Film Music #2

The Film industry in the late 1920s to 1933 was all about singing, dancing, and talking. I did not know how big musicals were back then. The two primary approaches in Early Sound Films were quite innovative for that time period. The first approach was to have music throughout the entire production and the second approach was to use music only as source music. Music throughout the entire production was known as “wall-to-wall” music. Top Hat movie had much source music. One example would be the orchestras shown in and out of the concerts. Hollywood musicals were a popular genre. This type of film became prominent during the Great Depression as means for escapism. People needed to get away from the harsh realities of everyday life. I think more than the film itself, music has so much power to the heart in soothing and bringing positive or negative emotions. It’s interesting how music back then, even in their humors, had more depth then we do now.

Even though the country was going through such hardships, music seemed to be growing richly through Film music. Symphonic film score became popular in the 1930s. People were afraid in the early 1930s that the music would drown out the actors talking. The three godfathers of film composers are Alfred Newman, Max Steiner, and Dimitri Tiomkin. There were few Russian classical composers as well such as Dimitri Shostakovich (whom I love), Sergei Prokofiev, and Alexander Nevsky. During the film in class about how symphonic film music was created and shot really surprised me. The level of musicianship back then was so much more emphasized than now. The Newman system is punch through the filmstrip to show when there is a change of rhythm or a start and go. I thought that was the most brilliant invention ever. I am so interested in the Film industry. I would love to intern or work at a place like that.

Casablanca was very moving. There were lots of strong emotions going on through out the movie. I realized it wouldn’t have been that strong if there were no music. The music functioned to force attention to what’s going to happen on the screen. This kind of music came a lot when Rick and Ilsa were together alone. Every change of emotion or intentional feeling was portrayed in the music during their silence in thought. Casablanca was a great movie. But it was hard to focus on the music because of so much going on in the screen.