Scoring a Motion Picture

It takes years to accumulate a fund of musical knowledge before one is able to synchronize the music with the picture. A musician who through ignorance or whim chooses music which burlesques a serious scene commits an offense, he destroys the science and art of musical presentation of motion pictures. One has to have at his command a musical library of a thousand different numbers and a sensitive feeling for their different moods to be able to classify the numbers properly. The well known operatic melodies are not very useful, as they fit only the scene for which they were written and which scene the public visualizes on hearing the music. It is therefore important to consider the key in which each number is written to make a smooth musical bridge from one selection to another. In selecting the most appropriate music, one has to be careful not to anticipate the development of character so as not to stamp immediately the man with the cigarette as a villain; or, when a particularly beautiful girl enters, not to draw too hastily the third line of the triangle. Again, if one sees a man walk into a room wearing a derby and having a cigar in his mouth, one does not play mysterious music at once, because he may not be a detective after all. Not only is a knowledge of high-class music necessary but also a knowledge of most of the popular and national music with their characteristics of practically all the civilized and uncivilized nations.

There is one task laid on the musical director who arranges a musical program of accompaniment for motion pictures which is seldom appreciated. This is the task of making music supply in a measure the spoken word- the missing dialogue- the play on the speaking stage- where this is not provided in action and in subtitles. The musical adapter has thirty, forty, or more scenes instead of a series of three or four acts. This I mention, because it must be remembered that no scene of any great length will maintain the same emotional key throughout. In the spoken play, there is a constant shift of emotional appeal as the incidents of the scene progress. But in the motion picture the play breaks up, not into acts, but into scenes, and scenes so arranged that a much closer sympathy of emotional suggestion may be obtained scene by scene, than is possible act by act. Thus it is that musical accord with the poetry of action and mood can be made scenically unified, and can really produce a more concise and closely correlated emotional suggestion than any other form of union of music and action. Now, I have said that it is one business of the adapter to make the musical accompaniment supply the motion picture with an important part of what the speaking stage gets from dialogue. I mean that while the picture vividly gives to the eye the story, the characterization can suggest constantly a mood to make the spectator mentally sympathetic. It follows that one preparation which the musical director must make is careful study of the picture, sufficient to bring to him definite and vivid impressions and emotions derived from it; he must himself feel the need of the music which he will later select and arrange.

The appropriateness of selection of motion picture accompaniment depends largely on this preparation. Scenically, the motion picture is a great inspiration; no speaking stage can in completeness, in gorgeous realities, and in generous detail approach the scenic richness of the motion picture. So, the musical director is always under the inspiration of an art kindred to his own. And so adept are good motion picture actors and actresses becoming, that careful observation of their pictured pantomime is all the inspiration needed for an impression that readily suggests music best suited to express it. It is therefore the study of the musical director of the picture with special regard to opportunity to make the music aid in its emotional suggestion of something truly felt and appreciated that counts most for the success of his work.

We speak of accompanying motion pictures with music. Now the accompaniment of song, the expression by means of music of a beautiful idea or of a dramatic idea is a province of art; if the song or the idea or scene or story has strong element of beauty, the art of accompaniment becomes really a king to the poetic art. The poet takes ideas and thoughts and gives them beautiful word forms; the accompanist, given this sort of material to inspire him, can add beauty to his work. Now, turning to motion pictures, the arrangement of a musical accompaniment for pictures in which there is definite mood, a central idea, a real emotional element that is consistent, makes a congenial task for a musician, and in the majority the arranger does find pictures inspirational; he does find opportunity for a musical accompaniment that is really expressive of the appeal which the picture makes.

But there are kinds of motion pictures which present difficulties. Take, for instance, the detective story picture, the adventure story, or the farce comedy. In each story the interest centers in the plot. There may be excitement of emotion in looking at the picture, but the emotion is not in the picture itself. Here the difficult thing is not so much to know what to play as what not to play. Music that strikes any hearer as incongruous will do much to spoil that picture for him. Then, too, the action is rapid, and this causes the change in mood of the onlooker and hearer to be abrupt- too abrupt to be successfully followed in music. The point made is that it is awkward and impracticable to accord intimately with the incidents of such pictures. For instance, picture a scene in which two men are struggling for in a cellar while a dance is going on above them. I suppose for realism we should have a dance orchestra off-stage playing dance music steadily while the regular orchestra plays dramatic music according in mood with the fight. This is an extreme illustration perhaps but one which the motion picture adapter will recognize as within his experience.

The film play is a form of art and is analogous to the ballet in that it necessitates, for its adequate presentation, the synchronization of action with music. Thus, in its right development, we find a new art form in music, the possibilities of which are practically limitless. In film play we see one art-form which is dependent upon another- music- for its completion, and it is still incomplete and imperfect for presentation to the public without its musical counterpart accompanying it, just as is the case in the ballet, where dance and action are synchronized with music to ensure a perfect whole. The time has come when the motion picture theater orchestra is receiving universal recognition as an organization of artists who are working to achieve and maintain a high standard in a distinct art.

Many times the question has been brought to me, "How do you synchronize the music with the picture?" When we come to the screening room to work on our next pictures, the most important part from the very start is to make a title sheet, which lists the first few words of each main and subtitle and indicates the beginning of each new reel. These titles are used as milestones in the music score as well as descriptive cues. A piano part or a full orchestral score of each orchestration is filed on shelves in the screening room, classified according to mood, nationality, etc. We have one hundred thirty-five such classifications all the way from "Airplane Music" to "Funeral Music" and from "Wedding Music" to "Happiness Music." The next important move is to find the music best suited to the action and mood of the picture without allowing the music to dominate the play, in which event it would distract the attention of the onlooker from the picture to the music. It is mostly sensitiveness of the adapter which enables him to balance the action on the screen with the music in the orchestra pit. Of especial assistance is the up-to-date motion picture machine which allows the film to run in either direction. If the music which has been selected does not fit the scene, the film may be reversed without taking it from the machine, and another selection tried.

Scoring a good picture is just as fascinating as composing. When a picture is scored, one has the satisfaction of knowing that he will have at least twenty-one orchestral performances the first week which is more than a well known composer of fame can ever expect. It may be interesting to know that no music is furnished with the film. Our library consists of about 15,000 different selections with separate parts for each instrument of our large orchestra. The original orchestration cannot always be used exactly as bought from the publisher. In order to make it of the proper length for a scene, endings or modulations are written which must be technically correct. Many times when we are unable to find a suitable selection, we cover the action with music which is originated in our department for this particular scene. In selecting a musical theme for a leading character, the principal aim is not only to be consistent- with the atmosphere or period but to portray and intensify characteristics through music. One morning last week, when we were screening our next week's picture, a young singer entered the screening room just as we had reached a touching scene of Stella Dallas. In the dark silence of the room, interrupted only by the buzz of the projection machine, the singer sat down at the piano and sang a tender melody. The effect was spontaneous; each of us realized what new intensity had been given by the song to the fine acting on the screen.

Original article by Victor Wagner, 1926.

Victor Wagner, "Scoring a Motion Picture," in Transactions of Society of Motion Picture Engineers, #27, January 1927, pages 40-43. Paper given at conference held October 4-7, 1926.

© 1997, David Pierce, on editing and revisions (if any)

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