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Photoplay music
Photoplay music is incidental music, soundtrack music, and themes written specifically for the accompaniment of silent films.
Early films (c. 1890–1910) merely relied on classical and popular repertory, mixed usually with improvisation by whatever accompanist was playing (usually a pianist).
Around 1910, folios of photoplay music began being published by companies such as Sam Fox Music and Academic Music. These were only a minute or so long and could not sustain an entire feature, but were used to fill in scenes where music was not popularly written (such as "misteriosos" for scenes of mystery, etc.). One example of such a piece is Mysterioso Pizzicato, which appeared in a 1914 photoplay music collection compiled by J. Bodewalt Lampe and whose main motif has endured as a cliche for stealth and villainy in a wide selection of music and films thereafter. A version of this theme is contrasted with a hero's theme (ⓘ). Composers noted for their photoplay music include John Stepan Zamecnik and Gaston Borch.
When it comes to producing a film score for a silent film, there were three types: improvised, compiled, and original.
Improvised scores were solely played on organ or piano. The musical conductor played whatever he felt necessary to set the mood for the scene.
According to Richard Koszarski's book "An Evening's Entertainment", a survey was sent out in the mid-1920s to 10,000 out of about 15,000 theaters in America. Of those that responded to the survey, approximately 50% used theater organs, 25% used piano only, and 25% used orchestras (two or more players).
For those using orchestras, improvisation was difficult and a compiled score was preferred. The studio would hire a company to produce a cue sheet; generally three to four pages of listings of photoplay music, classical or popular standards from their library. This concept of a "compilation score" was invented around 1910. The Edison Film Company was among the first to use this method of scoring film.
The cue sheet would list the title and author of a song, when to play it, roughly how long to play it for, and the publisher of the piece. Quite often, further notes were given of sound effects, tempo, and so on, so that every important factor of the film could be supervised. The musical director of a theater then went through the theater's music collection (generally listed by tempo) and picked out the appropriate cue. If he did not have that particular cue, he could replace it with another suitable piece, or order it through the company that created the cue sheet. A typical theater's music library could consist of a couple thousand to tens of thousands of pieces, depending on the budget of the theater.
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Photoplay music
Photoplay music is incidental music, soundtrack music, and themes written specifically for the accompaniment of silent films.
Early films (c. 1890–1910) merely relied on classical and popular repertory, mixed usually with improvisation by whatever accompanist was playing (usually a pianist).
Around 1910, folios of photoplay music began being published by companies such as Sam Fox Music and Academic Music. These were only a minute or so long and could not sustain an entire feature, but were used to fill in scenes where music was not popularly written (such as "misteriosos" for scenes of mystery, etc.). One example of such a piece is Mysterioso Pizzicato, which appeared in a 1914 photoplay music collection compiled by J. Bodewalt Lampe and whose main motif has endured as a cliche for stealth and villainy in a wide selection of music and films thereafter. A version of this theme is contrasted with a hero's theme (ⓘ). Composers noted for their photoplay music include John Stepan Zamecnik and Gaston Borch.
When it comes to producing a film score for a silent film, there were three types: improvised, compiled, and original.
Improvised scores were solely played on organ or piano. The musical conductor played whatever he felt necessary to set the mood for the scene.
According to Richard Koszarski's book "An Evening's Entertainment", a survey was sent out in the mid-1920s to 10,000 out of about 15,000 theaters in America. Of those that responded to the survey, approximately 50% used theater organs, 25% used piano only, and 25% used orchestras (two or more players).
For those using orchestras, improvisation was difficult and a compiled score was preferred. The studio would hire a company to produce a cue sheet; generally three to four pages of listings of photoplay music, classical or popular standards from their library. This concept of a "compilation score" was invented around 1910. The Edison Film Company was among the first to use this method of scoring film.
The cue sheet would list the title and author of a song, when to play it, roughly how long to play it for, and the publisher of the piece. Quite often, further notes were given of sound effects, tempo, and so on, so that every important factor of the film could be supervised. The musical director of a theater then went through the theater's music collection (generally listed by tempo) and picked out the appropriate cue. If he did not have that particular cue, he could replace it with another suitable piece, or order it through the company that created the cue sheet. A typical theater's music library could consist of a couple thousand to tens of thousands of pieces, depending on the budget of the theater.