Music and the Silent Film
Contexts and Case Studies, 1895-1924
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
Most people's view of silent film music is of a pianist playing old warhorse scores while watching the flickering screen. This innovative book shows that there was much more to silent film music and that often it was planned from the start as an integral part of the film. The first of three volumes investigating film music, this book devotes one chapter to films before 1900 and Camille Saint-Saëns's score for L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise (1908). Another chapter looks closely at film scores composed by Walter Cleveland Simon for several films of 1912. The two main chapters are devoted to significant films of the silent period, D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) and René Clair's Entr'acte (1924). Breil's Birth of a Nation score was a compilation of many sources, but, when played by an orchestra accompanying the film in a theatre showing, it often matched the epic nature of the film and was one source of its great popularity.
About the Author:
Martin Miller Marks, Assistant Professor of Music, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Press Reviews:
Named as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book of 1997
> On a related topic:
Silent Films/Loud Music (2023)
New Ways of Listening to and Thinking about Silent Film Music
Subject: Silent Cinema
Music and Sound in Silent Film (2018)
From the Nickelodeon to The Artist
Dir. Ruth Barton and Simon Trezise
Subject: Silent Cinema
Danish and German Silent Cinema (2025)
Towards a Common Film Culture
Dir. Lars-Martin Sørensen and Casper Tybjerg
Subject: Silent Cinema
Back
