Music 246 Test 2

Transition to Sound

Synchronization was tricky

-Technical problems

Getting the audience used to the idea of sound was hard

- Many people thought films should be silent

- Talkies were seen as a fad

Early Film and Sound

1922

Short films that were less than a minute

Films came with a record - play both film and record and hope they stay synchronized

Sound on Film

Phonofilm and Movietone

- Phonofilm failed

Standard by the end of the 1920s

Movietone

First and one of the most successful approaches

Only required 1 motor

Visual and audio were on the same medium

- If a piece was damaged you could cut it out and both sound and visuals would get cut

Excellent synchronization

Poor audio quality

Sound on Disk - Vitaphone (Warner Bros)

Audio recording on a phonograph disk that synchronized to the film

Excellent audio quality

- Records were a mature technology

Poor synchronization

- Two mediums, difficult to keep them lined up even if they had one motor

If the film was damaged and cut, the sound would no longer be synchronized

Vitaphone - early lead on Movietone

- Records were soft - only could be played 20 times

Sunrise - 1928

Directed by R.W. Murnau

First full-length feature film using sound-on-film

Academy Award for Best Artistic Quality of Production - other movie won Best Production

- Later changed Best Production to Best Picture

1970 - listed as the second greatest film of all time

Many consider it to be the best of all the silent films

Don Juan - 1926

Starred John Barrymore (Drew's grandfather)

Recorded score by William Axt

- Performed by NY Philharmonic

Recorded sound effects and music on Vitaphone - no dialogue

Second score for live performance

- Few theatres had a Vitaphone system

- 20k movie theatres and a few dozen had a Vitaphone

- Would have musicians on hand in case the technology broke or to play for other films

The Jazz Singer - 1927

95% conventional silent film

- One scene with synchronized dialogue - first talking motion picture

-Dialogue was improvised - job of a script writer had never existed

Score was complied/adapted concert music - Louis Silvers

Second score for live performance

- Most people didn't hear the recorded sound, but they knew it was happening

People described it as "overhearing" him - were used to being directly addressed

Financial hit

Beginning of the end of the silent era - Talkies are the way of the future

Shot as a silent film with synchronized sound

Several leitmotifs - notably for Jack's mother and Mary

- Simple, lack of development

The Jazz Singer Storyline

Man born to a Jewish family

Supposed to follow his father's foot steps - wanted to be a jazz singer

Father kicks son out

Son is on the verge of success and goes back to tell his parents he's been cast - talking scene with his mother

At the end, he performs a song in blackface - seen as an homage to the energy and creativity of black performers

Early Problems with Sound on Film

Aesthetics

Making Films

Showing Films

Aesthetics

Film had developed visually as a silent medium

Actors had to relearn how to act - no more dramatic facial and body movements

Some actors were fired for having horrible voices

- Also an excuse to fire people they wanted to fire

Making Films

All sound had to be recorded in real time

- Orchestra was on set - no overdubbing, would change how far away the orchestra was to balance the sound

Cameras were noisy - handcranked

- Put in sound-proof enclosures - couldn't move

Directors were used to yelling at the actors during scenes - couldn't happen anymore

Actor movements were restricted - had to stay close to the microphone

- Boom mics were eventually invented to follow actors around

Showing FIlms

Too many contesting sound systems that weren't compatible

- Difficult to know which one to buy

By the end of 1929, 1k/20k theatres were equipped for sound

By 1935, almost all theatres had sound - Movietone not Vitaphone

- Massive layoffs of theatre musicians - no longer needed

Development of Studio System - 1935

Massive factories for the production of motion picture

- Huge backlots to film whatever

All aspects of production are departmentalized

- Directors, actors, and musicians are all put under contract - everyone on a salary

Films were becoming more expensive but made more

Used for 30ish years until it was declared illegal in the 1950s and fell apart by the 1960s

Big Five

MGM

Paramount

Warner Bros

20th Century Fox

RKO

Controlled their own production, distribution, and exhibition - owned chains of movie theatres

Little 3

Universal

Columbia

United Artists

Could produce their own films, but needed to make a deal with one of the big 5 to distribute and show one of the movies

Max Steiner - 1888-1971 - Early Life

Born in Vienna to a middle class family - Vienna was the centre of Western classical/romantic music

- The City of Musicians

Father owned a theatre

Formally trained in the tradition of European classical music

Child prodigy - conducting in theatres by age 12, touring as a conductor by 16, finished first operetta at 17, did his "4 year undergrad" in composition at age 13 and completed in 10 months

Max Steiner - WWI

Worked as a composer and conductor for theatre in England

Faced deportation because of WWI

- Declared an enemy alien

Friends knew he would spend the war in a prisoner camp and sent him to the USA - 1914

Max Steiner - Broadway

Came to NY

Worked on Broadway for 15 years - very different from what he was used to

Became one of the most well known musical directors

Hollywood and Broadway

Still needed to figure out how to write scripts and find talking actors

- Went to Broadway to solve this problem

Early history of sound films were mostly Broadway musicals

-Scripts were written, actors new the parts, and there were songs that took advantage of the new medium of sound

Rio Rita - 1929 - Steiner

Steiner was the musical director/conductor for this play

- Went to Hollywood to do the music for the movie

Steiner and Hollywood

Very impressed with Hollywood - how quickly everything got done, the quality of musicians, the opportunity to write music

Stayed and signed a contract with RKO - regretted his decision

Music in Film 1930s

Novelty had worn off

Thought music would confuse people - where would it come from?

Music was purely source music

Cimarron - 1931 - Steiner

Changed the music in one dance scene to add more emotion

RKO - David Selznick liked it and recognized music might be good

Symphony of 6 Million and the Bird of Paradise - 1932

Both composed by Steiner

Had music through almost the entire run time

Mixed reaction from audience

- Weren't confused on where the music was coming from

- Some people really liked it

King Kong - 1933

RKO invested a lot in this big budget special effects Blockbuster

Test audiences were laughing at the special effects

Selznick asked Steiner to do a compiled score - Steiner refused and said he would write an original score

Steiner's music made test audiences scream instead of laugh

Beginning of music in narrative film

Music in King Kong

Everyone noticed and loved the music

Used themes - familiar with past music

- Linked the gorilla and the heroine - gorilla's theme was 3 semitones played on low instruments and the heroine's theme was a more elaborate version that was played more elegantly

Lots of music to catch physical action - Mickey Mousing - akin to what you would see on Broadway

Semitone

Smallest distance western music recognizes

Creates a sense of anticipation and forward motion

No sense of which note to start or stop on

Can't tell what scale it is from - ambiguous

Line Between Diegetic and Nondiegetic music in King Kong

First 20 minutes have no music, but once the music starts it doesn't stop

Music starts when they go to the island to find the monsters - fog surrounding the island

- Played on a harp - idea of the supernatural

Next day - on the island

- Hear drums, brass, and the beginning on Kong's theme - foreshadowing

- Hear someone say "listen, the tribe is signalling" - what are they listening for, do they hear the drums we hear?

On shore and found the tribe preparing to sacrifice lady - line between source music and non-diegetic music is blurred

- Tribe's dance is synchronized to the drums we hear, but we hear a full orchestra and on screen they only have drums

The Informer - 1935 - Steiner

Directed by John Ford

Academy Award for Best Original Score

Set in Ireland during 1920 (war of independence)

- About a resistance fighter with a manipulative prostitute girlfriend who wants to emigrate to America

Height of Wall-to-Wall score - common in the 1930s to have non-stop music

Music in The Informer

Lots of Mickey Mousing

See musical quotes - use one of the unofficial anthems for Britain but it sounds harsh and unpleasant - know British are bad guys

Main character has a light folk theme

Girlfriend's theme is jazz - viewed with suspicion (racism) and represents the urban life

Girlfriend sees a poster for 10 pounds to get to America - musical quote of Yankee Doodle - sounds menacing

Thematic Transformation

Twisting the melody so it has meaning

Steiner - Career Highlights

Gone with the Wind - 1939

Casablanca - 1942

A Summer Place - 1959

Worked as the head of music at Warner Bros 1937-1953

Contributed to over 300 films during his career

Sound in 1930s

Sound films develop conventions

Sound begins as an extension of silent films, but by the end of the decade, technical advances and aesthetic changes have created a new medium

I.e. Robin Hood is much more recognizable to what we know today than The Jazz Singer (10 yr difference)

The Émigré Composer

War was growing in Europe

- Hitler convinced the Germans that all their problems were the Jews' fault

Forced out many of Europe's artists and intellectuals

- Erich Korngold, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, Ernst Gold, Hans Salter, Bronislau Kaper, Miklos Rosza

Most were trained in the traditions of European art music - came to Hollywood in the 1930s

Two job opportunities - teach at a university or write movie music

Erich Wolfgang Korngold - 1897-1957 - Early Life

Born and trained in Vienna

Childhood prodigy - writing and conducting at a very young age

Son of a prominent music critic - very important job

- Write books and essays, highly regarded, would be good friends with composers, often composers themselves

Teachers included Strauss and Mahler

Korngold and A Midsummer Night's Dream

Mendelssohn wrote music for the play - not sure what the original sounded like

Korngold because well known for conducting it

Asked to go to Hollywood to conduct for the film adaptation - 1934

Korngold - Hollywood

Liked Hollywood - would return about once or twice a year to do a film

- Liked how fast everything happened and the quality of the musicians

Didn't need the job - still wanted to conduct orchestras

Only would do the film if he liked - no studio contract

- Only major composer who was freelance

Won first Academy Award for Anthony Adverse - 1936

Korngold, WWII, and Robin Hood - 1938

Asked to compose music for Robin Hood

- Refused because the thought it was too much of an action film

Korngold was preparing to head back to Vienna when he got word that Nazis had invaded Austria

- All of his family's wealth and property had been seized

Smuggled family to America thanks to political connections

Agreed to do Robin Hood because he needed a job

Won Academy Award - first time the award was given to a composer not the head of the musical department

Korngold post WWII

Remained in Hollywood - disappointed he couldn't regain his position as a "serious composer"

- Hierarchy in the music world, if you couldn't write symphonies and operas, you wrote film music

Freelanced - composed 19 films in 12 years

- Never did more than one film at a time

- Never used other composers

Korngold Style

19th century romantic style - considered scores to be little operas

Focused on extended melodies - fully developed themes for characters that unfolded without distortions

Phrased the drama - created exciting moods to parallel the action, and then at key moments would drop into what is happening and hit the action - would only use Mickey Mousing for comedic purposes (rare)

Developed a series of approaches for battle scenes

- Loud dynamics, rapid scale passages (forward momentum and energy), irregular, aggressive accents, occasional motive reference

Made use of the Overture to present the main themes

Phrase the Drama

Halfway between playing the emotion and hitting the action

Overture

Music that plays before the film starts

The Sea Hawk - 1940 - Korngold

Extended themes

Strong use of music in battle scene

Set in Elizabethan England - great colonial power in the world is Spain

Main plot - English have built small, fast ships (Sea Hawks) designed to sink Spanish Boats

The Sea Hawk - Scene 1

Opening credits

Use of overture - heroic theme, love theme, then heroic again (A-B-A)

Heroic theme - brass fanfare with precision and intensity

Love theme - strings that slow down and speed up and repeat

- Evokes love and passion

Lots of harp - very good at adding scale passages (energy)

Music focuses on the individual

The Sea Hawk - Scene 2

Phrases the drama to create an energetic mood

- Sea Hawk theme then parallels the battle

Drops under dialog, hits the thrown knife, drops pacing under retreat

Blending of source music (during the surrender) and score with the sounding of the retreat

The Adventures of Robin Hood - 1938 - Korngold Score

Korngold scored 3/4s of the film

Action Scenes

- Used a full symphonic orchestration - emphasized brass and percussion

- Loud dynamics

- Passages of quick notes

- Irregular and hard accents

- Occasional motivic references

- All these elements are used to suggest the chaos of battle

Outside of the fighting, the score contains tuneful ideas - mostly derived from the main theme

Both love themes (Robin and Marion and Love of country/King Richard theme) are similar

Score has a variety of orchestral colour - matches thee use of colour on the film

The Adventures of Robin Hood - 1938 - Korngold - Colour?

Technicolour was first invented in 1916

- Entirely different and more complicated/expensive process than black and white

- A lot of filmmakers didn't like colour - thought it was distracting and a fad

First Warner Bros film to use Technicolour

Robin Hood - Scene 1 - Opening/Overture

Two themes

- Merry Men theme - based on a march

- Love Theme 1 - uses strings and the major 6th

Blend in source music at the end

Robin Hood - Scene 2 - Saxons and Robin Hood

Saxons in Peril Theme - cry for help

- Often heard when persecution of Saxons is shown

- Gets higher and shriller

- Sets up the scene transition to introducing Robin

Robin Hood Theme - short, fanfare, heroic

- Not the most identifiable - not the main theme of the film

Robin Hood - Scene 3 - Little John

Theme heard when main characters join the Merry Men

- French Horn - associated with men of the outdoors, operatic link to hunter/woodsman

Blend of source music with madeline

Hitting the action during the dual - comedic to show that no one will get her

Then woodwind 'water' theme

Concludes with merry men theme

Robin Hood - Scene 4 - Friar Tuck

Similar to LJ scene

Initial theme is played primarily on bassoon and muted trumpet - comedic

- Woodwinds and trumpets are go tos for humour

Sword fight - same theme as from LJ battle

Then woodwind 'water' theme

Concludes with merry men theme

Robin Hood - Scene 5 - Marion and Robin

Quiet variation of Peril theme as Marion sees the Saxons

Two themes during dialogue

- Love theme (1) from opening credits

- New love theme (2) - Marion and Robin love theme

Robin Hood - Scene 6 - Marion and Robin 2

Love theme 2 for big kiss - lots of strings

- Moment of spectacle

Quiet love theme 1 on cello - solo instrument is much more intimate

Robin Hood - Scene 7 - King Richard

Love theme 1 gets more dramatic with the reveal of Richard

- Love of Country theme

- Appears when talking about Saxons or the King

- Patriotic love

End of 1920s - Problems

Financial turmoil of the Great Depression - 1929 stock market crash

Technological problems created by the advent of sound films

Public concern with the morality of movies and their makers

1930s Movie Heros

Emphasis on the collective working together - no singular hero

No one will solve the Great Depression by themselves - can overcome the problem by working together

Music in RH focuses on collective

1930s - The Great Depression

Films were often spectacular or escapist

- RH, Wizard of Oz (1939), Lost Horizon (1937)

Sound films were very organized - basic convention and the way to do them was figured out

Change in the audience

The Hays Code - 1930

Number of highly publicized scandals involving silent film stars fuelled moral debates

Hollywood created the Motion Picture Producers and Distributor of America (1922) headed by Will Hays - lawyer

General principles

- No picture shall be produced that lowers the moral standards of the audience - should never have the audience sympathetic to crime, wrongdoing, evil, or sin

- Correct standards of live shall be presented

- Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed and no sympathy for its violation

Sought to eliminate profanity, the gratuitous use of liquor, sex outside of marriage, and nudity

Debate over final line of Gone With the Wind - don't give a damn

- Tried a variety of alternate phrases - eventually opted to pay $5k fine and keep the classic line

1930s - The Golden Age

Mid 1930s

Classic era of Hollywood film

Large quantity and high quality of work produced

Established conventions for film genre

General Characteristics of Classical Film Scores

Extensive use of music - wall-to-wall

Exploitation of the full range of orchestral colours

Reliance on the melody-dominated style of late 1800s

Borrowing of familiar melodies

Musical support for dramatic moods, settings, characters, and action

Unity through themes and thematic transformation

1940s Films

Stories that were more realistic

- Psychological drama, complex motivations, character driven narrative - characters were more believable, driven by jealousy, greed, desire

Look at the dark side of humans - even heroes could be flawed

Used black and white films with a lot of shadows and contrasts

- Named Film Noir in France

Influenced by German Expressionism - result of WWII

More American born composers were becoming prominent

Film Noir

Significant movement

Termed by French critics in 1946

Dark and pessimistic

Also can be applied to detective/crime films

- Modelled after detective stories from the 1920s/30s

- American detective had a distinct archetype - rougher than the British detective, tough, pragmatic, not about dismissing the law, smart enough to resolve complicated cases, determined, and has a strong jaw line

Scenes often took place at night or on rainy streets

Many featured voice over narration by one of the main characters

Women were alluring, sexually active, and dangerous - detective usually falls in love but will rat her out if she is guily

Cinematic Images of Women in the 1940s

Before WWII, movies were mostly made from a male perspective

Film Noir - seductress is a femme fatale

- Seen as deceptive and murderous

New attitudes towards women - were taking charge of their sexuality

Before the Hays Code, more movies focused on women and their more-open sexuality

In WWII - women were working in factories and realizing they could do the same work that men could do

- New sense of confidence and independence - step towards sexual equality

- Men returned from war not prepared to meet this - femme fatale expressed men's fear about females

Miklos Rosza - 1907-1995

Hungarian

Born to a classical pianist

Student classical music, but because he was born later it was a different classical than Korngold

Studied in Leipzig and Paris

- French respect movie culture as an art unlike America

Successful career as composer

Gets into film scoring in 1934 - suggested by Arthur Honegger

Sound film work in England from 1934-1939

Travels to USA in 1939 to complete the Thief of Bagdad due to WWII

Composed the Jungle Book (1942) - first soundtrack released on record

Double Indemnity - 1944 - Rosza

Plot is about staging an accident to get money from insurance

Short themes - unpredictable, unsettling, sustaining of tension

Greater use of dissonance - moving away from clear tonality

Music in Europe started to change - experience more with dissonance

Music director complained the music was more suited for a war movie - types of scenes where there is lots of dissonance

Spellbound and The Lost Weekend (1945) - Rosza

Both nominated for Academy Awards - SB won

Both films are psychological in nature and have disturbed characters

Both use the Theremin - electronic instrument that produces a wavering pitch - eerie, unreal sound

- Used to portray psychological problems

- Mimics a human voice

- One of the first films that uses electronic instrument

- Provides sounds that an orchestra cannot

The Lost Weekend - Scene 1

Shows what's in Bernie's head

Begins with a sense of positive urgency

Becomes tonal/romantic with the mention of Helen

Comic/uncertain as he fumbles with hat and cigarette

Turns darker as he sees the alcohol bottle - theremin enters with dissonant theme

Drama builds during the search - music plays the internal struggle

Music fades with scene change

The Lost Weekend - Scene 2

Continuation of scene 1

Shows how Bernie behaves in public and how society sees him

All source music

Music stays out of the way at the bar - makes the scene creepy and highlights humiliation

Score returns when he leaves the bar

David Raksin - 1912-2004

Born in Philadelphia

Father was a conductor of silent films

Early career as a pianist and arranger for Jazz bands - pop music of the time

Worked with Chaplin on Modern Times (1935) - entry into film music

- Chaplin was a talented musician but he needed someone to write the actual music

Called to do Laura - 1944

Laura - 1944 - Theme

Director wanted "Sophisticated Lady" by Duke Ellignton as Laura's theme

- Song is about a prostitute

Raksin asked to write an original theme over the weekend

- Gets letter from wife, doesn't open it until Sunday

- Letter says she's leaving him

- Immediately sits down and is able to write theme

Theme follows an A-B-A-C pattern - each phrase is similar

Heard as both source music and underscoring

Laura - Plot

Psychological thriller - who-done-it

Only 1/3rd has music - mostly in flashbacks

Motives and misdirection - everyone seems guilty at some point

Laura is not portrayed as a typical femme fatale - she is depicted as a modern, sophisticated woman in charge of her own sexuality

Laura - Music

Monothematic - based on a single theme

- Only significant theme is Laura's theme

Non-European sound - based on American pop music

- Flowing, brash, lyrical trumpets - not precise like classical

Music isn't drive the suspense - serves as the ghost or "ideal" representation of Laura

- In some of the most suspenseful scenes there is no music - music usually cues the audience

Music gives insight into McPherson - plays what is going on in his mind, not what the audience sees

Laura - Scene 1 - Opening Credits/Monologue

Focus on the portrait of Laura - sophisticated/urban

- Almost unearthly

Theme is linked to Laura - orchestral with a pop/jazz influence

- Major pop hit when lyrics were added

End of credits doesn't resolve - draws you forward

- No conclusion

Pedal point under melody

Metadiagetic - music is playing as we hear the monologue about how Laura died, then the music stops and it goes straight into diegetic dialogue

Pedal point

Sustained note under moving chords

Creates a quiet sense of tension

Most effective in the bass

Metadiegetic

Existing in the boundary between film world and audience

Cliche of film noir

Laura - Scene 2/3 - Lydecker's Story

Source music is Laura's theme

Transitions in the score follow the story

Dialogue between Laura and Lydecker is a waltz - goes from inoffensive background music to a waltz to represent them trying to figure each other out

- Literally dancing around each other with dialogue

Laura's theme enters when she speaks her mind - he's selfish and lonely

Music transitions back and forth but is all derived from Laura's theme

Laura - Scene 4 - McPherson

Music follows his internal state as he searches Laura's apartment

- Follows his frustration, anxiety, and growing love for Laura

Music is connected to the portrait - often seen, rarely stops in front of it

Laura shows up - isn't dead!

- No music

- The body was someone of her height killed by a shotgun to the face

Laura - Post Return

Laura we've come to know from the first half is "dead' - she's not the wonderful, perfect woman everyone loved

Laura becomes the prime suspect - dead woman was her best friend who was having an affair with her boyfriend

- Music wouldn't be fitting because her theme is romantic

Lack of music throughout the rest of the film - she is much smaller and less amazing

- Much more flawed than the ideal version people were talking about

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - 1920

German Film

Product of the expressionist movement - see it in the topic, the visuals, and the music

Movie is a vision of insanity - opening scenes set up the deception

- Audience believes the hero is telling a tale of murder and detective work - in the final frame they learn that it is the hero that is insane not Dr/ Caligari

- Film is a fantasy seen through the eyes of a patient at an asylum

Becce's original music was described as expressionistic - not a lot has survived

Movie came to America - Rothapfel decided to compliment it with modern music

- Crafted several themes from the compiled score

Effect of the film was diluted by a narrator before and after the show - he added a happy ending - hero was cured, is happily married, and working as a jeweler

Expressionism

German movement that delved into the darker regions of the sub-consious mind

Dramas focused on topics of perversion, nightmares, insanity

Paintings used distorted images and heavy black lines - i.e. The Scream

Music avoided tonal centres and created nightmare=like sound with dissonance

Animations

Steamboat Willie (1928) was the third Mickey Mouse cartoon and was not the first cartoon with sound

- Fully exploited sound technology - huge hit

- Minimal dialogue

- Steamboat Bill theme and Turkey in the Straw theme

- Precise coordination between movement and music - pave the way for advances in the timing of music and film

Animations - Silly Symphonies

More sophisticated music in cartoons

First and most popular was The Skeleton Dance - elements of an adapted score with music mirroring specific gestures

- Consulted with Stalling - orchestra director

- Developed an early version of a click track - very successful and adopted by movie studios

Others are short stories

Singing is featured in several - The Goddess of Spring (1934), Three Little Pigs (1933)

The Postwar Years

Initial euphoria of victory made 1946 Hollywood's most profitable year

1948

- Paramount lost an antitrust case and had to give up their theatre chain

- Television established itself as a serious competing medium

Hollywood Blacklist began in 1947

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

Investigating links between Hollywood and the Communist Party

Post WWII, communism was seen as disruptive to the system - tried to stamp it out

Hearings from 1947 - called witnesses to get more information

- Many pled the 5th and spent up to 12 months in jail and were prevented from returning to work

Hearings in 1951 - targeting screenwriters

- Those who were labelled as communists were blacklisted - ruined careers

- John Garfield - actor who refused to cooperate and was blacklisted - died from a heart attack

- Charlie Chaplin - out of the country during the hearings - labeled a communist and wasn't allows to reenter the US until 1972

- Elia Kazan - direct who made an agreement to name other communists in the industry

- Clifford Odets - playwright who eventually cooperated and was not blacklisted

- Lionel Sanders - character actor who was defiant - later worked in Europe and was eventually able to return to the US

- Sam Jaffe - actor who was blacklisted and went to teach high school math until he returned to act in TV shows

- Lee Grant - blacklisted for not testifying against husband Arnold Manoff

Musicians were not important targets - some were blacklisted and it ruined their careers, some were "greylisted" so their careers slowed but didn't end