MUS 121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Visual Entertainment, Bernard Herrmann, Sound Film
Document Summary
Music has gone hand-in-hand with visual entertainment since the first days of theater. It can provide simple background, or enhance a scene. Greeks were also known to implement music in theatre. In the earliest days of film, the pictures were completely silent, featuring no sound. Without any visual effects, the only sound in the theater would be the projection screen. Theater showings film would often be accompanied by live piano or organ to enhance the story (and cover up the sound of the projector) In 1915, film create a birth of a nation premiered. It can accurately be described as 3 hours of racist propaganda. This work was the first feature motion picture. This film is credited with many techniques of modern film. After the birth of a nation, film score became a genre of its own. It even gained its own category within film awards. Film score: original music written specifically to accompany a film.
