American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

Selecting Music For Your Vacation Movie By WILLIAM STULL, A.S.C. MUSIC may — or may not — have charms to soothe the savage breast, but there's no doubt a well-chosen musical accompaniment can certainly soothe audiences into thinkingbetter of the home-grown movie. And since movie-makers all over the country have added scoring (via the twin-turntable and phonograph-record route) to their movie-making hobby, the question of choosing the right records to accompany home-movie showings is becoming fully as important as filtering, editing, or any more strictly photographic problem. For most pictures, though, this problem isn't nearly as serious as it seems, for with the exception of the more "plotty" scenario films, a musical score for a home or vacation movie is best if it is kept a simple accompaniment, rather than an intricately-arranged thematic score. Of course it's nice to tailor an almost professionally thematic accompaniment, with a musical change for almost every change of camera-angle — but performing it in the dark, while you're worrying about how the volume is for the folks down front, and what in blazes the projectionist is doing with projectorspeeds is an entirely different matter! Your elaborately-cued score is likely to go very sour indeed, and end up by being almost worse than no music at all. The best practice, therefore, is to keep your scores simple, letting each record provide a musical background for just as much footage as it possibly can. Of course, now and then we strike abrupt changes of mood, action or tempo which simply stand up and yell for a change of music. When that happens, we've no alternative except to give in and dish up another platter. But wherever possible, choose your music so you can simply put on one record and play it completely through, following it with another that's to be played completely, and so on. Second in importance only to simplicity, and blood brother to it, is the matter of keeping the music in the background, rather than letting it get "out front" to be a show in itself. For this reason, steer clear of familiar tunes (especially popular or frequently-played classical ones.) They (or their titles) may express the mood of your picture perfectly: but when they start, half your audience is likely to prick up its mental ears and say "Oh, I danced to that (or heard it on the radio) last night! — meanwhile mo mentarily forgetting the picture entirely. For the same reason, avoid records with vocal choruses or interludes. The intrusion of voice and words shoves the music out of its place in the background into the foreground of audience-attention. As a soloist, Bing Crosby or Judy Garland may be tops — but used to accompany pictures their waxed voices will steal the spotlight from the best picture ever made. Moreover, even though the tune itself may be all right, the words can sometimes conflict embarrassingly with what's happening on the screen. Since the accompaniment must be unobtrusive, keep your accompanying records all of the same general type of instrumentation. That is, don't slip an organ record into an otherwise completely orchestral score, or a swing band into a succession of symphonic discs. And the same rule usually goes double as regards instrumental solos. This doesn't by any means imply you'll need a large selection of recordings to draw upon for scoring your pictures. An expansive record-library may give you more variety in creating movie scores, but it's by no means necessary. During the last four years, as a member of the Sound Committee of the Los Angeles 8mm. Club, I have scored several hundred films of almost every description, from scenario films and documentaries to vacation travel-reels and home movies: and practically all of it has been done with scarcely more than a dozen records. It is safe to say, then, that a library of two or three dozen well-chosen records should enable one to provide an adequate score for almost any kind of a picture. Here are the titles and numbers of the ones I have used most frequently. First, and perhaps the most generally useful, is a two-disc set of the ballet music from Thomas' opera "Hamlet," played by the Grand Orchestre Odeon on Decca records No. 25,200 and 25,201. These two 12-inch discs are of the pleasing, "general" sort of music which will form a nice background for almost any sort of picture. Another set very frequently used is Serge Prokofieff 's "Classical Symphony," played by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Victor records No. 7196 and 7197. Another of this same composer's works which is useful for scoring purposes is his "Lieutenant Kije" suite, which, played by the same orchestra, is available as Victor Album M-459. "4R> € This, incidentally, is genuine "movie music," for it is from a score this Russian composer wrote a few years ago for a Soviet film comedy of the same name. Another album set which contains selections which will suit most average vacation films is Victor's Album C-17, Glazounow's "Scenes de Ballet." Another set of which I have made much use is "Ballet Russe," by Luigini, which so far as I have been able to determine is available only in a British recording, H.M.V. records C-1948 and C-1949, played by John Barbirolli and the Royal Opera Orchestra, Covent Garden. This and some other foreign recordings may, however, still be available through The Gramaphone Shop, 18 East 48th Street, New Yoi'k, a firm which for many years has specialized in imported recordings. Undoubtedly the most useful composer of movie music is the English composer Albert W. Ketelbey, best known in this country as the man who composed "In a Chinese Temple Garden." This, and such of his other compositions as "In a Persian Market" and "In a Monastery Garden" are available easily in this country on both Victor and Columbia recordings; but the most useful of his music has not come over here except in the form of imported records. However, as he is the Musical Director of the British branch of the Columbia Recording Company, he has made many other records which, while difficult to obtain during the present wartime conditions, I can heartily recommend to anyone who takes his scoring seriously. They have been the mainstay of many of my own scores. Anions these may be named his "Cockney Suite" consisting of "A State Procession (Buckingham Palace)"; "The Cockney Lover" on British Columbia No. 9860; "At the Palais de Dance (Anywhere)" and "Elegy (Thoughts on Passing the Cenotaph)" on disc No. 9861; and "Bank Holiday ('appy 'ampstead)" on No. Also strongly to be recommended is his "Three Fanciful Etchings" suite — "A Passing Stormcloud on a Summer Day;" "The Ploughman Homeward Plods His (Continued on Page 446) American Cinematooraphkr September, 19 11 129