Film Music History and Scoring Concepts

A set of vocabulary flashcards defining key concepts, film scoring terms, technical stages, and historical eras from Lecture 1 through Lecture 3.

Suspension of Disbelief

The audience's willingness to trust the reality of a film's narrative story, which film conventions attempt to preserve even when adding non-diegetic music.

Diegesis

The world of the film narrative, encompassing all characters, events, settings, and objects depicted, suggested, or described.

Diegetic Music

Music whose source originates within the narrative world (diegesis), making it audible to both the characters and the film audience; also called source music, direct music, or foreground music.

Non-diegetic Music

Music heard only by the film audience and not by the characters within the narrative; commonly referred to as the score, underscore, or background music.

Score

Music written specifically to accompany a film, typically composed after the film has been shot and edited.

Soundtrack

In film industry terminology, a collection of pre-existing popular songs selected to be used in a film.

Compiled Score

A film score consisting entirely of pre-existing musical selections rather than original compositions, as seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Playing the Drama

A conceptual approach to film scoring where the music primarily reinforces emotional elements, character thoughts, and underlying narrative meaning.

Hitting the Action

A conceptual approach to film scoring where the music directly accents and synchronizes with physical events and movement on screen.

Mickey Mousing

An extreme technique of matching musical accents precisely to visual physical actions on screen, commonly used in cartoon animation scoring.

Thematic Transformation

The process of taking a specific musical motif or melody associated with a character, object, or concept through varied musical alterations to reflect narrative developments.

Consonance

Musical harmony characterized by order, stability, and alignment with the major scale, conveying a sense of resolution and stability.

Dissonance

Musical harmony characterized by chaotic, unstable, or angular notes outside the major scale, generating a feeling of mystery, uncertainty, or danger.

Preproduction

The initial planning phase of film creation involving scripting, financing, casting, costume and set design, and location scouting.

Production

The phase of filmmaking involving principal photography, where the actual filming of actors and scenes takes place.

Postproduction

The final stage of filmmaking where takes are edited together, visual/audio effects are added, and the original musical score is composed, recorded, and mixed.

Assembly Cut

An early stage of film editing that includes every usable shot filmed, resulting in a version significantly longer than the intended final release.

Rough Cut

A preliminary version of a film that is close to completion but still undergoing noticeable structural edits and timing adjustments.

Fine Cut

Also known as a locked cut, the stage where scene editing and timing are finalized, allowing the composer to begin writing music to exact timecodes.

Spotting Session

A collaborative meeting where the director, composer, and music editor watch the fine cut to decide where music cues should begin, end, and what style they should take.

Cue

A specific piece of music written and timed to accompany a particular scene or segment in a film.

Spotting Notes

A detailed cue sheet created by the music editor listing cue identification numbers, exact start/stop timecodes (hh:mm:ss:frames), and descriptive notes.

Temp Tracks

Temporary pieces of existing music inserted into a film during editing to provide work-in-progress screenings with a finished feel before the final score is written.

Orchestrator

A specialist trained in composition and music theory who expands a composer's sketch score into fully detailed individual parts for each orchestral instrument.

Baroque Period

A Western classical music era (1600–1750) characterized by common practice theory, structured forms, even tempos, consistent textures, and terraced dynamics.

Classical Period

A Western classical music era (1730–1820) featuring an increased emphasis on melody and emotion, alongside dynamic variations in tempo, texture, and volume.

Romantic Period

A Western classical music era (1800–1910) centered on dramatic emotional expression and narrative storytelling, serving as the foundational style for modern film scores.

Persistence of Vision

An optical perception phenomenon where presenting a rapid series of images at approximately 12 pictures per second causes the human brain to process them as seamless motion.

Kinetoscope

A 1891 invention by Thomas Edison that functioned as a peephole viewer for watching continuous loops of moving image film.

Kinetophone

An 1895 device by Thomas Edison combining a Kinetoscope viewer with an internal phonograph to play recorded audio alongside images.

Nickelodeons

Early dedicated storefront movie theaters established around 1905, charging a nickel for continuous film viewing accompanied by live instruments or gramophones.

Movie Palaces

Large, purpose-built motion picture theaters first constructed in 1912, designed with shallow stages, large orchestra pits, and theatre organs for live musical accompaniment.