Draft:Silent film music

• Comment: This draft is currently a synthesis of sources, which should be changed before it is published (per WP:OR). ForsythiaJo (talk) 23:27, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

---

Silent films have often been accompanied by music. The Library of Congress's collection of Silent Film Music and the myriad of publication found there include texts written to instruct the pianist, organist, or conductor on how to accompany a silent film. These texts concentrate on how to choose suitable music for the film. A commonality among the texts is that they emphasize that the music has to follow the mood of the scene. If the scene was sad then the music had to match. If the scene was full of excitement, the music had to mirror that. Additionally, the authors suggested that the musicians picked music that was culturally enriching. In other words, stay away from the mundane popular music and levitate towards music that is more suitable for proper entertainment like the classics; Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and the like. The texts also instructed the organist on which registrations to use for each type of accompaniment. Mills does this in her publication which touches on all aspects of silent film accompaniment. Texts within the collection also focus on sound effects that can be produced on the theatre organ which includes how to imitate a man soring, animal sounds, different instruments, and machinery.

Published music

Other materials found in the collection are a number of published music written particularly for the accompaniment of silent film. This music was written in such a way that the music could be lengthened or truncated to fit any length of scene. This was done by composing the pieces in multiple sections that could be easily repeated to lengthen the performance time or left out in order to shorten it.

Comic Darkey Scene

However, exploration of the collection uncovers a darker facet of this musical era. The collections studied shed light on the racist ideas that were disturbingly prevalent. One example is the piece titled "Comic Darkey Scene," an arrangement of the famous "Temptation Rag" written by Henry Lodge. This piece gained popularity through performances by Arthur Collins, a white vocalist known for his imitation of African American performers. It's through such associations that the audience was directed to relate this music to racially caricatured "Darkey" scenes, perpetuating stereotypes and reinforcing racial prejudices.

Synchronizing Suite No. 1

Many of the pieces composed for silent film depended on the semiotics that were involved in their composition. One of the compositions that do this is the "Synchronizing Suite No. 1" by M. L. Lake featuring pieces grounded in thematic representations of pivotal film characters. Namely the heroine or hero, the "Heavy" or villain, and providing "all the necessary material for any given picture. The suite consists of fie different movements all based on the Hero/ine theme, the Love theme, or the Sinister theme. The themes, depending on the situation intended to portray, are varied accordingly. For example, to announce the "pathetic scenes" Lake simply took all of the musical aspects of the hero/ine theme and composed it in the minor mode. The listener first hears the Hero/ine theme at the beginning of the piece, and it's quite recognizable. However, when this theme come back later in a minor key, it changes the whole feeling of the music. Even though it's the same theme, this small change shifts all the positive, uplifting feelings originally associated with the theme to feelings that are more serious and sad. So, now, when the audience hears the theme in the minor mode, it make them think of the hero/ine in a more somber or troubled mood. On the other hand, the "Agitato: piece uses the Sinister Motif but includes extra 1/8th notes and tremolos to make the music feel more tense. Just like changing the Hero/ine theme to a different mode. This gives it a new meaning, adding these 1/8th notes and tremolos to the villain's theme makes it sound even more intense and stressful. This helps the audience understand that eh music is connected to the villain, but now with an added feeling of tension.

Cue Shetes

The cue sheets that are found in the Library Of Congress's collection are a pivotal resource in understanding the method of accompanying silent films. A good example of this would be the cue sheet for the movie "The Third Degree" featuring Colores Costello.

Cue Sheet for The Third Degree

The cue sheet, likely marked up with grease pencil, offers a glimpse into how it was used in practice. The top of the sheet has some unclear notes and the date "Monday Feb. 27/28," along with the phrase "one theme" written boldly. This probably served as a reminder that the film needed a consistent musical theme to refer back to. The fourth column, which lists "Musical Suggestions," is filled with alternative song titles, showing that the initial music choices often got swapped out. The person marking the sheet seems to have preferred using pieces they were more familiar with or found more fitting, although some of the original music suggestions were left untouched. This likely means those pieces were already well-known to the musician and fit the film without any need for changes.