movie music

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ACCUstomed though we are to spesking of the films mase 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 anindispensable accopmaniment; when the Lumiere films were shown at the first public film exhibition in the united states in February 1896,they were accompanied by piano imprivesations 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 , hiwever, the inconruity of playing lively mudic to a solemn film vecame apparent, and film pianisrs began to take some care in matching eir pieces ti the mood of the film.As movie theaters gew in number and importance, a violinist, and perhaps a cellist,would be would added to the pianidt in certain cases , and in the larger movie theaters small orchestras wrer formed.For a mumber of years the selection of musid for esch film program resten entirelu in the hands of the conductor or leader of the of chstra, and cery of ten the principal qualification for holding such a podition was not skill of 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 conduxtor 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 publushing suggestions for musical accopaniments. In 1909, for example, the Edison company began issuing with their filns such indications of mood as "pleasant","sad","lively".The suffestions fbecame more explicte, and so emerged the usical cuesheet containing indications of mood, the titles of suitable pieces of music, and precise directiond=s to show where one piece directos to show whter one piece led thto the nest. Certain fimls had music especially composed for then. The most famous of these early special scores wal that composed and conposed and arranged for D.W Griffith's film BIirth of a Nation,which was releaed in 1959.