Carl Fischer Motion Picture Music Guide, Part 2

This is a continuation of a summary of the Carl Fischer Motion Picture Music Guide. The first part is located here. Though not as useful for planning out programs for films as Seredy's 1929 Analytical Orchestra, which included timings and keys, the 1922 Motion Picture Music Guide carried little passages of advice for the musical director. A set of these have been gathered below:

Dramatic and Romantic Moving Picture Situations

Romantic and dramatic photoplay situations are in the most cases either psychic (emotional, without much action), or physical (in which emotion is expressed in movement). In "romantic situations, where love, hatred, anxiety, despair, horror, ecstasy, etc., are shown by facial registration and with little or no bodily movement, dramatic maestosos, lentos, adagios or andantes are best employed; while in scenes of physical violence or agitation, bodily struggles, encounters, etc., agitatos, hurries and furiosos are the proper musical mediums of expression. In both "love scenes" and "fighting scenes" absolute synchronization, it need hardly be said, is a first requisite. In the last-named, fifteen second "let downs," with only a dynamic change in the music are often decidedly effective. (p.9)

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Music and Pictures

"A successful musical interpretation is as necessary to a picture as good projection." The truth of this maxim, born of experience, cannot be denied. Music in the Motion Picture show provides "atmosphere" and establishes mood. It infuses the mute action of the motion drama with the life of tone and harmony. Properly used, it may be made to take the place of the spoken word, and underline every detail of picture acting and registration with appropriate tonal comment, explanation or emphasis.

But music should never be considered an accompaniment to the motion picture, it should be apart of it. In this fact, accepted in theory and carried out in practice, we have the gist of music success in the "movies." Synchronization is its secret—the welding of picture movement and music movement, the matching of picture mood with music mood, the merging of picture and music in a unit of effect.

And the object of this Guide is to provide the musician with the means for realizing this ideal, an ideal which means personal success for him, as well as the artistic success of his work. (p. 15)

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The Use of "Tacet"

In very many instances "tacet" can be used to good effect. We quote the prize fight scene in Charles Ray's picture "SCRAP IRON" as presented at one of the largest New York Theatres. Realism was introduced by the sounding of a gong at the beginning and end of each round. The fighting was spirited and entirely held the interest of the audience. Music was not necessary, and was not missed. At the end of each round, as the gong struck, the orchestra played a lively number, which then tended to serve as a relaxation. "Tacet" can also be used during funeral processions provided it does not cover too great a space of time. A funeral is generally sad enough without being accentuated by a dirge or depressing music. (p. 31)

Source: Julius S. Seredy in collaboration with Chas. J. Roberts and M. Lester Lake, Motion Picture Music Guide to the Carl Fischer Modern Orchestra Catalog Indicating All the Themes and Motives Suitable for Motion Pictures and Showing their Practical Application to the Screen (New York: Carl Fischer, 1922).

Lawton Electrical Orchestra Director

From Hearing the Movies

The following piece reads more like a press release than one of S. M. Berg's columns, but the information it contains is intriguing for the insight it provides us into the how practitioners of the time conceived the issue of coordinating music and film. One question we can ask is: what problems are this device designed to solve? There seem to be two primary ones. First, how to coordinate the music with the film given minimal rehearsal time; second (and I think more significantly), how to duplicate a performance across a number of theaters.

According to a letter that Lawton sent to Berg in April and that was published in the Exhibiter's Trade Review Lawton was General Musical Director of the B. S. Moss Theatres in New York City. (In July 1915, according to Moving Picture World, B. S. Moss owned, among other theaters, the Regent (Harlem), the Hamilton (Washington Heights), the Prospect (Bronx), McKinley Square (Bronx), Eighty-Sixth Street (Yorkville), and the Jefferson (East Side).) As General Musical Director, Lawton would have been interested in finding efficiencies for musical performance across the chain.

Here is the text of Berg's column:

Lawton’s Electrical Orchestra Director

Can readers picture in their mind’s eye a perfect synchronization of music and pictures, irrespective of what speed the film is run, no matter whether the picture is projected fast slow, no timing or signaling the operator, besides which the orchestra can be seated out of sight of both the audience and picture, and yet the musical setting be in perfect harmony?

This is no pipe dream, but a practical invention which has lately been perfected. The musician’s difficulty in playing for the film has always been in following the picture. Where the music is supplied by the lone pianist or organist, the trouble is not a serious one, but where the musicians in an orchestra are reading at first sight, and watching the film at the same time, the task is colossal.

Picture yourself playing a series of selected musical numbers, your whole attention given to the musical interpretation, your back to the screen, when a signal is flashed you to play either moderato, allegro, tremulo [sic], adagio or segue, etc. At the exact fraction of the second, all cues for the drummer’s traps and effects, the cornetist’s bugle call, etc., are given at the exact degree of time, without the continual watching and waiting on the part of the orchestral leader and his musicians. To be told of all this certainly appears an impossibility, but yet this is only a small part of what was demonstrated to the editor of these columns a few days ago.

The invention is known as Lawton’s Electrical Orchestra Director. It is operated and completely controlled by the picture projection machine in the booth, both machines running simultaneously. To be brief, Lawton’s Electrical Orchestra Director consists of a series of musical terms automatically flashed directly to the leader and to any or all of the musicians. In reviewing the picture you write on a paper record of the orchestra director what numbers you want played, when and how, all modifications of tempos and cues, and these will be reproduced at the exact time during the performance, irrespective of the speed at which the film is being projected.

With the electrical orchestra director, the leader, together with his musicians, whether they are in sight of the screen or not, can properly work up more cues than would be possible when watching the picture. The important feature of this invention is that the paper record can in a few moments be reproduced for any other theatre where this device is installed. It was demonstrated that the mechanism of the orchestra director is very simple in construction so that any person with an average intelligence can be taught to operate it within fifteen minutes.

By special invitation a number of the leader musicians throughout the country gathered to view and test in every possible way the Lawton Electrical Orchestra Director. After a severe examination, they all agreed that in order to attain a harmonious result between the screen drama and incidental music, the two must be automatically coordinated, and that the solution of this problem was “Lawton’s Electrical Orchestra Director.”

All credit is due Mr. Stanley W. Lawton, the inventor, who is a musician of great ability and musical director of a chain of New York theatres.

The sketches presented here are reproduced by the courtesy of the Popular Science Monthly.

Source: S. M. Berg, “Music for the Photoplay,” Exhibitor's Trade Review 3 February 1917, 638.

The image at the top of the page is a spliced image of a microfilm copy; hence its rather poor quality. So far I have been unable to locate the original item in Popular Science Monthly.

Here is a little item describing the device from March 1919 edition of the Illustrated World, unfortunately without illustrations:



Illustrated world

And here are two patents associated with the Lawton Electrical Orchestral Director:


1916 Patent. A PDF of this patent is located here.


1923 Improvement. A PDF of this patent is located here.

Making the Musical Adaptation

Below is a short article by Joseph Carl Breil on making special scores for films through adaptation of pre-existing music. This is from a three volume collection of short essays on various aspects of the film industry, and it was published in 1922. I have included a link to the original source, which is available through the Internet Archive.

MAKING THE MUSICAL ADAPTATION
By JOSEPH CARL BREIL

Scorist for "The Birth of a Nation."

Editor's Note [contained in the volume in which this piece appeared]: Joseph Carl Breil holds a unique place in the motion picture world. To his keen foresight may be attributed the present-day musical adaptation for motion picture productions. It was he who first saw the need for such adaptations, and his score of D. W. Griffith's masterpiece, "The Birth of a Nation," not only stamped him as the pioneer in this work but also immediately marked him as a master in the art of making the musical adaptation for the motion picture production. He has had the distinction of having a grand opera produced and has written scores for many hundreds of the finest motion picture productions.

WHAT music has done for motion pictures in developing their entertainment value and in lifting them to a plane never dreamed of by the pioneers of the industry is a matter of general understanding. To quote Mr. Arthur James, Editor of Moving Picture World, "Music took pictures by the hand and led them to greatness, and today pictures without music are not even considered for public entertainment."

Those sentiments, coming from so great an authority as Mr. James, speak for themselves. Since music has done so much for the motion picture in the past and up to the present time, it is but reasonable to presume that music will do even more for the pictures in the future.

So, there is a place for the musician in the movies. He has the opportunity to win everlasting fame by linking his name with the name of some great producer, director or star, by writing the score that will interpret the theme and moods of the play.

It is no easy matter to score a motion picture. And the musician who is ambitious to do this type of work must have a comprehensive knowledge of the music that has been written, and a high degree of appreciation of the values necessary, for the scorer must fit his harmonies to the elusive emotions of the players on the screen.

The scorer must be able to work spontaneously. He must register his thoughts on paper simultaneously with the

[86] pre-viewing of the picture. These are cardinal requisites of the motion picture scorer.

As soon as the producer has his picture in its finished form, he calls in the scorer, who must be able to take notes as he watches the drama. These notes indicate just what music he thinks will be most appropriate and most impressive when accompanying the various scenes.

Of course, the scoring is not a haphazard fitting together of various melodies that will interpret the different parts of the picture. There must be a general theme that will be in keeping with the theme of the picture. Selecting the general theme is in itself a difficult task, and a task that requires revising.

After the theme has been decided upon and the various pieces of music incorporated, the score is played by an orchestra for the producer who watches another preview of the picture. The producer listens and criticises, and accepts or rejects the score.

It would be useless for me to tell the lover of the photodrama how much music means to silent drama. Music is so much subtler than speech that it conveys to the audience the very finest shades of dramatic meaning. Music speaks to the audience without detracting from the action of the story, and without the interruption caused by explanations. It is a known fact that the layman feels rather than understands music. Therefore, in accompanying the silent drama, music makes a direct appeal to the emotions. It is easier for the actor to gain sympathy and understanding when music accompanies the picture.

The scorer finds a rich field in opera music. Certain compositions accompany certain dramatic situations on the operatic stage. These situations are of course to be found in the moving picture story. For instance, in the picture "Kismet," Otis Skinner as Haaj is about to stab the merchant. For that scene, Mr. Carl Edouardo, Director of Music at the Strand Theatre in New York, and scorer of all the splendid pictures screened at that theatre, selected the music which accompanies the scene in "Salome," where John the Baptist is murdered. Naturally, it interprets the scene in "Kismet."

[87] When the reels are projected in continuity during the musician's preview of a picture, a stop watch is used. The picture must be perfectly timed. The symbolic music is selected and the various compositions are so arranged that they will coincide with the running time of each scene as recorded by the stop watch.

When one considers the infinite variety of emotions, themes, atmosphere, and the many sudden flash-backs that constitute this motion picture drama, it is easy to understand how difficult a task scoring a motion picture really is.

To select from the hundreds of thousands of pieces that have been written that one selection which is in perfect harmony with the scene that is being enacted, is the scorer's task. Not only knowledge is essential; time and patience are just as important.

But it is fascinating work. Persons qualified by musical knowledge and musical training will find it attractive. There is ample opportunity to exercise one's creative instincts, and the musician will find that he is amply rewarded for such creative accomplishment. It is a pleasant and dignified position, and the scorer of the great motion picture classics is finding his name flashed on the screen along with the name of other artists who have helped to make the picture.

To brother musicians who are looking for fresh fields where their efforts will be recognized and acclaimed, I advise giving this work a trial. If you have the qualifications—if you can prove your ability by some clever piece of scoring, you will find that a royal welcome awaits you in the motion picture field.

Source: Photoplay Research Society. Opportunities in the Motion Picture Industry—and How to Qualify for Positions in Its Many Branches. Vol. 2. 3 vols. Los Angeles: Photo Research Society, 1922, pp. 85-87.

Images of Breil from Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs division. First image; second image

Update: Another picture of Breil, this one from the same volume that contained the article (on the photoleaf between pp. 68-69). I have rotated the image to make it square.