陳蕙雅思教材 - 雅思閱讀精選 (Movie Music)

Movie Music

Accustomed though we areto speaking of the films made before 1927 as

"silent", thefilm has  never been,  in the        fullsense of  the word,

silent. From the verybeginning,  music was regarded as anindispensable

accompaniment; when theLumiere films were shown at the first public film

exhibition in the UnitedStates in February 1896, they were   accompaniedby

piano improvisations onpopular tunes. At first, the music played bore no

special relationship to         the films; an accompaniment of anykind  was

sufficient. Within a  very short time, however,  the incongruity of           playing

lively music to a solemnfilm became apparent, and film pianists began to

take some care inmatching their   pieces to the mood of thefilm.

As movie theaters grew innumber and importance, a violinist, and perhaps a

cellist, would be addedto  the pianist in certain cases, and inthe

larger movie theaterssmall orchestras were formed. For a number of years

the      selection of music for each film programrested entirely in the hands

of the conductor orleader of the orchestra,        and veryoften the principal

qualification for holdingsuch  a position was not skill or tasteso much

as the  ownership of  a  large personal library of musical pieces.Since

the conductor seldom sawthe films until the night       beforethey were to be

shown (if indeed, theconductor was lucky enough to see them then), the

musical arrangement          was normally improvised in thegreatest hurry.

To  help meet this difficulty, film distributingcompanies started the

practice of  publishing suggestions for  musical accompaniments. In  1909,

for example, the  Edison Company began issuing with their filmssuch

indications of mood as"pleasant", "sad", "lively". The suggestionsbecame

more explicit, and soemerged the musical cue   sheet containingindications

of mood, the titles ofsuitable pieces of music, and precise directions to

show where  one piece led into the next.

Certain films had musicespecially composed for  them. The mostfamous of

these  early special scores was that        composed and arranged for D. W.

Griffith's film Birth ofa Nation, which was released in 1915.

電影插曲

儘管我們習慣於將 1927 年以前的電影稱為"無聲電影"，但是就無聲這個詞完整的意義

上來說，電影從未真正的無聲過，從最初開始音樂就被視為必不可少的伴奏。  當盧米埃爾 的電影在 1896 年 2

月美國首屆影片公映展覽上放映的時候，影片便用當時的流行曲臨場鋼 琴伴奏。  最初，這些音樂伴奏與電影沒有什麼特別的關係，用什麼曲子伴奏都行。  但在很

短的時間內，為一部莊重的影片演奏快活的音樂所產生的不協調感變得顯而易見，因此鋼琴 家們開始注意將自己的作品與影片的情調結合起來。  

隨著影劇院在數量上與重要性上的不 斷增長，在一些場合，除了鋼琴師外，還要加上小提琴師，或許還有一位大提琴師。  較大

的影劇院裡還組成了小型的管弦樂隊。  在很長的時間內，為各部影片選擇配樂完全掌握在

樂隊指揮或隊長手中，而通常把持這種職位的資格不是技巧或鑒賞品味，而是擁有一個大的 音樂作品的個人收藏。

因為直到電影上映的前一天晚上樂隊指揮才能看到影片(如果這個指 揮真正有幸能夠看到影片的話)，音樂安排通常是在非常匆忙的情況下臨場進行的。為瞭解

決以上的困難，電影發行公司開辦了為音樂伴奏印製提示單的業務。 例如 1909 年愛迪生公

司開始將一些諸如"喜悅的"、"悲傷的"、"活潑的"之類表明影片情調特徵的提示與影片一起 發行。  

這些提示逐漸變得更加具體，並且出現了包括影片情調說明、適用樂曲名稱和樂曲 轉換點等內容的配樂說明單。 某些影片擁有專門為其創作的音樂。

這些早期特創樂譜中最 著名的便是為 D.W.  格雷夫斯 1915 年上映的影片《一個國家的誕生》所創作的音樂。