Music and sound in silent cinema (deadline: 16 june 2017)

2017-03-10

Research on sound and music practices during the silent film era has attracted an ever-growing interest over the last few decades. Since the pioneering works by Rick Altman, in the early 1980s, this field of study has been exploring the extraordinary diversity of sound practices which flourished in cinema’s early years, thus bringing to the fore the crucial auditory dimension of spectators’ sensory experience of films. Concurrently, there has been a shift in contemporary silent film exhibition practices, in which music and sound creations have played a greater and more substantial role: live musical accompaniment has become the norm in silent film screenings, specialized festivals have emerged, and we have witnessed a surge of DVD editions that offer unreleased music scores – new works commissioned to composers, or reconstructions of the films’ original scores.

The emergence of research studies on the role of sound and music in silent cinema did not simply expand the field of film studies or reshape exhibition practices. The recognition of the importance of sound and music has also contributed to challenging traditional interpretations of cinema as text, calling attention to cinema ‘as event’ (Rick Altman). As Claus Tieber and Anna Windish have recently pointed out, music and sound are key elements of the multi- and trans-medial dimension of cinematic experience, as well as of its performative nature, which means their study may be instrumental in rethinking the nature of cinema as such, by framing it as “a chain of processes of production, exhibition and reception” and as the outcome of “audiovisual and intermedial” relations (Tieber and Windish 2014).

On the other hand, over the last few years various publications have placed emphasis on the importance of national, regional and local specificities in the development of music and sound practices in silent film accompaniment, which until recently had mostly been studied in the context of North American, German and French cinema. Projects such as The Sounds of Early Cinema in Britain, in the United Kingdom, Cabiria Research Project, in Italy, or Sound and Music in Viennese Cinemas (1896-1930), in Austria, have contributed to the unveiling of a more complex, diverse and transnational cartography of the first years of silent cinema. Moreover, the disciplinary field of these studies has widened, crossing over film studies, musicology, cultural history and aesthetics, and has shown a keen interest in all the elements that play a role in the auditory experience of cinema, from the analysis of music scores to the acoustics of cinema theatres, from its relation with the music industry to musicians’ working conditions.

This thematic section of Aniki: Portuguese Journal of the Moving Image will welcome any contributions that address the wide range of music and sound practices in silent cinema, from a variety of perspectives and in different geographical contexts. Aniki will consider proposals on the following topics, among others:

  • Music and sound practices in the silent film era;
  • The importance of musical and sound accompaniment in the rediscovery and reinterpretation of silent cinema;
  • The deployment of contemporary aesthetic forms (avant-garde, experimental, minimalist, jazz, techno, pop music, etc.) in the accompaniment of silent cinema;
  • Performance contexts, apparatuses and forms in the musical accompaniment of silent films;
  • Composers, conductors, orchestras and instrumental ensembles specializing in the accompaniment of silent cinema;
  • Silent cinema and practices of music improvisation;
  • The cataloguing, editing and reconstruction of original music scores and cue-sheets;
  • Practices of selection and compilation of pre-existing musical accompaniment of silent films;
  • The creation of libraries, manuals and anthologies devoted to the accompaniment of silent film;
  • Sound effects and sound design in silent cinema;
  • Silent cinema and mechanical sound reproduction technology (gramophones, mechanical pianos);
  • Spoken word in silent cinema (conferences, film narration by actors);
  • Silent cinema and songs;
  • Silent cinema and dance music;
  • Silent cinema and opera;
  • Relations between music and narrative in silent cinema;
  • Critical reception of the musical accompaniment of silent films;
  • Music and sound in the specialist film press;
  • The use of musical concepts and terminology in discourses on silent cinema (rhythm, harmony, symphony, counterpoint);
  • The representation of listening or performing situations in silent films;
  • Singers and musicians as silent film actors;
  • The organization of the work of musicians in cinema theatres prior to the transition to sound;
  • The use of musical sources in the restoration process of silent films.

Manuel Deniz Silva is a researcher at INET-MD (FCSH-UNL) where he coordinates the thematic line “Music and media”. With a PhD in Musical Sciences, he co-edited with M. do R. Pestana, Indústrias de Música e Arquivos Sonoros em Portugal no Século XX: práticas, contextos, patrimónios (Câmara Municipal de Cascais and INET-md, 2014) and, with E. Buch and I. Contreras, Composing for the State: Music in 20th-Century Dictatorships (Farnham: Ashgate and Fondation Cini, 2016). He is the co-editor of the journal Revista Portuguesa de Musicologia (Nova Série) and the editor of Kinetophone, Journal of Music, Sound and Moving Image.