In addition to creating an overall mood, music can also support a plot by reinforcing its emotional content. Music can also reflect physical movement and recreate natural sounds Examples: Sudden impact: slap in the face, or an object hitting the ground can be accompanied by an accent in the orchestra, this is referred to as a STINGER A person or object rises, the music ascends A person or object descends, the music descends: Name some examples in Gone With the Wind? Music can suggest natural sounds: Splashing water Thunder Ticking of a clock Gunfire Speeding train Mimicking of movement and sound is quite common in cartoons. When the music is too obvious-for example, accenting every step of someone walking-it is termed Mickey Mousing Helps create variety and gives support to dramatic situations Leitmotifs can be altered when it recurs during a film to depict the changing mood or state of a character. Can be done through a change of: Instrumentation Tempo Harmony Thomas Edison Invented the phonograph in 1876 Quote: I wanted to do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear. Met with Eadwaeard Muybridge in 1888 and proposed a cooperative centure that would lead to the coordination of moving pictures and recorded sound Eccentric artist Bornd in England as Edward James Muggeridge One of the great photographers of the Old West in the United States One of the 1 st photographers to develop a shutter for the camera, a critical step in capturing motion Took a bet by the Governor of california to prove that a horses legs do all leave the ground when running. Took 12 successive photos against a measured backdrop Animal and human motion became an important subject in the US and France. Continued to improve his shutter-release mechanism increased the number of cameras used for a scene established his technique for capturing motion and freezing it on film, he then took the critical next step of showing the images in rapid succession Muybridge believed the coordination of pictures and sound was impractical After 3 years of laboratory work, Edison unveiled the Kinetoscope, a peephole viewer for a single person to observe moving pictures without sound. (pg 53) Edison was not the principal force behind the development of the Kinetoscope, but his lab assistant W.K.L. Dixon 1894: 1 st Kinetoscope viewing parlor unveiled Debuted in 1895 and was equipped with both a viewer and earphones; a phonograph was contained inside the box. Kinetoscope ParlorKinetophone In Europe, projecting films to an audience became popular and Edison saw the financial potential. Louis Auguste Lumiere created the Cinematographe, a device capable of taking moving pictures, printing film, and projecting images on the screen. It weighed only 12 lbs. and could be taken out doors. Live music was incorporated into these showings. In 1896 Edison unveiled his Vitoscope, a projector which could display a film on a large screen. Edison sold his invention to vaudeville theaters, which then started showing films as part of their shows. The first moving pictures did not tell stories They were considered extensions of photography The only difference between film and photography was that the subjects in films moved. Both had subjects of people, city life, important events The Great Train Robbery Considered to be the first major American narrative film (1903) Made films for Edison until 1909 A Trip to the Moon Narrative film Over ten minutes long (substantial for the time) Elaborate sets and costumes Fantastic story In each of its fifteen scenes, the camera is stationary while the actors and scenery move in front of it. As we have seen, music accompanied the first films but was used in many different ways. 3 questions: Who (or what) made the music When was the music used What type of music was played The size of the venue was a huge factor in what accompaniment could be used In the first decade of the 20 th century, the principal venue for film presentations shifted from theaters to nickelodeons Nickelodeons: small shops that showed films exclusively, usually for the price of a nickel The first nickelodeon was established in 1905 in Pittsburgh and by 1907 there were over 1,000 in the U.S. In the confines of a nickelodeon, an orchestra or even a small ensemble of musicians was often impractical. Silence Without music, but with added sound effects, narration or lecture by a professor Continuous music from a phonograph or player piano, or even from outside the shop Single pianist filling various musical needs Small number of musicians w/a pianist; drummer (provided sound effects) and a singer who entertained between acts Some theaters provided music before and after the film or during reel changes. This may have been the only music during the production. Music may have been added during the film when music is depicted (dance scenes, piano player on screen etc.) In some theaters, music was played continuously during a film. Music may have reflected the action or mood of the characters. The quality of these performances were uneven. A variety of types of music would have been heard in the early years of film: Well-known classics Popular melodies Improvisations in traditional or popular style Popular music seemed to have been preferred Edison chose popular dance music for the Kinetophone The earliest public showings fo films featured popular music Vaudeville and Nickelodeons also steered toward the popular Narrative films also tended towards popular music. Sometimes the music was chosen simply because the title reflected an aspect of the story EX: A sailor movie using What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor? In The Wizard of Oz(1939), Schumanns Happy Farmer introduces life on the Kansas farm, and Dorothys longing to return to Kansas is accompanied by the song Theres no place like home The combination of music and film helped to distract the audience from the sound of the projector and promote the feeling that the audience is not in a theater