Film Music 1 [antikvár]

Introduction: The Literature of Film Music Clifford McCarty Is there a literature of film music? "The tendency has been to suppose not," wrote Martin Marks, ^ and as late as 1977 Roy Prendergast declared that with the exception of a few articles by Lawrence Morton, no body of intelligent and perceptive writing on film music existed.^ Even in 1953, however, Morton himself recognized the existence of a "sizable" literature,^ and with the publication of Steven Wescott's bibliography,'* Marks' conclusion that "there is in fact an extensive literature on the subject" was documented beyond any question. Of what has this literature consisted?^ The earliest examples, appearing in this country in 1909, took three forms: trade paper editorials, letters and articles calling for "better" music; cue sheets (lists of "musical suggestions" cued to each sequence in a picture); and anthologies of music for motion picture accompaniment. These materials were read and used by musicians from lowly nickelodeon pianists to conductors of large theater orchestras. A regular column on music was inaugurated by Moving Picture World in 1910, the beginning of a decade that saw motion pictures enjoy a phenomenal growth in popularity. The number of movie theaters increased proportionately, as did the musical materials to assist in the accompaniment of an unprecedented number of films. These published materials—columns, articles, cue sheets, music anthologies, performance handbooks—though mostly of a practical nature, also took notice of aesthetic matters, and various theories of film music were IX