Music; a newbie question

I don't know the answer to your question, but I just wanted to say it's a great question! I hope someone who knows the answer posts.


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http://www.CaliforniaDreamsPhotography.com

Thanks. I was a little surprised to get a reply this quickly; this board doesn't seem to be one of the more active ones here. Gee, aren't there more Harold Lloyd fans out there? :)

I've heard, but I'm not sure about this, that The Birth of a Nation (1915) was shown with an orchestra playing accompaniment, and that there was an actual score or something similar that the orchestra worked from. But I'm assuming that this was the exception, not the rule, which was why I stressed "typical" in my post; I should have made that more clear.

Now that I think of it, my knowledge of how silent movies were actually shown is pretty much limited to Hollywood depictions of silent films being shown, a la scenes in The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) showing the Clampetts enjoying a Tom Mix movie while Cousin Pearl Bodine plays piano. Funny enough, but I'm not completely confident of such depictions' accuracy. ;)

And were they actually screened with music or were they literally silent films? No sound whatsoever?

That's the problem with 'silent' movies, they were never truly silent. A 'typical' silent movie showing was mostly accompanied by live piano (or organ) music, played by an in-house musician. Early on most silent films did not come with a dedicated score, but were provided with 'cue' sheets. On these sheets, cues were given for the mood of the scenes in the film and what kind of music would fit that particular sequence. 'Comical', 'romantic', 'tense', etc were descriptions helping the piano player decide on what piece to play for any particular sequence. Sometimes the cue sheets came with suggestions for existing (classical) music to be played for the film, but most of the time the piano player had his own repertoire which he used to accompany the film.

When around the mid teens the first true feature films were produced some directors and film companies figured that the film deserved a dedicated score. This was still a rare occasion, since the music could not be directly attached to the film and remained dependent on live performances. Germany was really the first country truly adding dedicated scores to film in the early 20's. But they were still no more than suggested pieces, leaving it up to the theater to decide if they wanted to use it.

So yes, many silent films have no dedicated score, leaving it up to the distributor to figure out what to when releasing it this day and age. Most scores you hear these days with silent movies are original 'modern' compositions not heard when the movies were originally released. Simply, because there is no way of telling what was originally played when these movies screened.



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And were they actually screened with music or were they literally silent films? No sound whatsoever?It's always been my understanding that silent movies were viewed with live accompaniment, usually a piano or organ. My information comes both from personal sources, i.e., my mother [who barely remembered silent movies, as she was a child at the tail-end of that era] and grandmother, and also from sources such as movie history documentaries and such. I don't think a truly SILENT silent movie would've gone over too well with moviegoers!


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http://www.CaliforniaDreamsPhotography.com

Thank you!

Early on most silent films did not come with a dedicated score, but were provided with 'cue' sheets. On these sheets, cues were given for the mood of the scenes in the film and what kind of music would fit that particular sequence. 'Comical', 'romantic', 'tense', etc [...]

Thanks, that's very helpful. I suspected it had to be something like this; but I don't know, and I found out long ago that assuming gets you into trouble ... ;) But let's face it, any dedicated music would have to be planned so that it could be easily learned by all sorts of unknown performers of varying levels of ability and experience. Far better to just let the individual musicians do whatever they're capable of.

I don't mind hearing new scores with silent films, since as you said, there's no single "correct" answer to what the music is "supposed to be" anyway. But I have to say that I do find it a little jarring to hear modern instrumentation; synthesizers, et cetera; e.g., Kino's release of D. W. Griffith's "Intolerance". Not that I plan on watching that again anytime soon. 

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I looked, but seems the link is broken.

On Twitter: www.twitter.com/Rickathemovies

I looked, but seems the link is broken.

And fixed.... Thanks :)


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