Rethinking Film Music: a research on the immersive presentation of diegetic and non-diegetic film music

Rethinking Film Music

A research on the immersive presentation of diegetic and non-diegetic film

music

Master Thesis, Film Studies 2015/2016

Sanne van Rijswijk

Student number: 10204628

Supervisor: Dr. B. Joret

Second reader: Dr. T.K. Laine

Department of Media Studies

University of Amsterdam

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: THE HISTORY OF FILM MUSIC 9

1.1 From ‘Silent’ Film To Early Sound Film (1894 – 1933) 10 1.2 Hollywood’s Golden Age and ‘Classical-Style’ Film Music (1933 – 1960) 13 1.3 Post-Classical Period and Contemporary Film Music (1958 – present) 15 1.4 Non-Diegetic Music as Dialogue in Spring Breakers and Into The Wild 18

CHAPTER 2: FILM MUSIC EXPOSED 25

2.1 Bigger, Better, Louder: the Multiplex 26

2.2 The Case of the Cine-Concert 27

2.2.1 Silent Cinema Origins and Immersion 28

2.2.2 Nostalgia 30

CHAPTER 3: SILENT FILM REVISITED IN THE ARTIST 33

3.1 Past and Present Meet in the Transition to Talkies 34

3.2 Misleading the Spectator 36

3.3 Non-Diegetic Film Music 38

3.4 Diegetic Sound 40

CONCLUSION 44

BIBLIOGRAPHY 47

FILMOGRAPHY 49

Abstract

This thesis examines and interrogates the historical evolution and aesthetics of music in film as a text and in exhibition, and the ways in which these forms of presentation can immerse the spectator. In this research, I use Rick Altman’s theorization of silent film, Claudia Gorbman’s conceptualization of narrative film music, and Michel Chion’s theorization of cinema as an audiovisual relationship. I want to answer the following research question: how do the contemporary live orchestral accompaniment of classical Hollywood films and a recent film like The Artist revive bygone practices from the silent era, and how do they alter the interrelation between music and image in our experience of film? Throughout this research, I incorporate the term nostalgia as a theoretical concept to motivate and interrogate the historical and aesthetic dimensions of music and sound in film. In the analysis of the presentation of film music and sound, this research explores the concepts of diegetic music, as inside the narrative space, and non-diegetic music, operating on a level outside the story world, examining the ways in which these concepts move across the assumed set narrative boundaries in a film, thereby interrogating film music theory.

Keywords

Introduction

On the 28th _{of October 2015, Francis Ford Coppola’s timeless masterpiece The Godfather (Francis}

Ford Coppola, 1972) was projected in HD on a wide screen at the Heineken Music Hall, a concert hall in Amsterdam. During this event, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders performed Nino Rota’s iconic score live on stage, supporting the integrally projected, subtitled and re-mastered film, bringing moving images and film music together in a unique way. A similar event took place at The

Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on the 3rd and 4th of March 2016 when the concert hall organised the event De Avond van de Filmmuziek, an evening that honoured the orchestral film score in all its iconic diversity. Under the direction of Grammy Award winning conductor Vince Mendoza, the Metropole Orchestra performed sixteen different scores. The scores ranged from Ennio Morricone’s The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015) to the theme of Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003), and from The Godfather to James Bond’s Spectre (Sam Mendes, 2015). Moreover, the night paid tribute to one of the greatest film composers of the past decade, John Williams. The orchestra brought his recognizable work on Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) and multiple films from Steven Spielberg, such as Catch Me If You Can (2002), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and Jurassic Park (1993), to life. These events are part of a new wave of interest, spread throughout the world, for the art of orchestral film scoring. The awards database on the website of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences shows that the first edition of the Academy Awards was organised on May 16, 1929. This illustrates that since the dawn of cinema, films are awarded and remembered for their achievements in cinematography, screenplay, directing, creation of iconic characters and memorable performances. Nevertheless, the events described above show that these cinematic images are also accompanied by an aural component and films are also remembered for their original score, musical performances and use of pre-recorded (popular) music. Furthermore, the release of an album soundtrack of a film has transformed the soundtrack into a cultural product that can stand on its own.

In this thesis, I ask the following research question: How do the contemporary live orchestral accompaniment of classical Hollywood films, such as the performances at the Heineken Music Hall and Royal Albert Hall, etc., and a recent film like The Artist revive bygone practices from the silent film era, and how do they alter the interrelation between music and image in our experience of film? In order to answer this question, I have divided my research into three chapters. In the first chapter, I will excavate the use of sound and music in film from an historical perspective,starting in the silent film era (1895-1930) with a focus on Rick Altman’s theorization of this period in cinema history. In last paragraph of the first chapter, I will analyze the aesthetic use of pre-recorded and composed non-diegetic songs as a way to deepen the narrative and, moreover, the spectator’s interpretation of this narrative in two case studies, Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012) and Into The Wild (Sean Penn, 2007). The well known pre-recorded and composed songs used in these films function as a dialogue between the film’s narrative and the spectator, because the songs open up the diegetic

story-

world of the films. The second chapter explores the aesthetic experience of the presentation of film music. I focus on the development of exhibition practices up until the contemporary Hollywood film industry and analyse the cine-concert as an event that challenges definitions of film experience and immersion in relation to music and image. I will analyse particular criteria used in practices of

exhibition, among others, does the screening take place in a contemporary “black box” cinema, does it have orchestral accompaniment, does the screening take place in the dark or with the lights on, and does this increase or decrease the immersion for the spectator? The most important sub-question that is answered in this chapter regards the experience of a live performance of a film’s score and the ability of film music to take the spectator to a completely new cinematic experience through music. Filmmakers can use music deliberately to influence the way a spectator experiences a film, for example, a piece of music can create particular associative feelings or indicate a certain era. In the third chapter, I will look at a particular feeling, namely nostalgia, in the silent contemporary film The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011). The story focuses on the relationship between an older silent film star, George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) and a rising young actress, Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo). It takes place in Hollywood, between 1927 and 1933, the period when the golden age of silent cinema is replaced by films with synchronized sound, the “talkies.” The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, received highly positive reviews and won many awards. I have chosen The Artist as my primary case study, because it provides a representation of the late silent film era and early sound era in Hollywood, in which I can trace the historical evolution of music and sound in film. Furthermore, it complicates this by using old styles of filmmaking alongside contemporary styles and film techniques. This chapter is a close analysis of the cinematic use of diegetic and non-diegetic music and sound in The Artist, exposing the challenging relationship between what we see and what we hear. I look at the ways in which the film creates a sense of nostalgia for the silent film era and is anachronistic in other ways. I argue that the film uses the historical context of the late silent era and early talkies in an aesthetic way, combining the old and new, and therefore facilitates the cinematic experience of the spectator to cross borders with the diegesis of the film. Can The Artist be labelled a “contemporary” silent film?

Although film music is an important field for study that has seen an increase in academic attention, it still deserves more research. In this research project, it is my aim to open up and add to the field of film music studies as a space in which the use of music in film can be critiqued and discussed. In order to do this, Icritically evaluate the distinction between music and sound on a diegetic and non-diegetic level and challenge the boundaries of these concepts within film theory and sound theory. Moreover, I add to existing scholarship, because I excavate film music’s historical evolution from the late silent era to the present and combine this historical perspective with the aesthetic experience of music and sound in film and film exhibition. This research challenges the immersive presentation of film music through a close analysis of the contemporary silent film The Artist and the exhibition practice of the cine-concert. Throughout this thesis, I focus on films that

expose the true transformative value of music in film through the artistic use of particular cinematic techniques that shift sound and music between diegetic and non-diegetic and the effect this has on the way a spectator experiences a film’s narrative. In the production process of a film the director makes particular choices concerning what the spectator hears, what the characters in the story-world hear or what is audible for both. The presentation of music and sound in film has changed the relationship between music and image and instead of dismissing music in narrative films as something that should remain as invisible and inaudible as possible, I want to show that soundtracks should be heard. Furthermore, the recent trend of performing film music in concert halls shows that film soundtracks have gained interest in popular culture. The growing visibility of film music outside of the cinema, including the composers behind it, spurs further interest for scholars within film studies.

The field of film music has not received much attention from film studies, nor in musicology, at least not until the 1980s and 1990s, which saw an increase of more rigorous research into music’s place in cinema. One possible reason for the lack of academic work on film music can be because the field of study is divided among different disciplines. Claudia Gorbman’s Unheard Melodies (1987) explores classical style film music in narrative film and in 1998, more than a decade later, Jeff Smith’s The Sounds of Commerce opened the field of film music scholarship to the use of popular music in film. In France, Michel Chion published his highly influential book, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen (1994), on the use of music and sound in relation to the filmic image. The more recent

publication Film, A Sound Art followed in 2009. In the wake of these key publications, a discussion has proliferated concerning film music as a relevant research object, starting from the notion that it is worth less than so-called absolute music. Absolute music, in contradiction to music scored especially for a film, is seen as instrumental music that draws no inspiration from or makes no reference to an object or visual image. Kevin Donnelly addresses this problem in Film Music: Critical Approaches (2001) and argues: “Whilst film scholarship has largely ignored music as a problem it would rather not face, music scholarship has persisted in the prejudice that film music is somehow below the standard of absolute music” (1). The discussion on the value of film music relates to the discussion on the difference between an original film score and the appropriation of pre-recorded (popular) music (Reay 2). Gorbman discusses the use of the traditional film score in studio-era Hollywood and according to her the goal of the traditional score was to cue an emotional response from the spectator without calling attention to itself (73). Otherwise, according to David Shumway, soundtracks that consist mainly of previously recorded material are appropriated for a film on the assumption that the spectator will recognize the artist or the song (37). This research engages with this discourse and intends to broaden perspectives on the use of music and sound in film.

The meaning film music creates in a particular context depends on the appropriation of music in the narrative of a film. It is important for this research to elaborate on the ways music is placed in film and I will therefore explain the differentiation between diegetic and non-diegetic music from an historical perspective as well as aesthetic experience. Gorbman was one of the first to apply these

conceptualizations of music in film when she used these terms in the first chapter of her book on narrative film music. The concept of diegetic music is related to the term diegesis, which means the story-world of a film and diegetic music is otherwise known as source music, because the source of the song or melody is visible on the screen and therefore the presence of music is explained to the spectator (15). Diegetic music is audible for the characters in the film and is often used by having a character listen to music on a radio or CD player, turning it on or off themselves. For example, in Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994), the character Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) puts on Urge Overkill’s version of the Neil Diamond song Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon in her living room. Music can also be performed live, for example in the prom scene of Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985), the protagonist performs with a band on stage, or in The Godfather, when Vito Corleone’s wife sings the song Luna Mezz O’Mare at the reception of their daughter’s wedding. Otherwise, non-diegetic music is music that appears outside of the story on the screen; it is predominantly understood as background music added to a scene in postproduction. Non-diegetic music cannot be heard by the characters in the diegesis, only by the spectator of a film. Comparable to diegetic music, non-diegetic music can be anything: an original score or original song, pre-recorded orchestral music or a popular song, among others. Examples of non-diegetic music in narrative feature films are Hans Zimmer’s original score for The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) or pre-recorded songs in The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) and more recently in Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012). Both

soundtracks contain songs from established artists that are firmly grounded in popular culture: songs by Simon & Garfunkel accompany The Graduate and songs from Britney Spears are used in Spring Breakers. From an historical angle, in the silent film era, music was mostly non-diegetic; think of the musical accompaniment on a piano or by an orchestra during a screening.However, this use of accompaniment of silent film went through significant changes in the transition to films with synchronized sound. The distinction between the characterization of sound and music as diegetic or non-diegetic is of particular relevance for this thesis. The shift from films that lacked audible dialogue to films with audible talking heads opened new creative possibilities for the use of sound and music. In the early sound films, diegetic music became an important component of a film, because it could add a feeling of realism to a scene and consequently enhance the experience of the spectator (Reay 12). Moreover, music and sound were thought to add to the natural state of being of an image. Even though this continued into the present, contemporary films also focus on the use of non-diegetic music as a way to enhance the narrative.

From an aesthetic angle, the appropriation of music plays an important part in a spectator’s perception of a film, but what exactly is the influence of music on film perception? This relates to multiple questions on the relationship between music and film, which move beyond an historical analysis of sound film. How is film music integrated in the moving image on screen? Does the accompaniment by music necessarily mean that music is a subordinate to all other aspects of a film? What is the role of music in the sensory hierarchy dominated by vision? To what extent does a

soundtrack influence and alter the interpretation of a film? My aim is to show that the challenging notion of film music as “unheard” goes beyond the realm of pre-existing popular music and also moves into the realm of the original score. This research engages with particular issues regarding the discourse on sound, cinema and spectatorship. I critically engage with these issues through the analysis of the use of music and sound in exhibition practice and in film.

The introduction of sound film had an effect on film theory, because it demanded sound and music to be approached in a different manner. In this research, I will use concepts from film theory, film music theory, and sound theory. My discussion of music in film takes as its starting point the publication of Claudia Gorbman’s 1987 book, Unheard Melodies.She points out seven principles of classical film music to explain how film music works in narrative film and her main argument is that film music remains largely unheard and invisible by the spectator. I will use her concepts of

“invisibility” and “inaudibility” to frame the use of music and sound in my case studies. Further, in his book Audio-Vision: Sound On Screen (1994), Michel Chion theorizes cinema as something that is more than only visual; it is about the combination between the visual and audio. I will use the

concepts of masking and forced marriage in the analysis of diegetic sound and non-diegetic music in the case of The Artist, exposing the added value of music. Rick Altman’s Silent Film Sound (2004), Mervyn Cooke’s The History of Film Music (2008) and James Wierzbicki’s Film Music: A History (2009) are useful sources that provide me with the necessary information I need to map out the historiography of music and sound in film as well as to contextualize my analysis of The Artist and exhibition practices of film-music concerts.

Chapter 1: The History of Film Music

It was December 28, 1895 and in the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris, the Lumière brothers held the first public screening of projected films. The screening exhibited approximately ten short films capturing everyday life, events and activities, and one of the films was their first film, Sortie des Usines Lumiere à Lyon (1895). The motion picture was officially born and this would not have been possible without their invention of the Cinematograph in the 1890s. Because of this invention they were able to capture and playback moving images on a screen: however, it was not able to capture sound as well, making these early films silent (Wierzbicki 17-8). Nevertheless, the famous panicked reaction from the audience upon watching their film L’Arrivée d’un Train en Gare de la Ciotat (1895) illustrated how moving images could have a direct and significant influence on people and popular culture. Even though music was not yet a part of this influence, it would soon become essential to cinema.

In order to analyse the use of music and sound in film and to provide a contextualisation for contemporary practices of live musical accompaniment, it is important to start with a historical introduction of this rich topic. Sound and music have played an important role in cinema since the first motion pictures, but their use and purpose have changed over time. The addition of sound and music evolved from an accompanying device in every way conceivable, to a key aspect of film that helps to bring a narrative to life, to a cinematic device that creates meaning on its own merits and can open up a film’s interpretation. In this chapter, I explore when, why, and how sound and music came into being and since the history of film music is such a broad subject matter, I have divided the chapter into four paragraphs. I start with the silent film era (1895-1930), and the common misconception that films were always silent during this period. The silent era was a tumultuous period, restructuring the film industry’s production, distribution, and exhibition practices. I explore the possible reasons for sound and music to become part of cinema and continue with the evolution of particular forms of exhibition, like Nickelodeons, motion picture theatres, and picture palaces.

Further, in this paragraph, I explore early sound film and the technological innovations leading to the invention of sound synchronization. The second paragraph explores Hollywood’s Golden Age of classical-style film scoring. The third paragraph elaborates on the diversification of musical styles in the “New Wave” of film music between 1958 and 1978 and the use of popular pre-existing music and original scores in the present. Throughout these paragraphs, particular economic and cultural changes that influenced film music’s course form the framework for the historical development of music in film. In the last paragraph, I illustrate how music can be used in film through an in-depth analysis of two films: Spring Breakers and Into The Wild.

1.1

From ‘Silent’ Film To Early Sound Film (1894 – 1933)

“For the first thirty years of the cinema’s existence the films may have been silent but the places in which they were shown rarely were.” (French 2001)

There is no doubt about music’s presence in motion pictures and this has been the case since the birth of cinema. In contradiction to the general conception of the ‘silent’ film era, according to Rick Altman in Silent Film Sound (2004), films from this era were never silent (194). Sound was added often in the form of music played live by musicians as the film was being shown, and this ranged from a single piano to an orchestra, that could dramatically vary in size (289). The reasons for adding music differed between aesthetic and practical, it was used, for example, to drown out the noise of a talking audience or the rattling noise of the early film projector (Gorbman 53). Mervyn Cooke states that the reason for musical accompaniment of early film might be simple in nature: since music has always been connected to many forms of popular entertainment, it makes sense that it is connected to cinema as well. In early silent cinema, most moving-picture shows were traveling theatre-like attractions such as fairgrounds and vaudevilles, and music was not necessarily performed inside a screening room, nor did it always function to accompany the projected film (4-5). Altman has given special attention to the significance of music as a device to attract a prospective audience. Music could attract attention to a show by a performance of live music at the entrance of an exhibition venue or even by loudly playing recorded music on the street (1996, 664). The musicians in the screening room could even play their instruments incredibly loud in order to attract people walking by on the street (2004, 131). Besides attracting an audience, another possible reason for music may have been that it was used as a means of compensation for the fact that early film lacked the sounds that would naturally accompany certain situations or to fill the void created by the absence of dialogue (London 34). However, besides music there were other media that could also be used for this purpose: live narration, synchronized commentary on images at fairgrounds (Cooke 5), or the placement of actors behind the film screen who would recite synchronized dialogue to fool the audience into believing they watched a talking film (Abel and Altman 156-66).

Scholars have proposed various reasons for the addition of music in exhibition. Kathryn Kalinak proposes that music’s physical presence in an exhibition space, through live musical accompaniment, changes the projection of moving images from a flat experience into something three-dimensional. As she states: “Through a kind of transference or slippage between sound and image, the depth created by the sound is transferred to the flat surface of the image” (44). In an exhibition space, the film is projected from behind the audience onto a screen at the front of the space, in comparison; the music was played at the front of the room, underneath the screen. Further, Theodor

Adorno (1903-1969), a Marxist thinker with generally negative views on cinema,1 _{and Hanns Eisler}

argue that combining silent images with music was some sort of magical process that adds a greater spatial and emotional depth to the ghostly medium of moving images (75).

As the first films of the Lumière brothers illustrate, most early silent films depicted everyday realities and it could be argued that these had a documentary-like character. Therefore, it can be stated that early film music was not used in an aesthetic way to illustrate or enhance a narrative (Wierzbicki 20). However, as cinema production and exhibition developed in the silent era, musical

accompaniment became increasingly important in shaping the spectator’s reaction to moving images (Cooke 5). For example, in 1903, The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter) was released and is now known as one of the first narrative films. This film exemplifies the narrative turn in the evolution of early cinema production and this focus on narrative also changed how musical accompaniment was used in exhibition (Wierzbicki 26). For example, since the technology for sound synchronization way yet to be invented, the music used to accompany these pictures was non-diegetic and the source of the sounds was visible to the spectators through the pianist or orchestral ensemble present in the screening room. Although the appropriation of sound and music is still far from the film music we know and appreciate today, this film illustrated how music increasingly became a tool to intensify whatever was taking place on the screen.

In his essay “Reforming ‘Jackass Music’: The Problematic Aesthetics of Early American Film Music Accompaniment, ” Tim Anderson explores the relationship between film and live sound and musical accompaniment in early silent film. He states that during the silent era, the musical aesthetics of film exhibition were often under scrutiny and had been deemed as inadequate. Anderson argues that the aesthetic transformation of film music in the silent era, especially its evolution during the Nickelodeon period, was presented as something that was necessary for the development of narrative cinema and a site of exhibition like the picture palace (5). Film music accompaniment rapidly evolved during the period of 1905 and 1915, when cinema’s popularity grew exponentially and its exhibition moved from dispersed locations like cafes, fairgrounds, and vaudevilles to an exhibition space known as the Nickelodeon2 (Wierzbicki 29).As Anderson states, the Nickelodeon was specifically devoted to the exhibition of film and because of its flexible nature a lot of different spaces were turned into Nickelodeons. Even though this positively increased cinema’s presence in cities, the lack of regulation between Nickelodeons also meant that there were many different aesthetic and exhibition practices. Therefore, besides the exponential growth of the film industry, it also provided exhibitors with opportunities to reform and standardize film exhibition (6). Thus, this new form of exhibition helped to develop the aesthetic functions and boundaries of musical performances in the accompaniment of

1 _{In “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,” Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer} (1895-1973) coined the term culture industry and proposed that popular culture, like the film industry, resembles a factory that produces standardized products and manipulates the masses into a passive state.

2 _{Nickelodeon was the first type of indoor, public exhibition space dedicated to the screening of films and its} name originates from nickel, since the admission price was five-cents.

film. In 1910, the Nickelodeon reached its peak and exhibitors increasingly moved away from this exhibition space, which caused exhibition standards and practices to shift to a form of presentation that was supposedly more suitable for narrative cinema: the picture palace (6).

During the Nickelodeon era, films were usually very short and did not necessarily have a narrative; therefore, in order to keep the public interested, films changed weekly, and naturally, this caused a great number of films to be produced every day. This production practice quickly caused friction with the Motion Pictures Patents Company3, who wanted to harbour film’s quality over quantity (Wierzbicki 32). Until now the use of music and sound was still non-diegetic, however, early on in the Nickelodeon period, the idea was advanced that the use of music should be subordinate to the narrative needs of the film (Anderson 10). Historically, the use of music and sound to accompany a film’s narrative became increasingly important and this translated to the size and facilities of exhibition spaces. The production of quality feature-length films rose and film exhibition shifted to big theatres with more facilities, such as Broadway or Vitagraph (Wierzbicki 46). At first, not all theatres had a primary focus on showing films and the first official motion picture palace was born when the Mark Strand Theatre opened on Broadway in New York City. This theatre completely focused on the exhibition of film and acquired fame for the musical programs that accompanied the film screenings (Altman 2004, 290). The relationship between images and music started to change forever because of these lavish movie palaces and the extensive musical accompaniment.

Musical accompaniment as an aesthetic practice entered a new era in 1915, when the silent blockbuster The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith) was released and deliberately programmed at the Liberty Theatre in New York. Interestingly, the film was exhibited at this theatre, because it possessed the prestige other theatres did not yet have. Furthermore, the ticket prices were higher than usual and the exhibitors justified this by the use of an elaborate film score and an orchestra ensemble of fifty musicians (292-3). The high admission price was thus justified by the spectator’s aesthetic experience. The film was considered the first production to incorporate a proper film score (Wierzbicki 58). Joseph Breil compiled the score with familiar original musical as well as well-known classical

sections, such as such as Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. This practice of scoring is otherwise known as the compilation or compiled score and became a great tradition in the sound era (Reay 10). Even though cue sheets4 _{were already used to create more uniformity in accompaniment during film}

exhibition, this practice evolved after the release of this film. From that point on, cue sheets were less often made by film production companies, but put together by the people that actually had knowledge of music, the musicians that performed the music (Wierzbicki 50). More importantly, the cue sheets became specific in order to raise the musical aesthetics in film exhibition, because it allowed the

3 _{Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) was founded in December 1908 and functioned as a trust for the}

major American studios. The company standardized distribution and exhibition practices in America and improved the quality of films by eliminating competition between film studios (Anderson 6).

music and images to reach symbioses. In conclusion, musical aesthetics in the accompaniment of silent film became more important and elaborate, because studios produced longer films with more elaborate narratives. Further, blockbusters were set up to reach large audiences and the picture palace orchestra was often part of the appeal of visiting a screening. Altman confirms this by stating that, the reason for large audiences to flock to the picture palaces to see a blockbuster, such as The Birth of a Nation, was because of the “circumstances of their presentation” (300), not because of the film itself.

In the early years of sound film, it was not until April 1923 that sound officially entered the realm of moving images, when the Rivoli Theater in New York held the first screening of film with sound. However, the revolution in sound film happened three years later in 1926, when the

Hollywood studio Warner Brothers produced Don Juan (Alan Crosland). The film used the new technology of the Vitaphone5 and this allowed the studio to incorporate a musical score and sound effect, but still no recorded dialogue. On October 6, 1927 Warner Brothers released its first feature-length “talkie,” The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland) and revolutionized motion pictures. This was the first movie to incorporate music, sound effect, as well as recorded dialogue that was synchronized with film images. However, sound-on-film technology would become the standard sound technology, because it provided more opportunities for a smooth process of synchronization between sound and image (Reay 8). These technological developments changed the film industry’s focus, as well as the attention of the audience, from silent film to sound film, and the incorporation of the combination of music, sound, and dialogue became the norm.

1.2

Hollywood’s Golden Age and ‘Classical-Style’ Film Music (1933 – 1960)

In the early sound era, synchronized sound in film was something completely new for the audience and this novel characteristic worked in the advantage of the American film industry. For example, the success of the The Jazz Singer caused a boom of films that incorporated musical numbers in their narrative (Wierzbicki 114), but the problem was that these songs did not help the development of the film’s narrative. When sound became an integral part of film, the industry started to experience problems. For example, the number of theatre visitors decreased, because of widespread economic problems after the First World War. In return, Hollywood needed to find a way to survive this crisis and came up with particular techniques that soon led to standardizations in the film production process. In the late 1930s until the mid-1950s, the typical Hollywood film was designed to attract a wide audience and earn large amounts of money–the artistic value of film was less important. This period is otherwise known as the Golden Age, and its ‘classical-style’ Hollywood productions

5 _{The Vitaphone is a sound system developed in the early talkie period and was used for shorts and feature films} by the Warner Brothers studios. It used a process called sound on disc, which allowed sound to be recorded on a phonograph that was synchronized with the film projector.

dominated the film industry (Cooke 69). During this era, many of the dominant practices of film production, and also the incorporation of film music, were developed as a direct consequence of the organizational structure of the film industry and the standardization of technologies (Reay 12). The economic and social aftermath of the First World War caused the market dominance of French and Italian film production to suffer and this created prosperous consequences for the film production in America (Cooke, 30). Even though the American economy was also going through a hard time in the early 1930s, Hollywood film production flourished (Wierzbicki 118). In the classical period, the dominant mode of production in Hollywood was the studio system, which compromised eight companies known as “the big five” – Paramount, Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Warner Brothers and RKO – and “the little three” – Universal, United Artists and Columbia (Reay 13). These studios developed particular techniques with which they produced more films than in any other era, releasing several feature films each week (Cooke 30) and controlling ninety-five per cent of all films exhibited in the USA. In other words, studios dominated the industry through a vertically integrated system that allowed the majors to control the modes of production, distribution, such as block

booking6, and exhibition, such as the monopolization of theatre ownership (Reay 13). These particular studio techniques soon became a norm for filmmakers around the world.

In her essay, “Against All Odds: The Decline and Resurgence of the Symphonic Film Score in Hollywood,” Helen Mitchell explores the tumultuous love affair between Hollywood and the symphonic film score. As she states, the symphonic score was used to underscore dramatic parts of a narrative and became the standard practice of scoring in the Hollywood film industry during the 1930s and 1950s, otherwise known as the Golden Age of Hollywood (175). Although the use of non-diegetic scores was initially met with concerns from the industry, for example, there was resistance against the invisibility of an on-screen source to justify the music, Hollywood studios quickly accepted the new style of scoring to their benefit. In the days of silent film, the art of the compiled score was common practice and even though this practice was still used in the classical Hollywood period, it did become less popular (176). During the Golden Age, almost every Hollywood studio had their own music department, that was filled top-down, from composers to an orchestra, and this organizational format helped the symphonic score to become the standard practice of scoring otherwise known as ‘classical-style’ film music (Cooke 85).Mitchell states that Hollywood regarded the addition of music to a film as functional and was often left until the end. There was no space yet for aesthetic enhancement per se and a proper dialogue between image and music had yet to take form. The commercial advantage of symphonic scores was not capitalized upon until much later in history, therefore, on the other hand, composers presumably experienced more creative freedom in this period. However, as I mentioned before, that is not to say that there were no constraints at all and studio requirements and rules were to be followed at all costs (177).

6 _{Block booking is a system widely used by major Hollywood studios form the 1930s on and means to sell} multiple movies to a theatre as a unit.

During the Golden Age, narrative films were primarily accompanied by symphonic music inspired by nineteenth-century Romanticism and a possible reason for the resurgence of this style can be its origins in the silent film era. Another possible reason may be the fact the audience was already familiar with these scores, and since film music’s purpose in that period was to provide the audience with narrative meaning or enhance emotions the moving images itself could not express, film music needed to be as transparent as possible (Cooke 79). Wagner (1813 – 1833) is probably one of the most influential composers of Romanticism and his style and technique formed a starting point in the development of classical-style film music. His concept of the repeating leitmotif became one of the distinctive features of Golden Age music (Cooke 80) and has persisted as a recognizable technique in the composition of contemporary film music. On of the most influential composers of Hollywood’s classical period is Max Steiner, who is especially known for his foundational work on the score for King Kong (1933) (87). This score marked the beginning of non-diegetic musicin narrative film and his techniques were widely used during the Golden Age and even until the present day. The main reason for the importance of this score hides in the emotional affect it has on the audience (88).

No matter how prosperous film production was in the Golden Age, the Second World War and the invention of television jeopardized Hollywood’s dominant status (Mitchell 177). Cinema attendance decreased enormously after the war and this forced a large number of theatres to close its doors (Wierzbicki 160). The film industry needed to find an interesting hook for audiences to flock to theatres again. In the 1950s and 1960s, spectacular, high-budget films, like Ben-Hur (1959), were extremely popular, and the use of non-diegetic orchestral music and aesthetics in these epics were designed to create a film that was ‘realistic’ and attracted and amazed audiences. For example, composers wrote special scores for these films to match historical settings and used wide-screen formats like Cinemascope (Cooke 195). In conclusion, orchestral scoring in Hollywood’s Golden Age of sound cinema was an extremely standardized and regulated process that used a style with roots in late nineteenth century European classical music. This style became one of the dominant ways of combining music with cinema, because of its highly profitable nature. However, in the 1960s, a counter movement of film music in Hollywood takes a stand against the dominant classical style.

1.3

Post-Classical Period and Contemporary Film Music (1958 – present)

“Far from being ‘inaudible’, film music has frequently been both noticeable and memorable, often because of the various demands placed upon it to function in ancillary markets.” (Jeff Smith 1996, 230)

In the beginning of the 1960s, otherwise known as the post-classical period, new technologies and techniques in filmmaking caused classical-style film music to exist next to a number of different

genres and styles, for example jazz, rock and pop music (Wierzbicki 189). At the same time, a group of American filmmakers established an organization under the name of New American Cinema and their aim was to offer aesthetic and thematically interesting films that countered the dominant classical Hollywood style (Wierzbicki 196). This “new wave” of Hollywood film started to use popular songs as film scores, varying from songs that were popular at the time the film was released or songs that were written especially for a film, with the purpose of becoming hits and selling the film (Wierzbicki 200).

Multiple works are written that open up the field of film music studies in the new direction of pre-recorded scores and popular music (Brown (1994), Buhler, Flynn and Neumeyer (1996), Donnelly (2001), Kassabian (2002), Dickinson (2003)). Jeff Smith’s The Sounds of Commerce: Marketing Popular Film Music (1998) forms the start of scholarship on popular music in film and he explores the history and economic reasons for popular music in film. Smith argues that an audience brings previous knowledge of popular music and associations to a film and this creates additional meaning (167). Popular music can take the commentative function of film music farther when a filmmaker takes care in selecting songs that can function on multiple levels of the audience’s knowledge. An example of this is the use of pop music from Britney Spears in Spring Breakers or the “I want candy” sequence in Marie Antoinette (2006). In short, the pop score offers new ways of thinking about a film score and its functions. I incorporate the function of popular music in this research, because I want to compare it with the traditional film score to find out what the similarities and differences are. Popular music in film is not invisible, it is able to engage audiences differently, and makes it easier for an audience to read multiple levels of meaning in a film. Although it might not be possible for a traditional film score to be read on different levels of meaning, the presentation of a film and score can influence the way an audience reads a score.

It could be argued that the practice of writing songs for a film with the purpose of selling the film caused films and film music to decrease in artistic value (Reay 25); however, I argue that the use of popular songs as non-diegetic music can also increase a film’s artistic value, which I solidify by exploring the role of Simon & Garfunkel’s folk-pop songs in The Graduate.The film explores the life of 21-year old Ben Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffmann. Ben has recently graduated from college and his parents are expecting him to pursue graduate school and become a successful scholar. During his graduation party, Ben drives home Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s business partner, and they end up having an affair. When the affair ends, Ben finds himself falling for Elaine, Mrs.

Robinson’s daughter. The film is famous for its use of songs by Simon & Garfunkel and the majority of music on the soundtrack was released prior to the film, therefore already part of the spectator’s spectrum of cultural references. However, besides the already existing songs, the director also specially commissioned a song from the duo, Mrs. Robinson. The Graduate is an important reference in the historical development of music in film, since at this point in time reusing popular music for movies was not done often (Mitchell 187). Moreover, the film inquires the conceptualization of

diegetic in film music theory, because in The Graduate, the songs are used as non-diegetic

accompaniment, but on an aesthetic level that enhances and comments on the protagonist’s emotional state. The non-diegetic music is therefore a part of the narrative space of the film, and not merely something that can be theorized as external. A famous sequence early on in the film in particular exemplifies the use of popular songs as non-diegetic music and how this musical choice enhances the state of melancholy the Hoffmann character is in. The scene starts with a black screen and the non-diegetic song The Sound of Silence fades in, making the following lyrics audible: “Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.” As the lyrics go on, the darkness fades into a close up of moving water and the reverberation of sunlight, before a series of dissolves reveal Ben on an

inflatable bed drifting in a swimming pool. The camera focuses on his face and together with the melancholic music these cinematic techniques enhance his state of contemplation (Figure 1a-b). The non-diegetic use of popular music in The Graduate opened up possibilities for many films in the future. Easy Rider (1969) is another famous example of a film in that period that uses popular songs as non-diegetic music (Wierzbicki 191) and both these films have had an important role in shaping the position of these songs in popular culture.

Fig. 1a-b The focus on Ben’s face and non-diegetic song enhances his strayed thoughts

From 1972 on, recording companies started to release compilation albums of the classical style film melodies of, for example, composer Max Steiner. As a result of this, films in the 1970s were filled with “hits” from Hollywood’s Golden Age and this nostalgic practice brought orchestral film music back to life (Wierzbicki 210). According to Mitchell, in 1969, the film industry had to downsize their production costs and raise ticket prices due to a short period of recession. In this period, the number of films produced decreased and the industry pointed their focus on the production of big budget

blockbusters. As addressed in the introduction, the single most important composer of the 1970s was John Williams, a man who is especially known for the film scores he composed for the directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. For example, he composed the iconic score for Star Wars (1977) and Jaws (1975) and the powerful nature of his scores became one of the reasons these films became successful blockbusters (191). Especially the success of Star Wars marked a turning point to a new era of sound film, because it was the first movie to use the new Dolby stereo-optical technology, raising the sound quality of the picture (192). In order to screen the film, theatres needed to install a

special sound system; therefore, the success of Star Wars showed how important sound in a movie could be and Dolby soon became a norm for filmmakers who wanted their film to be widely distributed on the market. This story is reminiscent and nostalgic of the exhibition of The Birth of a Nation in the silent era, highlighting again the importance of the presentation of a film for the quantity of the box-office. Something comparable happened this year at EYE, the film museum of the

Netherlands. As the only cinema in the Benelux that screened Quentin Tarantino new film The Hateful Eight in the original 70mm format, they had to make expensive adjustments to their regular projector in Cinema 1, the largest screening room. The Italian composer Ennio Morricone wrote the score for the film and Tarantino has used Morricone’s music before in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglorious Basterds (2009), and Django Unchained (2012), but this was the first time Morricone composed an original score for him.

After the resurgence of orchestral film scoring, filmmakers also started combining classical music with popular pre-existing music, creating a mix between old and new. A great number of films were influential in their use of compilation scores7 _{or pre-recorded popular music in a non-diegetic}

manner. A few of the most important and remarkable are: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Goodfellas (1990), Trainspotting (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Marie Antoinette, and Tarantino’s oeuvre, ranging from Reservoir Dogs (1992) to Django Unchained. The shift to the use of compilation scores had several consequences. Firstly, it changed the audibility and visibility of music in film. Secondly, it also brought about dramatic changes to the profession of film scoring, because it shifts the responsibility from the composer to the producer or director. Thirdly, tie-ins between films and soundtracks have become an important part of the production process of a film and a film theoretical topic. These changes in the use of film music raise certain questions on the function of film music. Does music add to the understanding and experience of the filmic image or is it meant to take the foreground and displace the image as the principal focus of attention? Or does it work in both ways? How does this interrelation between image and sound function in film analysis, or moreover, in our understanding of a film?

1.4

Non-Diegetic Music as Dialogue in Spring Breakers and Into The Wild

As stated at the beginning of this chapter, the incorporation of music and sound in film has gone through various stages and for the most part music was used to guide, enhance action and narrative, and trigger an emotional response. As discussed in the paragraph on early sound film, what made The Jazz Singer so special was its characterization as a talking picture. It advanced sound film as the replacement of silent film because of the value attributed to speech (and singing) by the film industry

7 _{A compilation score uses a combination of original music, pre-existing classical and popular music, or a} combination of sorts.

and the audience.According to Gorbman in Unheard Melodies, music can serve as an expressive emotional device, for the narrative as well as the feelings of a character, of an emotional depth that cannot be expressed in words (67). She also states that background music invites the spectator to think about the images and simultaneously helps to make a spectacle of the images it accompanies (68). According to Gorbman, any piece of music can be used to accompany a scene from a film and will have their own effect, because “the spectator automatically imposes meaning on such combinations” (16). However, what happens when music is especially selected for accompaniment and thus plays an active role in the film’s narrative? In the next paragraph, I illustrate what I argue to be the true value of music in contemporary film: the use of music as a form of dialogue. First, I will analyse the use of pop music in Spring Breakers and second, I will look at the use of original songs in Into The Wild.

Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers is a good example for the use of popular music in film. The soundtrack is full of popular music; Korine uses music from artists like Skrillex, Nelly, Nicki Minaj, Ellie Goulding, and most prominently, Britney Spears. The film centres around four college students (played by Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine) that hold up a fast food restaurant in order to finance their spring break in Florida. The film is an alienating trip of excessive partying, drinking and drug abuse, and the girls end up arrested, but a rapper/drug dealer named Alien (James Franco) bails them out of jail. One scene near the end of the film in particular exemplifies the use of popular music in film, in this case a song from Britney Spears. In this scene, three of the girls, wearing some sort of uniform of a bathing suit, pink balaclavas, and shot guns, stand around Alien (James Franco) who sits behind his piano. The girls demand him: “Play something inspiring.” Alien introduces the song and describes Britney Spears as “One of the greatest singers of all time, and an angel if there ever was one on this earth.” Alien starts to play the song Everytime and the camera captures the girls leaning on the piano, looking at him (Figure 2). The reason this music is so important to the movie is the associations the pop songs of Britney Spears in particular add to the film. Her music is ingrained in our contemporary popular culture and filled with connotations of innocence and promiscuity. Mirroring and fueling Spears’ noted “fall from grace” is background of some of the actresses in the film. For example, early on in their careers, Selena Gomez played in Wizards of Waverly Place (Todd J. Greenwald, 2007-2012)and Vanessa Hudgens starred in High School Musical (Kenny Ortega, 2006). Their portrayal of innocent teen girl characters in shows and films produced by the Disney Channel clashes with the characters they play in Spring Breakers. Just like Spears they are portrayed as girls that lose their innocence, in this case through spring break rituals of partying, drugs, sex, but most of all the focus on violence. The spectator watches with or without these associations of popular culture, but just like the uniqueness of a silent film screening, the appropriation of pre-recorded non-diegetic music in this film can create a different effect on each individual spectator.

Fig. 2 Alien and the girls

From the outset the music is a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic music. A melody arises from the keys of the piano, but simultaneously the childlike music box tune of the actual song is already audible. The girls also start to sing and soon the music fades into the actual song and the scene changes into a melancholic ballet as the film cuts to shots of the girls dancing with their guns in the air, against a backdrop of the ocean and the soft pink and orange light of the sunset (Figure 3a-b).

Fig. 3a-b The girls dancing with their guns in the air in the soft light of the sunset

After this, the scene fades into a slow motion sequence of Alien and the girls committing violent robberies, zooming in on their actions (Figure 4). The song creates a discrepancy between what the spectator hears and sees, young women waving shotguns in the air with pure joy. The lullaby-like nature of the song and previous knowledge on the troubled descent from innocence of Spears make it possible for the viewer to read multiple layers of meaning in this scene. It could be argued that this has an ironic effect. This power could not have been transferred with dialogue and because of this the sequence is so bizarrely captivating, almost like a music video. What ties this film and example of The Graduate together is their appropriation of popular music that can no longer be conceptualized as non-diegetic background music. It would be wrong to deem the aesthetic use of these songs as something that has its place outside the narrative space of the film, because the music still manages to comment on the films narrative and moreover, it immerses the spectator into the film’s story-world.

Fig. 4 The girls and Alien on a violent rampage

Another example that I want to touch upon is the soundtrack for Into The Wild. In this drama, a young man named Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) separates himself from society and materiality to travel across North America and the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1990s. Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam, and Jerry Hannan, perform the songs on the soundtrack. After the release of the film, the official soundtrack became very popular and gained acclaim8_{. The use of music in this film differs}

from my other case study Spring Breakers – where the director uses pre-existing pop songs – because the music in Into The Wild was written especially for the film. This is therefore important for my own research on the nostalgic appropriation of musical practices in film, since the use of commissioned songs as non-diegetic musical accompaniment raises other associations for the spectator of the film. The scene that is central to the analysis of this film is the scene where the song Society is used as non-diegetic background music and I use this sequence to illustrate the argument that music can add meaning to a narrative and images in a way that dialogue cannot.

The music in the film is used to create an emotional response from the viewer, to create a connection between image and music that can be recalled when listening to the soundtrack without the images of the film. First of all, this is accomplished by the aesthetic arrangement of the songs on the soundtrack of the film. The complete list of songs on the soundtrack is in the same order as in the film itself. Furthermore, the music also works to add meaning to the narrative in a way that dialogue is unable to achieve and one scene in the middle of the film in particular exemplifies this. Before I turn to this specific scene, I provide the narrative of the scene with context by looking at two previous scenes. The first scene is situated in the heart of Los Angeles and symbolises the negative part of society for the protagonist. The scene starts with a close-up of Chris’s face as he arrives in the city during daytime. The camera cuts to him standing in line for the homeless shelter at night, where he is provided with a bed for the night. The next sequence underlines the discomfort Chris experiences in the city by the use of cinematography. The juxtaposition of darkness and bright lights on the street emphasizes the negative connotations Chris experiences while being in the city. The camera frames him in close-up again and the shadows on his face and surroundings darken the outlines of his face

and body, presenting him as a shadow-man roaming the streets. This highlights how unattached the character is from the urban surrounding he occupies (Figure 5a-b).

Fig. 5a-b Christopher alone in the city

In the next shot, the location changes and we see Chris walking through a tunnel while an ambulance races past him, the camera frames him from the front and this enhances the motionlessness of his body, mirroring his uncomfortable state of being (Figure 6). After this, the location changes again and Chris is shown walking past a bar full of young, upper class people. The camera tracks along the room and captures the faces of the people inside the bar from Chris’s point of view. In the next shot, the camera focuses on him again, he is standing outside looking in, emphasizing his misplacement in the city. The entire scene symbolises that Chris is outside of ‘society,’ he does not belong in the city anymore. His only option now is to go back into the wild and live on his own. This feeling is

enhanced even more in the following scene when a shot of a moving train establishes another location change and an abrupt cut to a chaotic sequence of Chris being beaten and thrown of a train. He was caught travelling on the freight train illegally and as a consequence literally thrown out of society. In the scenes I analysed above, the most important markers of location, atmosphere, and emotional state of the character are communicated to the spectator through a combination of non-diegetic music and the diegetic sounds that originate from the spaces surrounding the character, for example traffic noises and people talking.

Fig. 6 Christopher lost in the city

The next scene revolves around the non-diegetic use of the song Society and is my primary example of how music can add meaning to a narrative and images in a way that dialogue cannot.The lyrics of

the non-diegetic song accompanying the shots provide the images with another layer of meaning. The lyrics go like this:

It’s a mystery to me We have agreed With which we have agreed You think you have to want

More than you need Until you have it all you won't be free

Society, you're a crazy breed I hope you're not lonely without me When you want more than you have

You think you need

And when you think more than you want Your thoughts begin to bleed I think I need to find a bigger place 'cos when you have more than you think

You need more space Society, you're a crazy breed I hope you're not lonely without me

Society, crazy and deep I hope you're not lonely without me There's those thinking more or less less is more

But if less is more how you're keeping score? Means for every point you make

Your level drops Kinda like its starting from the top

You can't do that... Society, you're a crazy breed I hope you're not lonely without me

Society, crazy and deep I hope you're not lonely without me

Society, have mercy on me I hope you're not angry if I disagree

Society, crazy and deep I hope you're not lonely without me

As the lyrics of the song text above illustrate, I argue that the song enables the film to express the protagonist’s reasons for his decision to separate himself from the constraints and rules of society, exposing his feelings without verbalizing them explicitly. Thus, the non-diegetic music becomes part of the narrative, and in the process works almost as diegetic music that provides the spectator with an insight into the thoughts of this character.For example, in this scene Chris is followed in his daily activities in the wild, like plucking berries, going to the bathroom, hunting, slaughtering, cooking, eating, organizing his belongings, exploring the area and mapping it, and keeping a journal, in essence he is creating his own ‘society’ in the wild. The scene is built up out of shots in split screen and normal wide screen format and the split screen adds to the randomness of these activities, to the free nature of his life and behaviour in the wild (Figure 7a-b).

Chapter 2: Film Music Exposed

In chapter one, I discussed the history and development of film music as a whole in the Hollywood film industry. The research pointed out that the transition to talkies had an everlasting effect on the use and position of music and sound in film production, as well as film exhibition. In this chapter, I expand on these findings, by adding more detailed information on the ways in which musical accompaniment in the exhibition of film has evolved. Again, I use Rick Altman’s book Silent Film Sound (2004) as the starting point to trace the origins of musical accompaniment in film exhibition. As explored in the first chapter, Altman researched the history of film exhibition in the silent era to expose that silent cinema was never silent to begin with. In chapter one, I explored the particularities of the Nickelodeon in the early silent era and the early movie theatres and picture palaces in the late silent and early sound era. In addition to this research, the first part of this chapter will focus on the multiplex as an important historical space of film exhibition and continue with contemporary exhibition practices in an era of fast paced technological transformation. The second part of this chapter will focus on the recent rise of interest in the live performance of film scores, especially of orchestral scores of films regarded as blockbusters and classics. This so-called cine-concert is best described as a screening of a sound film – a picture with synchronized sound and speech –

accompanied by live orchestral music, in a space that is designed to host concerts, or otherwise a space that is transformed and modified to host a film screening with live orchestral music.

From a methodological point view, then, I approach the cinematic concert as a kind of topoi of silent film musical accompaniment in combination with contemporary theatrical film exhibition. I follow Erkki Huhtamo’s concept of topoi and link this to the concepts of nostalgia and anachronism. In the introduction of his book Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles (2013), Huhtamo defines topoi as recurring discursive concepts that can be traced cross-historically and cross-culturally. It is something that emerges over and over again within media history and provides certain sets of characteristics for new experiences that can be appropriated in a new way over and over again. What may seem like a new practice or object is often merely a newly packaged idea. Moreover, culture industries like the film industry deal with a medium that is in a constant state of fluctuation and highly sensitive to the influence of technological and cultural changes. For example, the current exhibition of films seems to have reached its fullest potential with enormous theatres that use the most advanced sound technologies and HD wide screens, but of course there always the possibility of further development. However, this does make live accompaniment at a film screening seem rather gratuitous. Or is it? Therefore, I research why this practice resurfaces at this particular moment in time and in this manner and argue that the cine-concert carries nostalgic sensibilities for past practices, however it simultaneously approaches exhibition practices in an anachronistic way.

2.1

Bigger, Better, Louder: the Multiplex

The status of cinema as a developing art form and popular leisure activity among diverging social classes demanded the sites of exhibition to evolve along with cinema’s changing modes of production and distribution (Hark 1). In chapter one, I explored the particular reasons for adding music and sound to silent film and how this was realised in exhibition practice. For example, during the golden years of silent cinema, screenings of films at movie palaces had musical accompaniment where the source of the music was physically visible during a film screening in the embodiment of a pianist or orchestra musicians. However, when sound film became the dominant mode of production, live performance of music in the auditorium disappeared, because it was replaced with sound as a bodiless entity in the form of sound-on-film technology (Reay 8). So, the development of sound technology demanded the spaces where film was exhibited to evolve as well. In this paragraph, I briefly touch upon the

evolution of two significant practices of film exhibition, the movie palace between 1910 and 1920 (Hark 3), and the multiplex, from the mid-1960s (7) until the present. Besides the historical evolution of these spaces, I also address the aesthetic importance of music to provide the spectator with an embodied and immersed cinematic experience.

In his exploration of the Golden Age of silent film music, Altman addresses how moving picture orchestras came of age in a period that produced a lot of big films that were exhibited in grand picture palaces that could hold a large audience. Regarding the experience of this audience he states: “…the unprecedented size of these films’ audiences was determined not by the films themselves but by the circumstances of their presentation.” According to him the spectators of that time searched for an experienced characterized by prestige, “the kind that could be had only in a picture palace with a large orchestra.” These exhibition practices of the 1910s created an ideal format for the space and design of film exhibition: the most important part of a motion picture experience a large orchestra and quality musical score that accompanied the presentation of a film (300). In comparison, the multiplex was a theatrical form of exhibition that has several different auditoriums in the same building, with relatively large seating capacity, but are much smaller than the picture palace was. The multiplex experienced a boom in the late 1970s, after the release of films like Star Wars, and became the standard form of theatrical exhibition in the United States by the 1980s. The reason for this was that exhibitors needed to build theatres that were equipped with Dolby sound technology in order to fulfil the desire of the audience to experience the movie, and especially its score, in the best possible way (Mitchell 192). Thus, in the exhibition space of the multiplex, the aesthetics of sound technology and the size of the screen in the auditorium create possibilities to enhance the narrative of a film as well as to create an overwhelming impact of image and sound on the spectator.