Silent Cinema Music and the Transition to Sound

Abstract

The development of silent film music between the 1900s and 1920s up until the coming of sound cinema, largely reflected popular tastes and musical styles of the period. But many performances were improvised and not documented and there are very few extant examples of full music scores composed specifically for silent film. The majority of film music was compiled by music directors from library music, however this presentation will use a key examples of original music scores such as that for The Battle of the Somme, and compare these to recent scores for silent films by contemporary composers, including Laura Rossi's new score for the Battle of the Somme, which sheds light on changing musical tastes and attitudes towards the visual material which the music accompanied