Popular Music and the Moving Image - Essay Example

 POPULAR MUSIC AND THE MOVING IMAGE ‘’There is no way a films can be silent’’ and ‘’ never were silent films silent at all’’ are some of the ments that one is likely to encounter upon enquiring about the manner in which the music accompanied the silent films. On whether or not such statements are true leaves a lot to be debated. However, the most pertinent question that should be asked concerning the accompaniment of music in the films is ‘’How ‘silent’ was the silent movie?’’ The one thing that stands out in the effort to respond to the above question is that it is critical to determine the time, place and the reason for the confusion concerning the silence in the silent movies. Overriding is the fact that it is not true to claim that the silent films were never silent (Cooke, 2008). That is because there is more evidence backing up the presence of ‘’silence’’ in the films as would be discussed later in this paper. To have an understanding of how music accompanies films during the silent ear, it is critical to look at what the silent films are and their background history. Well, silent films refer to the early era films lacking synchronized sound that was recorded as well as no spoken dialogue. Silent films are characterized by dialogue in the form of muted gestures, mime and title cards. Significantly, despite the growing technology in the film sector, the cutting –edge cinematic experience being enjoyed today is largely because of the silent films. Silent films have had a tremendous effect on the cinema industry technologically today as everything was put in place to be innovated for the purpose of improving on the silent films (Cooke, 2008). Historically silent films are characterized by certain elements that defined them. These are Projection Speed, title cards, physical acting techniques and music and sound. In the absence of the spoken dialogue, title cards that comprised of printed or drawn frames of text inserted between the film frequencies to serve different roles. The particular types of title cards used in the silent films included dialogue and expository interties. The former were primarily used in conveying dialogue while the latter was used in providing supplemental narrative material whenever what was photographed could not express the full situation by itself. Essentially, the title cards were utilized by the filmmakers in the silent era to add more detail to the films in case the films developed into novelties that entertained a lot. Fundamentally, filmmakers were able to expand their potential to enhance on their storytelling by including some aspects of dialogue and in a way, the title cards served as narration techniques (Marks, 1997). Another historical element of the silent films was live music and sound. Contrary to today’s films containing spoken dialogue and synched music in the background. The silent films were accompanied by a phonograph recording or live music such as a guitarist or pianist that was critical in reinforcing the mood of a movie and also provided the audience with emotional cues. The above narration explains why there were piano accompaniments in small towns plus the singers performing behind the screen as well as individuals providing a live narration and voicing the characters dialogue in the case of pictures (Auslander, 2008). The silent films also comprised of actors and actress relying too much on their body languages and facial expressions in the process of revealing detail, in their performances to the audience. Significantly, the performance was more physical as the performers opted for erratic movements in a natural and realistic manner. The silent film era was characterized with variable speeds, or frame rates, of between 12 and 26 frames per second (fps). Characterization was initiated to match the slower cranking technique used in emphasizing action and comedy sequences. The rationale was because the projectionists received instructions with cue sheets telling them the particular points in the film they were to crank faster or slower. The above approach allowed the films to be worked into a tighter time slot (Auslander, 2008). Back to the question of how ‘silent’ was the silent movie. There are various developments that show that the silent movies were silent and that to some extent there was no silence. Firstly, the silent era was awash with silent films because most parts of the film print lacked a soundtrack. The filmmakers would in this era synchronize films with disc recordings mainly for songs in particular between 1907 and 1910. In fact, most parts of a silent film were silent unless accompanied by live music as evident in the playing of quiet miniaturized action with the help of Edison’s kinetophone/phonograph that was a coin operated entertainment machine (Aufderhide, 1986). Due to the technological changes in the film industry, there were some improvements that came with sound feature films to a mass audience. More importantly, it is the sound-on-film that gave rise to the talkies. Upon the failure of the Vitaphone technique in The Jazz Singer, there was the development of the Photophone technologies that allowed for the direct photographing of sound waves onto film (Kassabian, 2001). The photophone strategy led to the elimination of the synchronization problem of wasting the film’s image track. On the contrary, given the fact that the silent films comprised of music, theater, and film presentation that made it enjoyable and unique, it is right to argue that the silent films were never that ‘’silent.’ The silent movies were never silent because in the earlier days, there was background noise from the projectors covered up by the piano music. There was also the use of pit orchestras played by a single musician that accompanied the story on the screen to produce sound effects and create the voice of an entire orchestra (Music and the Silent Film, 1895-1924). There was also the use of the grandiose pipe organ in silent movies in theaters where the audience illuminatingly experienced possible images in form of live cinema. Showing of the film clips on television at the wrong speed accompanied by an out-of-tune piano resulted in the audience or the public demanding for their favorite performers’ voices. It is this development that gave rise to the ‘’talkies’’ whereby the silent films had talkie sequences added onto them to make them more appealing to audiences (Wojcik & Knight, 2002). Bibliography Aufderhide,P. ‘The Look of the Sound’ in T. Gitlin (ed.) (1986) Watching Television New York: Pantheon Auslander, Philip (2008) Liveness: Performance in a Mediatised Culture London:Routledge Benjamin, W. (1939) ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ in Illuminations Pimlico; New Edition 1999 Cooke Mervyn (2008) A History of Film Music Cambridge University Press Kassabian, Anahid (2001): Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music New York: Routledge Music and the Silent Film: Contexts and Case Studies 1895-1924 New York: Oxford University Press Wojcik, P.R., Knight, A. (eds)(2002) : Soundtrack Available:Essays on Film and Popular Music New York: Duke University Press Read More