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In the years before the First World War, showmen, entrepreneurs, educators, and scientists used magic lanterns and cinematographs in many contexts and many venues. To employ these silent screen technologies to deliver diverse and complex programs usually demanded audio accompaniment, creating a performance of both sound and image. These shows might include live music, song, lectures, narration, and synchronized sound effects provided by any available party-projectionist, local talent, accompanist or backstage crew-and would often borrow techniques from shadow plays and tableaux vivants. The performances were not immune to the influence of social and cultural forces, such as censorship or reform movements. This collection of essays considers the ways in which different visual practices carried out at the turn of the 20th century shaped performances on and beside the screen.

'The Sounds of Silent Films' is a collection of investigatory and theoretical essays that unite up-to-date research on the complex historical performance practices of silent film accompaniment with in-depth analyses of relevant case studies.

The Allgemeines Handbuch der Film-Musik was published by Hans Erdmann, Ludwig Brav, and Giuseppe Becce in 1927 by the Berlin-based publisher Schlesinger. It represents the most comprehensive and undoubtedly most significant document pertaining to the practice of \"silent\"-film accompaniment during the 1920s in Germany. The four hundred-page work is divided into two volumes: The first one delivers an elaborate aesthetic and theoretical debate about the prevalent and ideal methods of film accompaniment, and the second volume contains a cinema music catalog, the so-called Thematisches Skalenregister (Thematic Music Index), with over three thousand musical incipits. While the Handbuch was firmly grounded in the musical practice of cinema musicians, the two parts were not solely intended as a manual to facilitate the fast-paced working routine of practitioners, like the numerous cinema music catalogs that were published in Germany in the wake of Becce's Kinotheken (1919-1929). In these catalogs, music pieces of various origins were organized according to certain parameters in order to satisfy the musico-dramatic demands of day-to-day \"silent\"-film accompaniment. The pieces were interpreted for their extramusical associations and labeled under specific semantic categories in order to be used for specific and recurrent types of film scenes. This labeling of music was based on the tradition of \"musical hermeneutics,\" and it inspired the conception of the Handbuch's second volume, the Thematic Music Index, which is a complex and multilayered classification system for cinema music. Thus, in addition to providing a precise method for film accompaniment, the Handbuch contains a theory and an aesthetics that applies the music-hermeneutical ideas of German musicologist Hermann Kretzschmar to the practice of film accompaniment. Kretzschmar (1848-1924) located the core problem of musical hermeneutics--a discipline of music analysis that essentially studies musical meaning and interpretation--in the nomenclature of musical expression, which formed the basis of the musical accompaniment method in \"silent\" cinema. This essay focuses on the influence of Kretzschmar's theory of musical hermeneutics on the indexing system of the Handbuch as well as on the author's intentions to ground their work in academic theory.

The Vindobona series by Universal Edition is a unique case among mood music collections for “silent” film accompaniment. It is a collection that, starting in 1927, published salon orchestra adaptations of music by, to name but a few, Strauss, Mahler, Schreker, Janácek, Bartók, Křenek, Weill, and Zemlinsky. This list by itself is enough to make it a document of undoubted historical value—a document that helps us understand the specificities, as well as the limitations, of musical Modernism’s reception in the practice of the musical accompaniment for moving pictures in German-speaking countries.

The notion of \"film restoration\" raises considerable problems for research into silent-film music. Handwritten scores with the orchestration intended by their authors are rare; in cases where piano scores have been preserved, these were often produced in a different context and for a completely different purpose. In contrast, a large repertoire of mood music pieces has come down to us from the silent film era, which according to their nature, however, could either precede a \"musical illustration\" or descend from it a posteriori. Musical documents of such varied nature, which could represent completely different moments in the compositional process, raise notable problems of interpretation when they are assumed as the starting point for \"film-music restoration.\" In contrast to an alleged authenticity, emphatically proclaimed for mostly commercial reasons, it will be noted that even the most historically accurate procedures of film-music reconstruction often require arbitrary interventions in the musical documents, which imply different assumptions regarding the ontological status of the score and the film, as well as their respective authorships. It is surprising to find a similar level of arbitrariness even in the most celebrated exemplar of film-music restoration in recent years: Strobel's reconstruction of Huppertz's score for the film Metropolis. Despite all declared claims for philological completeness and historical truthfulness, the reconstruction of this silent-film score proves rather to be a process of translation and adaptation. The final result of such a procedure is not only historically new and indirectly derivable from the state of the sources, but also completely rooted in the aesthetic expectations of the present era.

The question undoubtedly crossed your mind last November when the FIAF Executive Committee announced that the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) had been accepted as an associate member. The answer can be found in the founding charter of our non-profit organization, the purpose and mission of which is summarized as: * to entertain and educate the general public with organized exhibitions of lesser-known silent films and musical accompaniment, * to organize and sponsor lectures and demonstrations on the historical, technical, and social aspects of silent film, * to offer displays of relevant historical objects such as film production equipment, costumes, photographs, etc., * to assist and provide for the restoration and preservation of silent film. Over the years, what originated as a simple, one-day local event has evolved into a four-day festival with an international reputation and our activities have expanded to include special screenings, lectures, student fellowships, and film preservation and restoration efforts. Drawing on expertise from around the world, the organization also includes a large and diverse advisory board comprised of archivists, filmmakers, historians, academics, writers, and enthusiasts, no small number of whom are affiliated with FIAF-member organizations. With prints sourced from the British Film Institute, the Cinémathèque française, EYE Film Institute, the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, George Eastman Museum, Lobster Films, the Swedish Film Institute, and our own SFSFF Collection, as well as studios, distributors, and private collections, our audience enjoyed treasures from the earliest days of motion pictures through the transition to sound.

Film Music: A History explains the development of film music by considering large-scale aesthetic trends and structural developments alongside socioeconomic, technological, cultural, and philosophical circumstances. The book’s four large parts are given over to Music and the \"Silent\" Film (1894--1927), Music and the Early Sound Film (1895--1933), Music in the \"Classical-Style\" Hollywood Film (1933--1960), and Film Music in the Post-Classic Period (1958--2008). Whereas most treatments of the subject are simply chronicles of \"great film scores\" and their composers, this book offers a genuine history of film music in terms of societal changes and technological and economic developments within the film industry. Instead of celebrating film-music masterpieces, it deals—logically and thoroughly—with the complex ‘machine’ whose smooth running allowed those occasional masterpieces to happen and whose periodic adjustments prompted the large-scale twists and turns in film music’s path. Part One: Music and the \"Silent\" Film (1894–1927) Chapter One: Origins, 1894–1905 Chapter Two: The Nickelodeon, 1905–1915 Chapter Three: Feature Films, 1915–1927 Part Two: ‘Classic’ Film Music (1927–1950) Chapter Four: The Coming of Sound (1927–1929) transition: Edison’s ideas Early technologies (pre-1927) (Edison, De Forester, etc.) Anticipations of a great future (Carl Van Vechten, George Antheil, etc.) Problems of amplification, synchronization Vitaphone: \"Don Juan,\" \"The Jazz Singer,\" etc. Other systems and their costs, usefulness, adaptations, etc. The immediate effect on the industry (cite numbers of installations, but also note persistence of ‘silent’ films in Japan, etc.) transition: the lines/scene from 1953 \"Singin’ in the Rain\" ??? Chapter Five: Early Sound Films (1929–1933) transition : the original \"Singin’ in the Rain’ The fad for musicals (cite the numbers) \"Steamboat Willie\" (the Disney innovations) anti-musical, pro-musical industry shifts ca. 1931 (draw from all the extra research done for the Gershwin article in JAMS) Approaches/aesthetics: wall-to-wall music vs. no music at all vs. only diegetic music (mention the various approaches in USSR, England, France, Germany, Italy, etc.) Early commentary in the trade press (on sound in general, on musicals, on music, on ‘theme songs’) transition : negative commentary on \"theme songs\" Chapter Six: Music in the Classical-Style Hollywood Film (1933–1950) transition : the reference to ‘theme song’ in \"King Kong\" Max Steiner and \"King Kong,\" \"The Informer\" (biographical info; earlier efforts) (info on how the \"KK\" score came about) Definitions of \"classical\" style (cite Gorbman, Kalinak, Bordwell, Flinn, etc.); then offer a better definition/discussion of the idea of the ‘classical’ film; lead up to the idea of ‘classical’ = standardization Standardization of genres Standardization of gestures: Standardization of production: The composers (individuals, certainly, but holding to a standardized approach nevertheless): Stothart, Waxman, Korngold, Kaper, Carl Stallings, Newman, Rozsa, Webb, Donan, Herrmann, etc. (their early accomplishments; their backgrounds; studio-director affiliations; basic approaches/styles …) Standardization of distribution: transition : post-war troubles for the ‘studio system’ (the coming of television, the Supreme Court decision for divestiture, the gross revenue tax ca. 1952) Part Three: Film Music in the Post-Classic Period (1950–2000) Chapter Seven: Post-War Innovations; Struggle for Survival (1950–1960) transition : disastrous economic effects on the studio system Hollywood reaction: breakdown of ‘studio system’; epics, musicals, Technicolor, 3-D, Cinerama The first \"soundtrack albums\" in the early 1950s (LPs) The close relationship between Hollywood and Broadway The rise of inexpensive scores (Ronald Stein for the Roger Corman films, etc. …) Introduction of pop music and jazz (\"Blackboard Jungle,\" teen rock movies, Elvis films, etc.) The sci-fi genre and electronic music (\"Forbidden Planet,\" \"Them!\", \"The Day the Earth Stood Still\" and many more) (but back up and deal with \"Spellbound\" (1945), \"The Lost Weekend\" (1945) and other theremin scores …) Best-selling songs (\"High Noon\" (1952); Henry Mancini …) Jazzy scores like \"On the Waterfront\" (1954), \"Baby Doll\" (1956), \"Anatomy of a Murder\" (1959), \"The Man with the Golden Arm\" (1955) Hitchcock-Herrmann: \"Vertigo\" (1958), \"North by Northwest\" (1959), \"Psycho\" (1960) Epics: \"Ben-Hur\" (1959), \"The Alamo,\" \"Spartacus\" (1960) : epic scores, w. overture, entr’acte, exit music. transition: budget considerations vs. a need to compete with television Chapter Eight: Eclecticism (1960–1980) transition: restrictions = opportunity ??? big themes, big songs: \"Dr. No\" (1962) (certainly this features a \"big\" song in the main titles …); \"Born Free\" (1966), \"Lawrence of Arabia\" (1962), \"The Way We Were\" (1973) (the first film to feature a \"big\" song in the end credits???) weird stuff: \"The Birds\" (1963), \"The Andromeda Strain\" (1971) \"THX 1138: (1971) Kubrick and eclecticism: \"Lolita\" (1962), \"Dr. Strangelove\" (1964) \"2001: A Space Odyssey\" (1968), \"A Clockwork Orange\" (1971) \"To Kill a Mockingbird\" (1962) compilation scores: \"The Graduate\" (1967), \"Easy Rider\" (1969), \"American Graffiti\" (1973) mixture scores (i.e., pop with classic style): \"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid\" (1969) ‘modernist’ scores: \"Jaws\" (1975), \"Apocalypse Now\" (1979), \"Planet of the Apes\" (1968) rebirth of the classic-style score: \"Star Wars\" (1977), \"Close Encounters of the Third Kind\" (1977), \"Superman\" (1978), \"Raiders of the Lost Ark\" (1981), \"E.T. – the Extraterrestrial\" (1982) [of course, these are all by John Williams; what about the other composers who jumped on the neo-classic bandwagon?] issues: the compilation score, the re-birth of the classic-style score transition: on to the postmodern age Chapter Nine: (1980–2000) New Definitions and New Uses of Film Music transition: define the \"postmodern\" as eclectic, non-linear, referential, etc. raises the question: what, exactly, is film music, anyway? What is a film score? mention the rise of technology that allows a composer to concoct a quasi-full score in a home studio (MIDI, sequencers, sound modules, ProTools, etc.) note rising interest in sound effects as music … note the new role of the ‘music supervisor’ (i.e., the acquirer of licensed materials …) \"The Terminator\" (1984) \"Die Hard\" (1988) Michael Kamen, James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman Diverse examples: \"The Terminator\" (1984), \"Die Hard\" (1988), \"Dirty Dancing\" (1987), \"Edward Scissorhands\" (1990), \"Thelma and Louise\" (1991), \"The Thin Red Line\" (1998), \"The Gladiator\" (2000) transition : so, where are we heading? Epilogue: (the twenty-first century) On the one hand, films like \"Harry Potter\" and \"Lord of the Rings\" suggest a return to tradition On the other hand, things, like \"Moulin Rouge\" (2001), \"Run, Lola, Run\" (1998), \"Kill Bill\" (2003) suggest an embrace of the \"postmodern condition\" by the film audience (at least, by the younger members thereof) James Wierzbicki is a musicologist who teaches at the University of Michigan and serves as executive editor of the American Musicological Society's Music of the United States of America series of scholarly editions. His current research focuses on twentieth-century music in general and film music and electronic music in particular.

Most people’s view of silent film music is of a pianist playing old warhorse scores while watching the flickering screen. This innovative book shows that there was much more to silent film music and that often it was planned from the start as an integral part of the film. The first of three volumes investigating film music, this book devotes one chapter to films before 1900 and Camille Saint-Saëns’s score for L’Assassinat du Duc de Guise (1908). Another chapter looks closely at film scores composed by Walter Cleveland Simon for several films of 1912. The two main chapters are devoted to significant films of the silent period, D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) and René Clair’s Entr’acte (1924). Breil’s Birth of a Nation score was a compilation of many sources, but, when played by an orchestra accompanying the film in a theatre showing, it often matched the epic nature of the film and was one source of its great popularity.

This thesis assesses the ways in which films related to Dada and Surrealism used sound techniques during the 1920s and 1930s. It argues that their audio-visual approaches were distinctive, and related to important concepts and strategies within the movements such as collage, juxtaposition, and the Surrealist 'marvellous.' Historical research is combined with close analysis and theoretical interpretation to examine the early sound film context in detail, while also bringing a new aural perspective to Dada and Surrealist cinema studies. The project addresses an important, yet neglected, part of film sound history, while also pushing art historical interpretation of these works beyond a long-held visual bias.Dada and Surrealist cinema's heyday coincided with the period of transition from silent to sound film, and several filmmakers associated with these movements, including Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dada­, Jean Cocteau, and Hans Richter, were at the forefront of this change, producing some of the earliest sound films in their countries of work. Audio-visual experimentation flourished during this period, providing opportunities for these and other filmmakers to try a range of provocative, idiosyncratic methods that prioritised irrationality and sensation.Dada and Surrealist practices were inherently heterogeneous, and their soundtrack approaches were too, mixing silent and sound film methods: from using pre-existing gramophone accompaniments to creating composite sound and image collages, from remixing dance music to silencing the leading lady. Informed by the contemporary debates around asynchrony and counterpoint, I investigate these experiments to establish what Dada or Surrealism audio-visuality actually was.This thesis is essentially a historical corrective, which questions assumptions about this film period, and reinterprets how Dada and Surrealist works fit into it. Case studies of works by Buñuel and Dada­, Cocteau, Richter, Man Ray, Len Lye, and Joseph Cornell illustrate discussions of pre-existing music use, audio collage techniques, and the role of voices. Sound is demonstrated to have been fundamental in creating the irrational, disorientating, or immersive experiences most valued in Dada and Surrealism film.