Chapter 86: Music for Films
Study Plan
Key Points
- Music sets the mood, helps establish the characters, and creates a sense of place and time in a film.
- There are two principal types of music in a film—underscoring and source music.
- Silent films were generally accompanied by solo piano or organ.
- Film music may be newly composed or may borrow from Classical or popular repertory; rock, country/western, and jazz gained favor in film music after the late 1940s.
- The late 1930s is considered the Golden Age of films and film music.
- The Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote scores for two epic films—Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible (1944–45)—both about Russian historical figures and both directed by Sergei Eisenstein.
- Post–World War II films used music sparingly, and composers explored more modern special effects.
- The film music of John Williams marks a return to full orchestral resources and the use of leitmotifs (recurring themes) associated with characters or situations.
- In the 1980s, the synthesizer had a significant influence on the film music industry.
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