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FILM OPERA 279
stage productions (hence in the popular film variants of these art forms) the players sing songs. In certain dramatic situations the characters express their feelings by means of a song. In this in itself there is nothing unnatural or stylized, for even in everyday life people sing when they are in a certain mood. Hence this in itself is not improbable. But in the opera, in the film opera as in all other operas, the characters not only sing songs, they also converse with each other by singing and this is what is unnatural, stylized, improbable.
In the operetta and any musical drama an inset song may have a dramaturgical part to play. For instance the song may be the signal for something to happen; the characters may recognize each other by means of the song; someone who has lost all hope may be cheered and reinvigorated by a song. But in such cases the song is a finished, closed piece of music and is used almost in the way a prop is used. The same dramaturgical part might be played by a light signal for instance. Such a song may bring about a dramatic situation, but the song itself will not be the result of such a situation, it will not be born before our eyes, out of the situation. The song is already in existence as a finished thing and is merely used or applied in the given situation. A song thus used may start off a whole chain of action, but the action is not carried forward in the song itself. The song expresses a certain state of mind, but the evolution of the soul does not manifest itself in the music. The song may express a stage in the story, but the story is not continued in the music as it is in the opera.
Music was from the beginning much more closely linked with the film than with the stage. It is organically and structurally as much a part of the film picture, as are light and shadow. Music was an indispensable element of the silent film and is no less indispensable in the sound film.
On the stage, background music always gives the scene a certain melodramatic, festive or lyrical character and background music is rarely used in the theatre save for specially stressing some mood prevalent in a scene.
The music accompanying the silent film did not in normal circumstances produce any special festive or lyrical effect unless the pictures that went with it expressed such moods. But