Lecture 3 and 4: The Silent Era Flashcards
(42 cards)
1
Q
Baroque period
A
- 1600- 1750
- key composers = Vivaldi, Handel, Bach
- development of common practice = major/minor system of music theory
- musical structures most important
- very precise,
even tempos, consistent textures, terraced dynamics, counterpoint
2
Q
Example of Baroque music
A
- J.S. Bach
- “Brandenburg Concerto No. 6” - 3rd movement
- 1721
3
Q
Classical period
A
- 1730 - 1820
- key composers = Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven
- greater focus on melody and emotion
- melody is more clearly articulated (unlike counterpoint in Baroque)
- expanding variety of tempo, texture, and dynamics
4
Q
Example of Classical music
A
- W.A. Mozart
- “Symphony No. 40” - 1st movement
- 1788
5
Q
Romantic period
A
- 1800 - 1910
- important influence on film music
- key composers = Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Strauss
- expression of emotion was most important
- form must serve in order to illustrate emotion
- program music, through composed
- even greater range of tempo, texture, and dynamics
6
Q
Program music
A
- music that aims to illustrate a narrative or event
7
Q
Through composed
A
- composer goes wherever they want to go
8
Q
Example of Romantic music
A
- R. Wagner
- “The Magic Fire Music” from Die Walkure
- 1870
- this was on the temp track for Star Wars
9
Q
Melodramas
A
- prominent in the 19th century
- melodramas are plays with a lot of accompanying music
- deliberately over emotional (similar to soap operas)
- important precursor to the music in films
10
Q
The silent era
A
- 1895 - 1927
11
Q
The persistence of vision
A
- if you speed up still images at a rate of around 10 images a second, we begin to see continuous motion
- our brain fills in the missing gaps
12
Q
Zoopraxiscope
A
- 1879
- projects several images to present the illusion of movement
- photography starts to develop
- technology starts to work out
13
Q
Thomas Edison
A
- Kinetoscope (1891) = peephole viewer with a continuous loop of film, showed moments of life
- Kinetophone (1895) = a kinetoscope with a phonograph installed in the box
- could only be seen by one viewer
14
Q
Problem with synchronization
A
- hard to get a phonograph playing on a similar motor loop as the film motor
- mechanical problems
15
Q
First projected films
A
- the Lumiere Brothers
- Paris
- December 28th, 1895
- “The Arrival of a Train”
- showed an event, no narrative
- demonstration of technology
- from the beginning, music played when movies played
16
Q
Reasons for musical accompaniment
A
- pragmatic = mechanical noise/mechanical problems
- psychoanalytic = audience disturbed by ghost-like images, music gave life
- continuity of tradition = long history of musical accompaniment for visual presentation
17
Q
Approaches to music in the silent era
A
- originally composed = least used, becomes more common in the 1920s
- adaptations of classical music = commonly used
- arrangements of popular songs = commonly used
18
Q
Vaudeville theatres
A
- form of live variety show
- during intermissions, they started showing movies (short clips)
- movies were called “photoplays” for a while
- over the next couple of decades, movies will become more popular, causing the downfall of Vaudeville
- musical accompaniment provided by Vaudeville orchestra
- not actually done to synchronize with the film played
- Vaudeville would travel around with a small collection of musicians
19
Q
Nickelodeons
A
- 1905
- costs 5 cents to get in
- in buildings that were not built to be movie theatres
- music was accompanied
- range of talent/type music was extraordinary
- music provided by piano, player piano, small ensemble or gramophone
20
Q
Player piano
A
- piano that plays itself
- clockwork
21
Q
Growth of Nickelodeons
A
- 1907 = 3,000
- 1910 = 10,000
- popularity is growing
22
Q
George Melies
A
- early experimenter with camera effects
- A Trip to the Moon (1902)
- over 10 mins in length
- father of the fantasy film
- inventing costumes, set design, series of scenes in different locations, special effects
- each frame was hand painted
- linear narrative
23
Q
Edwin Porter
A
- The Great Train Robbery (1903)
- first narrative film to use cross cutting
- consensus was that people might not understand cross cutting, but it turned out to be understandable
24
Q
Cross cutting
A
- showed plot lines that were taken place in different times or locations
25
1905 - 1910
- narrative films become most important element
- film become longer, plots become more complex
- change in musical aesthetic from entertaining the audience to playing the picture
- filmmakers want to standardize the music
26
1910 - 1920
- film industry matures
- becomes a big business and makes a lot of money
- studios start to appear to make motion pictures
- films become longer, more sophisticated
27
Movie palaces
- 1912
- made for the sole purpose to show movies
- far more grandiose than theatres today, incredibly ornate
28
Larger orchestras
- 1910 - 1920
- 70-90 person orchestras
- showed up every night to play movies
29
Theatre organs
- 1910 - 1920
- theatre organ becomes very popular
- can be used as a complement to the orchestra, or solo
- can vary the quality of its sound due to stops
- some organs even had built in sections for sound effects
- Wurlitzer = largest organ maker in the US
30
Rise of Hollywood
- film industry was previously scattered all over North America
- Thomas Edison = until 1910, he was trying to establish a monopoly
- taking out patents on every piece of film industry that he could
- place in Southern California decided they would not enforce Edison's illegal patents
- people started moving to Hollywood
31
Film industries in Europe (1910 - 1920)
- in 1914, WWI stops filmmaking in Europe
- Europe spent the next 20 years trying to recover, then WWII broke out
- French film industry was more advanced than the US, but it falls behind
32
First attempt at standardizing musical accompaniment
- 1909
- Edison Film Company releases “musical suggestions” with each film
- these were the first “cue sheets” with general scene-by-scene suggestions
33
Max Winkler
- 1912
- Carl Fischer Music
- suggests specific pieces of music, with timings
- films would be shipped with the cue sheets, might also include music
- still can’t standardize the instruments or the quality of music
- problems with parts getting lost or damaged
- musicians might not be good enough, or they would dismiss the choices
34
Resource books
- Sam Fox Moving Picture Music (Vol 1, 1913) J.S. Zamenik
- selling sets of books that had hundreds of simplified bits of music coded by mood
- hurry music
- didn’t necessarily standardize music performance because people had different resource books, but there was the same type of music
35
Hurry music
- term comes from melodramas
| - music performed during a chase scene or race to the rescue
36
Trade papers
- Motion Picture World, Moving Picture World
- as film becomes a big business, magazines were aimed at the world of film
- some magazines aimed at fans, but some at those in the film industry
- eg. articles on cinematography, costuming, music
37
Trade paper music conventions
- continuous
- reproducing source music
- song-title references / popular music is bad taste
- use of theme transformation (1910)
- romantic / classical / baroque era was considered the best taste
38
Changes to music by the mid 1920s
- no real change
- vast range of performing forces and skills
- missing cue sheets and scores
- issues of control
39
Birth of a Nation - Controversy
- stunning achievement for film complexity, narrative and story work
- it is outrageously racist, was banned in many Northern cities, or edited in many cities
- deals with events surrounding the American Civil War, but the KKK are the heroes
- told from the perspective of South, slavery should not have been abolished
40
Birth of a Nation - Music Composition
- March 1915
- composer/adaptor = Joseph Carl Breil
- director = D.W. Griffith (Hollywood's first great director)
- Carli Elinor = a music fitter, compiled pre-existing music
- Breil, American born, European trained musician and composer
- assembles a continuous score ⅔ similar to Elinor, but ⅓ original material
- there a variety of versions
41
Birth of a Nation - Version 1
- arranged by Breil
- folk song = Dixie, associated with the southern United States, positive, uplifting, presented as a march
- performed by by a competent, mid-size orchestra
- music makes sense throughout most of the scene, except for the ending
42
Birth of Nation - Version 2
- small orchestra, smaller sound
- they play a march through the march sequence
- but, the music changes when we see the family going back to the house
- where you see the film would have a major impact on how you perceived the film
