Movie Music

Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as

"silent", the film has  never been,  in the        full sense of  the word,

silent. From the very beginning,  music was regarded as an indispensable

accompaniment; when the Lumiere films were shown at the first public film

exhibition in the United States in February 1896, they were          accompanied by

piano improvisations on popular tunes. At first, the music played bore no

special relationship to   the films; an accompaniment of any kind  was

sufficient. Within a  very short time, however,  the incongruity of      playing

lively music to a solemn film became apparent, and film pianists began to

take some care in matching their      pieces to the mood of the film.

As movie theaters grew in number and importance, a violinist, and perhaps a

cellist, would be added to  the  pianist  in certain cases, and in the

larger movie theaters small orchestras were formed. For a number of years

the     selection of music for each film program rested entirely in the hands

of the conductor or leader of the orchestra,        and very often the principal

qualification for holding such  a position was not skill or taste so much

as the          ownership  of  a  large personal library of musical pieces. Since

the conductor seldom saw the films until the night      before they were to be

shown (if indeed, the conductor was lucky enough to see them then), the

musical arrangement     was normally improvised in the greatest hurry.

To  help meet this difficulty, film distributing companies started the

practice of  publishing suggestions for   musical accompaniments. In  1909,

for example, the  Edison Company began issuing with their films such

indications of mood as "pleasant", "sad", "lively". The suggestions became

more explicit, and so emerged the musical cue   sheet containing indications

of mood, the titles of suitable pieces of music, and precise directions to

show where         one piece led into the next.

Certain films had music especially composed for  them. The most famous of

these  early special scores was that         composed and arranged for D. W.

Griffith's film Birth of a Nation, which was released in 1915.

電影插曲

盡管我們習(xí)慣于將 1927 年以前的電影稱為"無聲電影"，但是就無聲這個詞完整的意義

上來說，電影從未真正的無聲過，從最初開始音樂就被視為必不可少的伴奏。  當(dāng)盧米埃爾 的電影在 1896 年 2

月美國首屆影片公映展覽上放映的時候，影片便用當(dāng)時的流行曲臨場鋼 琴伴奏。  最初，這些音樂伴奏與電影沒有什么特別的關(guān)系，用什么曲子伴奏都行。  但在很

短的時間內(nèi)，為一部莊重的影片演奏快活的音樂所產(chǎn)生的不協(xié)調(diào)感變得顯而易見，因此鋼琴 家們開始注意將自己的作品與影片的情調(diào)結(jié)合起來。

隨著影劇院在數(shù)量上與重要性上的不 斷增長，在一些場合，除了鋼琴師外，還要加上小提琴師，或許還有一位大提琴師。  較大

的影劇院里還組成了小型的管弦樂隊。  在很長的時間內(nèi)，為各部影片選擇配樂完全掌握在

樂隊指揮或隊長手中，而通常把持這種職位的資格不是技巧或鑒賞品味，而是擁有一個大的 音樂作品的個人收藏。

因為直到電影上映的前一天晚上樂隊指揮才能看到影片(如果這個指 揮真正有幸能夠看到影片的話)，音樂安排通常是在非常匆忙的情況下臨場進行的。為了解

決以上的困難，電影發(fā)行公司開辦了為音樂伴奏印制提示單的業(yè)務(wù)。 例如 1909 年愛迪生公

司開始將一些諸如"喜悅的"、"悲傷的"、"活潑的"之類表明影片情調(diào)特征的提示與影片一起 發(fā)行。

這些提示逐漸變得更加具體，并且出現(xiàn)了包括影片情調(diào)說明、適用樂曲名稱和樂曲 轉(zhuǎn)換點等內(nèi)容的配樂說明單。 某些影片擁有專門為其創(chuàng)作的音樂。

這些早期特創(chuàng)樂譜中最 著名的便是為 D. W.  格雷夫斯 1915 年上映的影片《一個國家的誕生》所創(chuàng)作的音樂。

譯路通武漢漢口翻譯公司整理

2012.6.16