Film Music

Background/Context
Sound of Cinema – the History
As the video plays, make notes on key developments
What is the function of Film Music?
• To depict (e.g. a battle scene)
• To suggest place (use of the zither in The Third Man suggests Vienna)
• To suggest time (Pride and Prejudice)
• To enhance tension (Planet of the Apes: The Hunt)
• To provide a comic commentary (Passport to Pimlico)
• To enhance emotional impact (Schindler’s List)
• To suggest character or scene (use of Leitmotif, e.g. Star Wars)
• To provide unity to a film through repeated motifs (use of Leitmotifs, e.g.
Jaws).
• To appear in the film itself (diagetic music, e.g. a stage band or pianist)
Origins
• Film music started as live music played in cinemas by pianists or orchestras
• The earliest film music started c. 1916;
• by the mid-1920s composers such as Milhaud and Shostakovich produced specific
film scores.
• Techniques moved on with the first ‘talkie’, The Jazz Singer, (1927) and in
1928 The Air Circus established the technology of recording sound waves
into the film itself, ensuring synchronisation
• The first film composers had all emigrated from Europe and their music
had its roots in 19th Century Romanticism
• In the 1930s and 1940s major composers began to compose film music,
e.g. Prokofiev (Lieutenant Kijé) and Walton (Henry V).
• Some composers, e.g. Korngold, Steiner (Gone With The Wind 1949) and
Herrmann specialised in film music.