Cinema library

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A cinema library (made up of ' cinema ' and ' library ') is an anthology with pieces of music for the accompaniment of silent films by cinema musicians. In it, sheet music was sorted according to criteria of the musical character, which could then be used for the musical illustration of various films. Giuseppe Becce coined the term 'cinema library' with his cinema library (later shortened to cinema library ), a multi-volume collection of pieces of music in different moods for typical film scenes, which he published from 1919 to 1929. Cinema libraries are part of early film music history .

commitment

In addition to the rarer cases of music composed especially for a single film and the more frequent improvisation , the silent film accompaniment mainly relied on existing music. In any case, the quality of the interplay between film and music depended heavily on the choice of music and the skills of the musicians. Both the so-called cue sheets and cinema libraries should help curb the arbitrariness in the musical accompaniment and thus raise the quality of the film showing in favor of economic efficiency and artistic demands. Unlike cue sheets, movie theaters were not designed for a specific silent film, but instead offered a selection of pieces for different films.

The music compiled in cinema libraries is often based on classical works and extends over many branches such as salon pieces , potpourris , fantasies , opera paraphrases , overtures , marches , and dances . Many collections also contain popular pieces and new compositions intended for film accompaniment.

All of these pieces were assigned a dramaturgical situation or mood that could usually appear in films of that time (cheerfulness, love, exotic ambience, chase, sword fight, death, etc.). It was possible for the conductor of a cinema orchestra , the pianist or another musician with the help of cinema libraries to combine pieces of music for a particular film after taking a look at the film in order to assess what kind of music could go with it. The accompanying standardization of the accompanying music was criticized by some contemporaries.

Influential cinema libraries

Between 1919 and 1929 Giuseppe Becce published the volumes of his cinema library and cinema library in the Schlesinger book and music shop in Berlin . Some of the pieces contained therein were specially composed by him, but most of the existing works from the classical repertoire that were newly arranged for the purpose . For those not familiar with sheet music, Becce also recorded a record with the music from the cinema. Becce's anthology is one of the best-known cinema stores, but it was not the first and only such publication.

The first American film music collection is probably Gregg A. Frelinger's Motion Picture Piano Music: Descriptive Music To Fit the Action, Character or Scene of Moving Pictures (Eng .: 'Film piano music: Descriptive music to match the plot, character or scenes of films ') from the year 1909. It contains simple piano pieces, most of which are original compositions, some paraphrases of popular songs. A particularly successful American cinema library that shaped early silent film music in the USA is the multi-volume Sam Fox Moving Picture Music by John Stepan Zamecnik ; her first volume with 25 short pieces composed by Zamecnik for piano was published in 1913. Volume two followed in the same year, volume three a year later. The Motion Picture Moods collection published by Ernö Rapée in 1924 was also successful . It includes well-known classical works by Grieg , Mendelssohn , Johann Strauss, Schumann , Bizet , Brahms and Tchaikovsky , as well as folk pieces, patriotic airs , national anthems , country-specific songs, 19th century ballads and pieces by unknown composers composed especially for the cinema, such as like the Indian War-dance by Irénée Berge or the Allegro Misterioso Nottorno by Gastón Borch.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robbert van der Lek: The history of film music in a systematic presentation. A draft . In: Archives for Musicology . 44 (1987). P. 229.
  2. ^ A b James Eugene Wierzbicki: Film Music. A history . New York: Routledge / Taylor & Francis 2009. p. 53.
  3. ↑ Rodney Sauer: JS Zamecnik and Silent Film Music ( Memento from October 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). In: David Pierce (Ed.): The Silent Film Bookshelf , 1998, (English, website on silent film).
  4. ^ The History of Production Music , February 9, 2009. At: classicthemes.com . (Accessed October 24, 2010)

attachment

Cinema libraries

  • John Stepan Zamecnik: Sam Fox Moving Picture Music . Cleveland: Sam Fox Publishing. Several volumes from 1913.
  • Giuseppe Becce (Ed.): Kinothek. New film music . Berlin-Lichterfelde / Leipzig: Schlesinger'sche Buch- und Musikalienhandlung Robert Lienau 1919–1929. 6 double volumes.
  • Ernö Rapée (Ed.): Motion Picture Moods For Pianists and Organists. A Rapid Reference Collection of Selected Pieces, Adapted to 52 Moods and Situations . New York: G. Schirmer 1924.

literature

  • Lek, Robbert van der: The history of film music in a systematic representation. A draft . In: Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 44 (1987). Pp. 216-239.
  • Loll, Werner: Notes on the history and practice of silent film music. An introduction and a collection of thoughts . In: Kiel Contributions to Film Music Research 4 (2010). Pp. 161-173. (Online as PDF , size: 1.13 MB)
  • Niehoff, Reiner: About the beautiful stuttering of the pictures. On the rediscovery of Carl Froelich's film "Richard Wagner" (1913) . (Online at [1] literaturkritik.de)
  • Wierzbicki, James Eugene: Film Music. A history . New York: Routledge / Taylor & Francis 2009.