Final 14-23 Flashcards
In early film music, a “Leitmotif” is a
short, distinctive, recurring melody assigned to a main character of a film
What decade is now often referred to by scholars as the “Golden Age” of silent film music?
1920s
“Organic Narrational Status” is defined as the silent film musicians’ desire to
create the illusion that the music was emanating naturally from the film itself.
Before becoming an important part of film music sound, percussion instruments (including the “drum set”) played a prominent role in which two of these older American theatrical genres?
Extravaganza and Vaudeville
Approximately what percentage of the seventeen major American silent film composers were immigrants to the United states?
50% (8/17)
Which American-born film composer, the son of Czech immigrants, returned to the “Old Country” as a teenager to study with famed composer Antonin Dvorak?
John Stepan Zamecnik
Which French-born American silent film composer continued his high-profile music career after the end of the silent era by becoming Resident Composer of Radio City Music Hall?
Maurice Baron
The 1920s cinema manager’s efforts to hide their orchestras and organists from audience view to focus attention solely on the screen was called…
Obscuration
The development of the “drum set” in the mid-19th century resulted from the invention of this mechanical device:
The bass drum foot pedal
Throughout the 1920 action-adventure film The Mark of Zorro, the masked hero, Senor Zorro, battles three evil villains. Correctly name all three of these characters, including their rank or title, and briefly describe their relationship to each other.
Senor Zorro battles three men: Sgt. Gonzolaes, Capt. Ramon, and Gov. Alvarado. Don Diego refers to Gonzales as a friend, and while he does battle him as Zorro, they team up in the end. Capt. Ramon is pursuing Lolita, making him a real enemy, and Gov Alvarado is corrupt and wants Zorro dead.
What is an “Original Score?”
A new, original composition specially created to accompany a specific film. This score becomes an inseparable part of the artistic totality (impact) of the film.
A “Musical Setting” can be defined as
the compilation of already existing music (i.e. published) from a local cinema’s sheet music collection into a running sequence to accompany a specific film, as guided by a cue sheet supplied by the filmmaker or other official source
What are the 5 key techniques of “organic” film music?
Musical decoding, Musical anticipation, Musical transitions, Leitmotifs, and Themes
“Our Hospitality” starring Buster Keaton uses what organic film music technique?
Leitmotif
What is one positive and one negative to using an original score?
Positive: Can almost perfectly emotive match, greater artistic shading
Negative: Long creation time, difficult to play, more expensive
