Scoring a Motion Picture

Victor Wagner

It Takes years to accumulate a fund of musical knowledge before one is able to synchronize the music with the picture. A musician who through ignorance or whim chooses music which burlesques a serious scene commits an offence, he destroys the science and art of musical presentation of motion pictures. One has to have at his command a musical library of a thousand different numbers and a sensitive feeling for their different moods to be able to classify the numbers properly. The well known operatic melodies are not very useful, as they fit only the scene for which they were written and which scene the public visualizes on hearing the music. It is therefore important to consider the key in which each number is written to make a smooth musical bridge from one selection to another. In selecting the most appropriate music, one has to be careful not to anticipate the development of character so as not to stamp immediately the man with the cigarette aa a villain; or, when a particularly beautiful girl enters, not to draw too hastily the third line of the triangle. Again, if one sees a man walk into a room wearing a derby and having a cigar in his mouth, one does not play mysterious music at once, because he may not be a detective after all. Not only is a knowledge of high-class music necessary but also a knowledge of most of the popular and national music with their characteristics of practically all the civilized and uncivilized nations.

Print ISSN
Published
1926-05
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J10283