[78-L] OT Musical genres^

[Michael Biel]

From: "Malcolm Rockwell" <malcolm at 78data.com>

>> What I'm interested in is what musical devices are used to evoke 
>> particular cinematic themes. For instance, we all recognise what music 
>> is used to accompany an Indian pow-wow, but what particular devices are 
>> used, and from where do they derive?
>>
>>     

Steven C. Barr wrote:

> Well, the "musical device" in most pre-talkie movie houses was a piano!
>   

Of course that was not what he meant, but was a nifty pun.  However, 
many of these pianos were special instruments with built in sound 
effects.  I've seen several on display and demonstrated.

> A very few high-class establishments had a pipe organ (Jesse Crawford
> was the official Paramount (film, NOT record label!) organist; the labels
> of his first recordings proudly promoted that fact. 

These were not as rare as you think.  Theatre organs were VERY common in 
almost ever city of medium size by the late teens or early 20s. 
 
> AFAIK, NO theatres had "house bands" to provide the musical accompaniment to their film
> offerings...?!  Steven C. Barr
>   

Of course that is not true.  While most of the time it was necessary to 
have the music provided by a single human because it was ad-lib, by the 
mid-teens some of the major movies came with a written musical score, 
and these were played by bands and full orchestras in the larger 
theaters.  This was covered in a chapter and LP in the LC's "Wonderful 
Invention", and there have been several other books and CD with this music.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com