ABSTRACT

Even before they learned to talk, movies had music. Every theater had at least a piano player; bigger houses had elaborate organs that could also make sound effects and some even had small orchestras. While the choice of music was often at the whim of theater management, the more important feature films came with original scores on sheet music. You could even say silent films sparked the singing commercial: As new technologies like the Victrola and radio became popular, movie producers commissioned ballads that incidentally included the film’s title. (The old standard, “Janine, I Dream of Lilac Time” was actually written to promote the movie Janine.)

But film music didn’t take off until the synchronized soundtrack was possible. Many early talkies followed the musical tradition of silent films, with somewhat random instrumentals playing under dialog. Then Hollywood began importing European composers with a tradition of orchestral program music-music designed to tell a story. Movie scoring became an art form. Some of the greatest classical composers of the twentieth century, including Prokofiev, Copland, and Bernstein, also wrote for films.1