Sound motion pictures : from the laboratory to their presentation (1929)

MUSIC 293 likewise gives variety to dialogue, and songs are introduced with ease. Regardless of how well done an all-dialogue picture may be, the introduction of singing at appropriate moments permits a happy and entertaining relief. In the very best dialogue pictures that have songs the high spots that are remembered are the song numbers themselves. In speaking of The Singing Fool, for example, one immediately thinks of the hit "Sonny Boy," and the same comment is applicable to similar sound dialogue pictures. Romantic scenes are made more alluring thereby, and good melody in its own right is always pleasing. Finally, operas and musical comedies that have achieved success on the legitimate stage have been produced on the screen with much more telling effect than when originally exhibited on the platform. In the beginning musical sound pictures were patterned somewhat after musical comedies of the legitimate stage. Why limit the sound motion picture to a proscenium? It is not unlikely that ensembles will be introduced with singing and dancing choruses of more than five hundred persons. As the art of recording is advanced we can well imagine the rousing harmony made possible by such a giant chorus. Here truly is a development in the making, not possible in even the finest opera. We may well expect too that the efforts of our best composers will be devoted to the writing of music for the new medium. A device that makes possible a world-wide audience is worthy of the best efforts of our most talented composers. I do not mean to imply that the sound motion picture will compete with the opera. Music, if the motion picture is to retain its mass appeal, and if it is to be commercially successful, must be based on melody and harmony of the simplest form. Dramatic dialogue, too, can be made very effective against a background of soft, appropriate music, for it is