 28, 1895 when a
Parisian family (the Lumieres) gave a screening with piano
accompaniment to test public reaction to their films
 The idea caught on quickly, and less than two months later entire
orchestras were accompanying films in London theaters
 Music at the time was surely not intended to affect the film's emotional
import, the compositions played ranged from light popular music to
traditional classical, with no relation to the subject of the film whatsoever
The exact reasoning behind using music in conjunction with the silent
film is the subject of much speculation. Popular opinion among music
theorists holds that its purpose was manifold: to cover up the sound of a
noisy projector, and later, when technology quieted the latter, to
alleviate uncomfortable silence.

4. THE FIRST FUNDAMENTAL STEP
 Directors began to realize that unrelated music detracted
from the movies in which they were used
 Music handbooks, compendiums of musical themes meant
to suit a particular action, style, scene, or mood, drawing on
Wagner's leitmotif principle.
 These themes were categorized by general names such as
"Nature," "Nation and Society," and "Church and State," as
well as more specific ones, like "Happy," "Climbing," "Night:
threatening mood," and "Impending doom: 'something is
going to happen.'“
 This developed further when sound in film was created. Film
scoring as we know it today