The Film Library and How It Grew

Abstract

the history of film music only to the extent that it represents a trial-and-error groping toward a satisfactory aesthetic, and I have cited outstanding examples of film music only to the extent that they throw light on that aesthetic. In describing examples of film music, I have tried to be as specific as possible short of using musical technicalities that would be unfamiliar to the layman. 2. Ambient is the least ambiguous term I can find to describe music which forms an integral part of the sounds of a scene. 3. There is an objective physical basis to this variety, since tone color depends on the particular pattern of harmonics (subsidiary notes higher than the main note) produced by each musical instrument. organ sounds fuzzy because most of its pipes produce sounds rich in harmonics. flute, by contrast, has few harmonics, and McLaren's artificial music virtually none. Nevertheless, association is probably more important than acoustics in determining the effect of tone color in film music. 4. Stevens's error is in relying on the literary connection between the title and libretto of the oratorio and the content of his film. association aroused by the sound of The Messiah is likely to be a church rather than the Holy Land of 2,000 years ago. Grosbard's error, I suspect, is more calculating: forties-style music would be a less popular production value than folk-rock. 5. It's interesting to note that, in the experimental field, music and film today often exchange their usual characteristics. Many abstract films (such as those of John Whitney) do consist of mathematically generated patterns and rhythms, while aleatory music (such as John Cage's) involves randomness and uncertainty. However, little if any aleatory music has been used with dramatic films, and what follows in this article may explain why. 6. E. Jaques-Dalcroze, writing in the Revue de Geneve, December 1925, noted that silent film accompanists had taken to eliminating all superfluous ornament and picturesque effects and were devoting themselves instead to creating a 'continuous' music whose sole object was to envelop the continuity of the visual action with an aural atmosphere of decor. 7. In Hitchcock Selon Trufaut, Hitchcock is reported as complaining that a scene between Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck in Spellbound is spoiled by intrusive violins.

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