Exam 1 Essay Portion
1) Describe the three basic types of music heard in original scores during the silent film era and cites specific examples from The Birth of a Nation. (10 points)
Music is an important form of art; it has always been utilized by each and every culture for entertainment purpose. Earlier in the silent film era, music was generally not included in the films but played in the beginning or at the end to entertain the audience.
Later music was used in the form of background score to provide strength to the scenes of the film. There were three types of original scores of music during the silent film era, improvised score, compiled scores and composed scores. Improvise score refer to the created-off-the cuff by the
Describe a number of different film genres from 1935-1939 and the typical qualities of their music. Mention specific films during this period to illustrate your generalities. (20 points)
During the period 1935 to 1939, the films were influenced by patriotism, wars etc. Apart from this romantic drama was also included in these films. So according to this music was required.For the patriotic film represents the action genre of the film which represents battles, fights, escapes etc.
For example: La Bandera was a film which involves violence, action as well as the romantic scenes. In this the protagonist kills a man in which and escapes, during his escape from the problems he gets trapped into several things. He meets a Moroccan girl and falls in love with her. The whole story is complicated so to reduce the stress of the film the music has been composed accordingly representing the theme of the story.
Today we have a wide range of genres like action, comedy, adventure, crime, gangster, drama, epics, horror, musical, fiction etc. But earlier the directors were influenced by the wars which were happening during that time due to which they were provoked or inspired to make such films in which they can show a picture of the incidents happening in the surroundings.
The main aim was to entertain the audience besides that they want the audience to remember the film for which they tried to make it more