The Function of Music in Sound Film, teksty o muzyce
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The Function of Music in Sound Film
Author(s): Marian Hannah Winter
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Apr., 1941), pp. 146-164
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The Musical
Quarterly.
THE
FUNCTION
OF MUSIC
IN
SOUND
FILM
By
MARIAN HANNAH
WINTER
0
MANY
the most interesting
domainof functionalmusicis the
sound
film,
yet
the literatureon it includes
only
one
major
work-Kurt London's "Film Music"
(1936),
a
general history
that contains much useful
information,
but
unfortunately
omits
vital materialon French and German
avant-garde
film music as
well as on film music of the Russians and Americans. Carlos
Chavez
provides
a
stimulating
forecastof sound-film
possibilities
in
"Toward a New Music"
(1937).
Two short
chapters
by
V. I.
Pudovkin in his "Film
Technique"
( 933)
arebrillianttheoretical
treatises
by
one of the foremost
figures
in cinema.There is an ex-
tensive
periodical
literature,
ranging
from considered
expositions
of the
composer's
function in film
production
to brief cultist mani-
festos.
Early
movies were
essentially
action in a
simplified,
super-
heroic
style.
For these films an emotional index of familiarmusic
was
compiled by
the lone
pianist
who was musical director and
performer.
As
motion-picture output expanded,
demandson the
pianist
becamemore
complex;
a
logical development
was the com-
pilation
of
musicalthemes for
love,
grief,
hate,
pursuit,
and other
cinematic
fundamentals,
in a volume from which the
pianist
might
assemble
any
accompaniment,supplying
a few modulations for
transitionfrom
one theme to another.Most notable of the collec-
tions was
the Kinotek of
Giuseppe
Becce: A standardwork of the
kind in
the United States was Erno
Rapee's
"Motion Picture
Moods".
During
the
early years
of motion
pictures
in America few
original
film scores were
composed:
D. W. Griffith's
productions,
for which
William Carl Breil combined
original
and
compiled
music into
special
scores,
were
exceptions.
Performed
by
an or-
chestra
that travelledwith the movies
during
first
runs,
these were
later
rented in
piano
reductionsto small town and
neighborhood
theatres.
As movies attained further
importance
this
practice
be-
came almost universal.Craftsmen
such as
Riesenfeld, Axt,
Men-
146
The Function of Music in Sound
Film
147
doza and
Rapee, usually
conductors of movie
palace
orchestras,
arranged,compiled
and
occasionally composed special
music. At
best,
as in Axt and Mendoza'sscore for "The
Big
Parade"
(1925),
they gave
felicitous
"background"
music,
"expressing"
emotions
by
certain musical cliches.
Surprisingly
little effective use was
madeof the
jazz
idiom.
Both the older and
younger
schools of "serious"American
composers
were indifferent to movies
during
the
twenties;
Fred-
erick Converse's score for "Puritan Passions"
(I923),
Deems
for
"Janice
Meredith"
(1924)
and Mortimer Wilson's
Taylor's
for "The Thief of
Bagdad"
(I924)
and other Fairbanks
films,
were rare
phenomena.
Young
American
composers
attracted to the medium went
abroad to work with
avant-gardedirectors,
who were
evolving
valuablecinematic
techniques
and
creating
opportunities
for com-
posers
to become an
integralpart
of film
production.
A functional
concept
of film music
emerged, opposed
to scores that stemmed
from the
early piano pastiches.
France had
early
taken the lead. When Films
d'Art,
organized
in
1907,
wishedto
demonstrate
the artisticmeritsof
cinema,
it not
only
induced membersof the Comedie
FranSaise
to act L'Assas-
sinat du duc de Guise
(1908),
but commissionedCamille Saint-
Saens
to
compose
an
appropriate
orchestralscore.
"Programmatic"
and
"descriptive",
the score is
particularlyinteresting
for its verbal
indicationsof film
action,
corresponding
to a cue-sheet.
As American films
gained ascendancy
in the
popular
com-
mercial
field,
the
arrangerprospered.
It was not until the twenties
that a consistent collaboration between
distinguishedEuropean
composers
and film directors achieved results that indicated the
future usesof film music.
Arthur
Honegger
was the first noted modern attractedto the
movies. La Roue
(1922),
for which his first film score was com-
posed,
had been directed
by
Abel Gance over a
two-year
period
during
which
Honegger
was a collaborator.This score included
some
popularsongs, although
it was in no sense
"compiled".
To
synchronize
music andfilm
efficiently
Honegger employed
the
Cinepupitre
of Pierre Delacommune.This
apparatus
recorded
the
rhythm
of successions of sounds. A later
improvement
was
made
by
C. R.
Blum,
the
Rhythmonome,
which was to
"register
the
living rhythm
of
music,
speech
or other successionof sounds
148
The Musical
Quarterly
'phonorhythmically'by
electrical
recording
on a
tape running
at
determinable
speed.
In this
way
the time-valuesof such
soundsare
translatedinto
correspondingspace-values.Every rhythm
in sound
is
thereby
rendered
apparent
to
sight.
This
'rhythmogram'
is thus
the
opticalrepresentation
of otherwise
rhythmicalsound-processes,
as the
phonogram
is their acoustical
reproduction."
(C.
R.
Blum,
tr.
by
Kurt London in "Film
Music").
Honegger's activity during
the silent-film
era included scores
for Abel Gance's
gigantic
Napoleon
(I925-I926),
in which the
screen was divided into three
partsshowing simultaneously
three
different scenes of
action,
and Claude Autant-Lara's
Fait-Divers
(1924).
In
1924
the Ballet Suedois
produced
Relache,
a ballet with
cinema
entr'acte,
actually
entitled
Entr'acte,
directed
by
Rene
Clair,
scenario
by
the
painter
Francis Picabia
and music
by
Erik
Satie.The Satie
legend
hasobscured
the fact that he was one of the
first to understandthe effectiveness
of film music that was not
accompaniment,
but a
commentary-retaining
its own line-on
the action. Satie
recognized
that
through montage
(editing)
the
rhythm
of the film was established.
In
Entr'acte,
melody
becomes
an
accessory
to the
rhythmic
and
harmonic
elements,
which form
a series of units often
directly
attached
to each other without
modulations,
or
by
brief melodic interludes.
Only
one of these
units
reappears,coming periodically
with
dynamic
emphasis.
The middle section of this
film,
tinged
with surrealiste
humor,
depicts
a fantastic funeral
cortege,
with the hearse drawn
by
a
camel,
and a
motley entourage
of mourners
consuming
the
couronnesde
funerailles,
which aremadeof
bread,
as
they
follow.
This
procession,
shot in slow
motion and accentuated
by
a
mock
lugubrious
horn
theme,
gradually
acceleratesto a
precipitouspur-
suit after the
hearse,
which hasbrokenloose
and
careened
away
on
its own momentum
(the
speed
and
humorousnatureof which
are
indicated
rhythmically
by
wooden
claquettes).
At no
point
does
the music
impinge
on the
primary
and
legiti-
mate
logic
(or
illogic)
of the film
image.
In
principle,
as
P.-D.
Templier
has
noted,
it is almost an extension
of the
musique
d'ameublement.l
Like most
good
film music
it should be heard
with
its
picture.
1
Concerning
Satie's introduction
of
musique
d'ameublement,
see
Constant Lam-
bert's "Music
Ho!", p.
I32.
To the
left.
The Bearded
Lady
in
the Film Entr'actefor
Satie's Ballet
Relache
(France,
1924)
To the
right.
Film
Sequence
from
"Venusand
Adonis'',
Score
by
Paul Bowles
(U.
S.
A., 1935)
"Still" from
Jean
Cocteau's surrealiste film Le
Sang
d'un
Poete,
Score
by Georges
Auric
(France,
1932)
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