note: very special thanks to Cara Schreffler for donating her research!

Music in American Silent Film

by Cara Schreffler

Since the days of the ancient Greeks, music has been an integral part of drama and theatre. Many composers wrote music to accompany plays, and sometimes the music became more well-known than the play it was written for, such as Edvard Greig’s music for Peer Gynt. It never occurred to anyone to not include music in films, even in the first silent films and “talkies.” Film music developed rapidly with new technologies, and became an entirely new (and exciting) musical field that many composers took very seriously. Music is considered an important part of film, from cartoons, sitcoms and television drama, to movies. The history of music in American film, although less than a century in scope, offers a fascinating variety of musical styles and the techniques in which they are integrated into the film.

American cinematic composers and compilers have used a wide variety of American musical styles in their scores- ranging from blues, jazz, and other popular styles to Art music and borrowing from pre-existing sources. Silent film music explored a wide range of techniques, styles and performance practices, ranging from the use of existing classical and popular music to the first compositions of original film scores. Many developments were made in American film music that were highly influential worldwide and have far reaching influences even today, both in current film music as well as in other genres, including the development of new instruments, sound effects, and extra-musical economic considerations, such as revised copyright laws and the founding of the American Society for Composers, Authors, and Publishers in 1914.

Silent films were anything but. They just didn’t have dialogue to accompany the action on film, and the sound wasn’t imbedded in the film itself. Not only was there was sound from the audience, the environment, and the projector, but it was expected that a theatre would provide at least one musician to accompany the film.¹ Tradition demanded that this new form of dramatic entertainment be accompanied by music. Pianos, organs and phonographs were initially used to provide music for the silents; then the first mechanical instruments (such as player pianos) followed by film orchestras rapidly gained precedence as the preferred medium.

Little is known for certain of music in early sound films, as physical evidence (sheet music, cue sheets, etc.) is scarce, as are film reviews that mention the music accompanying the film. A great deal more is known about silent film music in the late nineteen teens and twenties, when silent film was at its peak. It is easy, yet dangerous, to apply what is known about later silent film music to an earlier era.

Music in a silent film was vital in order to humanize the images on screen, to cover the noise of the projectors, and provide continuity between scenes. Initially, music was improvised by a piano or reed organ player, who, it is assumed, would play continuous music from start to finish, provide melodramatic musical signifiers along the lines of Wagnerian Leitmotifs, and supply sound effects (sometimes with the aid of Kinematophone or Allefex machines) as well as provide music for intermissions. Musical interludes in films were customary until the 1930’s, when theatres finally phased out the organ solo.²

In general, the music for silent films was influenced by the style of the Romantic era, especially opera and operetta, as well as popular music of the day, including vaudeville, dance halls, minstrel shows, and melodrama. Musical influences varied widely depending on geographic location, including ethnic traditions (such as ragtime, blues, and so on) and economic considerations within an area- a large theatre in a wealthy district may employ a full orchestra for film music, but a theatre in a less prestigious area may have a single piano or phonograph.³

The earliest films were accompanied by piano, mostly because pianos were common to most households and were inexpensive and easily attainable. Eventually pianos were replaced by ‘automatic’ instruments such as player pianos, especially those developed and distributed by the Wurlitzer Company.⁴ Theatre managers were highly favorable toward the new pianos, seeing as they were usually cheaper in the long run than employing musicians and would not strike at inconvenient times. The switch from traditional pianos to their mechanical versions was not well received by all critics and audiences, however, as Clyde Martin observed:



Early mechanical pianos were intended and developed for use in dance halls and in Vaudeville theatres as a pay-for-play device much like a Jukebox. Some theatres began using player pianos, but it wasn’t until 1913-1914 that manufacturers began advertising mechanical instruments targeted specifically at the moving picture industry.⁶ Several innovations were developed, including the use of double rolls to ease the transition between rolls of music and to switch to music more appropriate to the scene on screen.

Pipe organs were also used in the theatre, although they were relatively rare before 1910, and primarily associated with the West Coast and Northwest regions.⁸ The Midwest and East were slower to adopt the use of the organ in cinema, but it gained in popularity during the 1910’s. One of the greatest obstacles in the use of organ for silent film sound was the difficulty in disassociating the sound of the organ from the Church.⁹

Much like the piano, the organ was eventually improved and developed for the cinema, and cinema organs broke away from their associations with religious music. A major milestone in the development of the organ for film productions was the invention of the first fully electrified organ, built in the 1880’s by Robert Hope-Jones in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England.¹⁰ Hope-Jones came to America in 1903 and continued developments on electrical organs, alternatively working for existing companies and running his own companies. Eventually Hope-Jones was hired by and ceded his patent portfolio to Wurlitzer and the Wurlitzer Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra was fully developed.

Eventually mechanical instruments and sound effects boxes were combined to create Photoplayers, which were also called Unit Orchestras or One-Man Orchestras. These were the first instruments specifically conceived for motion picture accompaniment.¹¹ Photoplayers combined orchestral sounds (replicated by organ pipes) and sound effects into one cabinet. Photoplayers used electricity to power motor driven cylinders along with bellows and pneumatic devices that operated in much the same way as player pianos. The Photoplayers became very popular when they were introduced to theatres in 1914,¹² and, by the 1920’s, despite several critics, Photoplayers were an accepted part of any cinematic program.

As movie theatres became more and more popular in the years before World War I, musical accompaniments became more lavish and systematic. Theatres began to employ resident instrumental ensembles and organists using specialized cinema organs (notably the Wurlitzer and Kimball¹⁴), while a music director arranged music they thought appropriate from (preferably non-copyright) classics and original compositions; often passages of classical music might be linked by transitions composed specifically for that purpose. Some studios began to distribute cue sheets with their films with a selection of appropriate music in 1909 (Edison Pictures) and music publishers began printing anthologies of motion-picture music organized by mood or dramatic situation, many of which are established as musical clichés today. Many cue sheets referenced these publications. American pioneers of this approach were Max Winkler and John S. Zamecnik.¹⁵

Cue sheets were also frequently also referred to as “musical suggestions,” “musical settings,” “musical programs,” “musical plots,” and “music cues.” They were lists of music recommended for a specific spot in a film, and were often published in trade journals such as Vitagraph’s Bulletin of Life Portrayals or the Edison Kinetogram.¹⁶ Cue sheets were also often included in film journals. Cue sheets are different from the musical suggestions included with a film; cue sheets were distributed as a separate commodity, sometimes by film distributors and at other times by music publishers or cue sheet companies.¹⁷ Cue sheets were first developed in 1915-1916, but only became universally available in the 1920’s. Eventually cue sheets evolved from lists of existing works appropriate to a particular scene and began notating the melodies and providing timing cues in addition to scene cues.

There was an undeniable economic link between cue sheet compilers, movie studios, and music publishers. Cue sheets for any given studio would usually use music distributed by a particular publisher, and advertisements for the music were often included with the cue sheet. For example, the compiler George W. Beynon produced orchestral settings for Famous Players, Lasky, and Morosco films, the scores were published by G. Schirmer, Inc., and distributed to various theatres by the Paramount Pictures Corporation¹⁹. Cue sheets were very much a commercial product for music publishers.

The economic bond between compilers, publishers and movie studios was highly beneficial to most aspects of the film music industry- it increased music publisher’s sales, it helped cinematic orchestra leaders to prepare the week’s music, and increased subscriptions to trade magazines. The composers, however, were all but ignored in the mix. This led to a new Copyright Act lobbied for by the Authors and Composers League of America, led by Victor Herbert.²⁰ The act passed in 1909, extending copyright protection to mechanically recorded music and reinforced composers and publisher’s right “to perform the copyrighted work publicly for profit if it be a musical composition and for the purpose of public performance for profit.”²¹ Many cinematic music directors and theatre managers interpreted this as permission to arrange any existing work, as long as the arrangement was not published, and performance was not tantamount to publication.²² This interpretation of the 1909 copyright act led to the 1914 creation of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and a vast number of lawsuits for copyright violation.²³ Theatres could pay a fee of ten cents per seat per annum to ASCAP which allowed them to use copyrighted music for any and all public performances.²⁴ Theatres that chose not to pay the fee had to avoid all copyrighted music. Several producers and theatres banned copyrighted music entirely, using only non-copyrighted music in their cue sheets and music guides, and many trade publications began publishing lists of music that could be used without paying the copyright fees. Cue sheet compilers began producing a new form of cue sheet, offering two sets of musical suggestions for each cue: one column with copyrighted music, and one column with non-copyrighted music.²⁵ Theatres also increased their use of non-copyrighted classical music, supported by publishers (like Carl Fischer and G. Schirmer) who were not members of ASCAP and offered their music on a copyright tax-free basis.²⁶

Max Winkler was instrumental in the development of cue sheets and is widely cited as having invented them in 1912, although his claims have been proven false.²⁷ He claimed to have had the idea to base musical settings on existing compositions after watching War Brides, by Herbert Brenon, in the spring of 1912, but that film was not released until 1916.²⁸

Just because a cue sheet was issued for a particular film did not guarantee that the music listed on the sheet was actually purchased and performed with the film. Photoplay music was written specifically for cinema, containing short pieces of music written for a particular scene or mood.²⁹ Collections of photoplay music were published, with multiple pieces in each “mood” in various keys to ease transitions.³⁰ Classical pieces were frequently used to avoid copyright restrictions, and gave theatre managers and music directors a wide range of options for each film. Publishers often took existing music, usually piano scores, and expanded them for photoplay use to fit virtually any film. Existing themes were reorchestrated and renamed to work in cinema music; for example, a Bach chorale would be arranged and renamed “Adagio Lamentoso for Sad Scenes.”³¹ This approach did expose the movie going public to classical music, but in a significantly watered down form and frequently only the melodies and most well-known sections.

Photoplay music was offered in several forms: as sheet music for any instrumentation, for piano, as player piano rolls, for organ, and as music for photoplay machines. Demand for new music grew as audiences became more musically educated and expected different music for each film. Photoplay music was very successful and a huge economic boost for publishers, many of whom were able to pitch their existing classical catalogues as photoplay music to film studios and music directors.³²

In the early teens, keyboards were the main source of film music, and orchestras, where they existed at all, were small. The term orchestra was regularly applied to piano/percussion duos or trios consisting of piano, percussion, and violin.³³ A “large orchestra” developed around 1912, consisting of four to twelve musicians, led by the pianist or first violin.

The early teens saw a vast increase in the construction of new theatres, once the success of motion pictures was assured. New York led the way in the construction of new theatres and Broadway became the national center of attention.³⁴ In 1914, Vitagraph opened its first Vitagraph Theatre on 44th Street and employed a one-man orchestra keyboardist. This was eclipsed, however, by the opening of the Strand Theatre, which became a model for theatres around the country for its music program,³⁵ where the music director Samuel L. “Roxy” Rothapfel had an orchestra accompany films with classical music. Theatres around the country began imitating the Strand and hosting large orchestras to provide music. Some viewed large orchestras with doubt: Improvisation had long been standard musical practice in silent film, which is possible with an organist or pianist, but not with a full orchestra.

Large orchestras rapidly became popular and a sign of prestige for a theatre, heralded by the phenomenal success of Birth of a Nation (1915) by D. W. Griffith. Birth of a Nation was twelve reels long, the longest film at the time, and first premiered in Clune’s Auditorium, Los Angeles, in Feburary of 1915 under its original title of The Clansman.³⁷ The film was accompanied by forty instrumentalists, several solo vocalists and a chorus of twelve, using a score compiled by Carli Elinor.³⁸ The score used overtures by Mozart, Rossini, Suppé, and Wagner, music from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne, Massenet’s Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame, Offenbach’s Orpée aux Enfers, portions of Beethoven’s First Symphony and Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony.³⁹

When the film opened in New York at the Liberty Theatre in March of 1915, it boasted an orchestra expanded to fifty instrumentalists and a new score composed by Joseph Carl Breil.⁴⁰ The new score for Birth of a Nation combined Breil’s original compositions with classical, folk, and popular selections. Breil used music drawn from the works of Greig, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Weber, Beethoven, Mozart and others, as well as folk tunes such as “Auld Lang Syne” and “My Old Kentucky Home,” patriotic numbers and marches (including “Dixie” and “The Bonnie Blue Flag”), and popular tunes including “Where Did You Get That Hat” and “Zip Coon.”⁴¹ Breil’s original compositions included a love theme, which was later published by Chappell under the title “The Perfect Song” and used as accompaniment music for other films.⁴²

Theatres around the country rapidly followed the example set by Breil and the score to The Birth of a Nation. About three million people saw the film within its first year accompanied by Breil’s music and a large orchestra.⁴³ Other studios rapidly followed the example set by Breil and began using large orchestras to accompany their films, often making full cinematic scores, parts, arrangements for various ensembles, and piano reductions available through various publishers immediately after the release of a film.⁴⁴

In the early years of silent films, the music was drawn from existing works, and original film scores were rare. D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, released in 1915, toured with its own orchestra, performing Briel’s hybrid score of original and compiled music and was partly responsible not only for inspiring the use of large film orchestras, but for popularizing original, pre-composed film scores in the USA.

Victor Herbert objected to the use of pre-existing music in film scores because he believed it would be distracting to an audience that was familiar with the music⁴⁵, and he provided an entirely original score for The Fall of a Nation (1916). Many other American composers agreed with Herber’s views and began composing original film music, including Ernö Rapée, Hugo Riesenfeld, Mortimer Wilson and John S. Zamecnik. Many movie score composers had been active as cue-sheet and photoplay music compilers, arrangers, and editors.

Musical practices in early film were widely varied and influenced by the culture of the audience. The music also varied depending on what program the film was included with- vaudeville, lectures, lantern slide shows, and so on. A wide variety of languages and cultures created a wide variety in musical practices, and the music itself could be inside or outside, played by pianos, mechanical instruments or folk ensembles of any type.

By the 1920’s, however, this diversity in film music had largely vanished. The success of the film industry was assured at this point, and theatres, music directors, and film studios across the nation began standardizing cinematic music, by in large imitating the practices of the important New York Broadway theatres: the Strand, Rivoli, and Rialto⁴⁶. Even theatres that had only a pianist or a small orchestra were influenced by these theatres, playing piano reductions and arrangements of the music presented with films in New York. Many ethnic communities did struggle to retain their music in local theatres, although there is little remaining physical evidence.

In the teens, music directors began choosing music to fit the character, theme or mood of a scene and creating atmosphere. This practice led to classifying music by the emotion it evokes and identifying and categorizing different emotions.⁴⁷ (What is the difference between happy and jubilant, and how do you decide if a piece of music is either?) Music was also sometimes used on the set to put the actors in the proper mood: Actress and opera singer Geraldine Farrar was followed to every film by pianist Melville Ellis and his piano.⁴⁸

The orchestra was also moved during the twenties from their previous location on the stage to an orchestra pit. Many believed an orchestra on stage distracted from the scene and music from unseen musicians was more conducive to the ideal of film.⁴⁹ Transitions between individual works became smoother, and film composers began writing with a greater sense of continuity.

The movement toward continuity and a more subtle musical accompaniment led to widespread use of themes and Leitmotifs, led by Samuel L. Rothapfel⁵⁰ and still very common in film music today. Themes were often included in cue sheets and photoplay music, and could be altered to fit any given situation. Silent film themes and Leitmotifs tend to be much simpler than Wagner’s, with a much smaller number of motifs that were played separately.⁵¹

Interest in silent film and silent film music has increased in the last few decades. In the late 1970’s, some scores for silent films have been reconstructed by scholars such as Gillian Anderson and Dennis James⁵² to be performed with the films for which they were composed. New scores have also been commissioned (many by television and video companies) to accompany silent films,⁵³ including music by Carl Davis for Napoléon (1980), The Thief of Bagdad (1984), Intolerance (1986) and the 1925 Ben-Hur (1987), and scores by James Bernard, Jo van den Booren, Carmine Coppola, Adrian Johnston, Richard McLaughlin, Benedict Mason, David Newman and Wolfgang Thiele. Gaylord Carter, the veteran cinema organist, recorded accompaniments in 1986 and 1987 for the video release of Paramount films from the 1920s.⁵⁴

The influence of American culture on silent film music was wide reaching; conversely, so was the influence of silent film music on American culture. Audiences were exposed to existing classical music, some for the first time, as well as popular and newly composed works. New instruments were developed, an accepted musical practice was conceived that is still evident in today’s film music, the US Copyright laws were refined, and an entirely new genre of American music was born.



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