Film music |

Film music is a component of a film work, one of its important means of expression. In the development of art-va muses. The design of the film distinguishes between the period of silent and the period of sound cinema.

In silent cinema, music was not yet part of the film. She appeared not in the process of making the film, but during its demonstration – the screening of films was accompanied by pianist-illustrators, trios, and sometimes orchestras. Nevertheless, the absolute need for music. accompaniment already at this early stage in the development of cinematography revealed its sound-visual nature. Music has become an indispensable companion of the silent film. Albums of music recommended to accompany films were released. works. Facilitating the task of musicians-illustrators, they at the same time gave rise to the danger of standardization, the subordination of various arts. ideas to a single principle of direct illustrativeness. So, for example, melodrama was accompanied by hysterical romance music, comic. films – humoresques, scherzos, adventure films – at a gallop, etc. Attempts to create original music for films date back to the first years of the existence of cinema. In 1908 C. Saint-Saens composed music (a suite for strings, instruments, piano and harmonium in 5 parts) for the premiere of the film The Assassination of the Duke of Guise. Similar experiments were carried out in Germany, the USA.

In the Sov. Union with the advent of a new, revolutionary film art, a different approach to cinematography arose – original claviers and musical scores began to be created. accompaniment of certain films. Among the most famous is the music by D. D. Shostakovich for the film “New Babylon” (1929). In 1928 it. composer E. Meisel wrote music to demonstrate owls. film “Battleship Potemkin” in Berlin. Composers sought to find a unique, independent and concrete musical solution, determined by the dramaturgy of cinematography. production, its internal organization.

With the invention of sound recording equipment, each film received its own unique soundtrack. His sound range included a sounding word and noises.

Since the birth of sound cinema, already in the 1930s. there was a division of cinematography into intraframe — concrete, motivated, justified by the sound of an instrument depicted in the frame, a radio loudspeaker, the singing of a character, etc., and offscreen — “author’s”, “conditional”. Off-screen music is, as it were, removed from the action and at the same time characterizes the events of the film, expresses the hidden flow of the plot.

In the films of the 30s, which were notable for their sharp dramatization of the plot, the sounding text acquired great importance; word and deed have become the most important ways to characterize a character. Such a cinematic the structure needed a large amount of intra-frame music, directly concretizing the time and place of the action. Composers sought to give their own interpretation of the muses. images; in-frame music became off-screen. Early 30s. marked by the search for the semantic inclusion of music in the film as a meaningful and important cinematic. component. One of the most popular forms of musical characterization of the characters and events of the film is the song. Music is widely spread during this period. a comedy film based on a popular song.

Classic samples of K. of this species were created by I. O. Dunaevsky. His music, songs for films (“Merry Fellows”, 1934, “Circus”, 1936, “Volga-Volga”, 1938, dir. G. A. Alexandrov; “Rich Bride”, 1938, “Kuban Cossacks”, 1950, directed by I. A. Pyriev), imbued with a cheerful attitude, distinguished by the leitmotif of characteristics, thematic. simplicity, sincerity, gained immense popularity.

Along with Dunayevsky, the song tradition of film design was developed by composers br. Pokrass, T. N. Khrennikov and others, later, in the 50s-beginning. N. V. Bogoslovsky, A. Ya. Eshpay, A. Ya. Lepin, A. N. Pakhmutova, A. P. Petrov, V. E. Basner, M. G. Fradkin and others The film “Chapaev” (70, directors brother Vasiliev, comp. G. N. Popov) is distinguished by the consistency and accuracy of the selection of intra-frame music. The song-intonation structure of the film (the basis of the dramatic development is the folk song), which has a single leitingtonation, directly characterizes the image of Chapaev.

In films of the 30s. the relationship between image and music was based on Ch. arr. based on the principles of parallelism: music intensified this or that emotion, the mood created by the author of the film, his attitude to the character, situation, etc. deepen it. Of greatest interest in this regard was D. D. Shostakovich’s innovative music for the films Alone (1931, dir. G. M. Kozintsev), The Golden Mountains (1931, dir. S. I. Yutkevich), The Counter ( 1932, directed by F. M. Ermler, S. I. Yutkevich). Along with Shostakovich, major owls come to the cinema. symphonic composers – S. S. Prokofiev, Yu. A. Shaporin, A. I. Khachaturian, D. B. Kabalevsky and others. Many of them collaborate in cinema throughout their entire creative life. Often the images that arose in K. became the basis for independent symphonies. or vocal symphony. prod. (cantata “Alexander Nevsky” by Prokofiev and others). Together with the stage directors, the composers are searching for fundamental muses. decisions of the film, strive to comprehend the problem of the place and purpose of music in cinema. A truly creative community connected the computer. S. S. Prokofiev and dir. S. M. Eisenstein, who worked on the problem of the sound-visual structure of the film. Eisenstein and Prokofiev found original forms of interaction between music and visual art. Prokofiev’s music for Eisenstein’s films “Alexander Nevsky” (1938) and “Ivan the Terrible” (1st series – 1945; release on the screen 2nd – 1958) is distinguished by conciseness, sculptural convexity of muses. images, their exact match with the rhythm and dynamics will depict. solutions (innovatively developed sound-visual counterpoint reaches a special perfection in the scene of the Battle on the Ice from the film “Alexander Nevsky”). Joint work in the cinema, creative searches of Eisenstein and Prokofiev contributed to the formation of cinema as an important means of art. expressiveness. This tradition was adopted later by the composers of the 50s – early. 70s The desire for experiment, the discovery of new possibilities for combining music and images distinguishes the work of E. V. Denisov, R. K. Shchedrin, M. L. Tariverdiev, N. N. Karetnikov, A. G. Schnittke, B. A. Tchaikovsky and others .

Great measure of art. generality, characteristic of music as an art in general, determined its role in a film work: K. performs “… the function of a generalized image in relation to the depicted phenomenon …” (S. M. Eisenstein), allows you to express the most important thought or idea for the film. Modern sound-visual cinema provides for the presence of muses in the film. concepts. It is based on the use of both off-screen and intra-frame, motivated music, which often becomes a way of unobtrusive, but deep and subtle insight into the essence of human characters. Along with the widespread use of the method of direct parallelism of music and images, the “counterpuntal” use of music begins to play an increasingly important role (the meaning of which was analyzed by S. M. Eisenstein even before the advent of sound cinema). Built on a contrasting juxtaposition of music and images, this technique enhances the drama of the events shown (the shooting of hostages in the Italian film The Long Night of 1943, 1960, is accompanied by the cheerful music of the fascist march; the happy final episodes of the Italian film Divorce in Italian, 1961 , pass to the sound of a funeral march). Means. music has undergone evolution. a leitmotif that often reveals the general, most important idea of ​​the film (for example, the theme of Gelsomina in the Italian film The Road, 1954, directed by F. Fellini, comedian N. Rota). Sometimes in modern In the film, music is used not to enhance, but to contain emotions. For example, in the film “400 Blows” (1959), director F. Truffaut and composer A. Constantin strive for the severity of music. themes to encourage the viewer to a rational assessment of what is happening on the screen.

Muses. the concept of the film is directly subordinated to the general author’s concept. So, for example, in Japan. film “The Naked Island” (1960, dir. K. Shindo, comp. X. Hayashi), which tells about the harsh, difficult, but deeply meaningful life of people waging a duel with nature in the struggle for existence, music invariably appears in shots showing everyday the work of these people, and immediately disappears when major events enter their lives. In the film “The Ballad of a Soldier” (1959, dir. G. Chukhrai, comp. M. Ziv), staged as a lyricist. story, music images have adv. basis; found by the composer music intonation affirms the eternal and unchanging beauty of simple and kind human relationships.

The music for the film can be either original, written specifically for this film, or composed of well-known melodies, songs, classical music. music works. In modern cinema often uses the music of the classics – J. Haydn, J. S. Bach, W. A. ​​Mozart, and others, helping filmmakers to connect the story of the modern. world with high humanistic. traditions.

Music occupies the most important place in music. films, dedicated story about composers, singers, musicians. She either performs certain dramaturgy. functions (if this is a story about the creation of a particular piece of music), or is included in the film as an insert number. The primary role of music in film adaptations of opera or ballet performances, as well as independent ones created on the basis of operas and ballets. film productions. The value of this type of cinematography is primarily in the wide popularization of the best works of the classic. and modern music. In the 60s. in France, an attempt was made to create a genre of original film opera (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, 1964, dir. J. Demy, comp. M. Legrand).

Music is included in animated, documentary and popular science films. In animated films, their own methods of music have developed. design. The most common of them is the technique of exact parallelism of music and image: the melody literally repeats or imitates movement on the screen (moreover, the resulting effect can be both parodic and lyrical). Means. of interest in this respect are the films of Amer. dir. W. Disney, and especially his paintings from the “Funny Symphonies” series, embodying famous muses in visual images. prod. (for example, “Dance of the Skeletons” to the music of the symphonic poem by C. Saint-Saens “Dance of Death”, etc.).

Modern musical development stage. the design of the film is characterized by the equal importance of music among other components of the film work. Film music is one of the most important voices of cinematography. polyphony, which often becomes the key to revealing the content of the film.

References: Bugoslavsky S., Messman V., Music and cinema. On the film and musical front, M., 1926; Blok D. S., Vugoslavsky S. A., Musical accompaniment in cinema, M.-L., 1929; London K., Film Music, trans. from German, M.-L., 1937; Ioffe I. I., Music of the Soviet cinema, L., 1938; Cheremukhin MM, Sound film music, M., 1939; Korganov T., Frolov I., Cinema and music. Music in the dramaturgy of the film, M., 1964; Petrova I. F., Music of the Soviet cinema, M., 1964; Eisenstein S., From correspondence with Prokofiev, “SM”, 1961, No 4; him, Director and composer, ibid., 1964, No 8; Fried E., Music in Soviet cinema, (L., 1967); Lissa Z., Aesthetics of film music, M., 1970.

I. M. Shilova