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the coming of sound; long stretches of dialogue are synchronized with the moving faces of the speakers, all the natural sounds are carefully synchronized with their corresponding visuals, and the result has the effect of a stage play observed through a telescope ; the advantages which the film has over the stage are exploited hardly at all.
In consequence of this restricted use of sound, the audience's sound-consciousness, which made such a promising start, has not been allowed to develop; indeed, the decline in popularity and virtual abandonment of the theme song seems to show that the sound is listened to less consciously than it was. On the other hand, now that synchronized sound is no longer a novelty, there are signs of the development of a new technique in the use of sound, not merely as an explanation to the ear of what the eye is watching, or as a background to keep the ear pleasantly occupied while the eye devotes itself to the action, but as a part of the action itself, as expressive in its own way as the visuals, and a necessary complement to them. And it is in this field that the musician can prove of direct use in the making of a film, and take a more responsible part than hitherto.
It is beginning to be recognized that discipline is as necessary in sound as in picture. Whereas the picture is carefully cut with due regard to form, rhythm, and emotional effects, the series of natural sounds which are normally synchronized with the picture form only a random string of words and noises, some helpful to the sense of the picture, some an adequate but no more than discreet accompaniment, and some actually disturbing in their effect. The eye is accustomed to constant changes of focus, and finds their effect pleasing; but the ear is not thus accustomed, and finds the abrupt shiftings from sound to sound, which follow quick changes of scene, difficult to accept. Moreover, there is an important difference between the sound heard in the cinema and that heard in the ordinary theatre. When watching a stage play, we select for ourselves, out of the sounds which proceed from various parts of the stage, those which we are to listen to, such as dialogue and revolver-shots, and disregard entirely all the unimportant sounds such as the footsteps of the actors, clicks of cigarette-cases, striking of matches, and shutting of doors. But in the cinema, all the sounds, proceeding as they do from a single point, the loud-speaker, are listened to with equal attention, with the result that sometimes a particular sound, say of footsteps, may be charged with a sinister meaning that is quite unintended. Every sound in a film must be a significant one; there is no room for extraneous sounds. Therefore the effect of each sound must be properly and carefully calculated.
The musician, then, the specialist in sound and its emotional
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