Organ accompaniment to silent films, part 2

Abstract

The idea to write music for silent films, both in a form of written-down scores and composed live has experienced its renaissance for more than ten years. Thanks to a quite decent number of preserved theatre instruments and also due to the globalisation and wide data flow options connected with it, the knowledge and interest in Anglo-Saxon tradition of organ accompaniment in cinema were able to spread away from its place of origin. The article is the second part of four attempts to present the phenomenon of combination of the art of organ improvisation with cinematography and it was based on the fragments of the doctoral thesis entitled “Current methods of organ improvisation as performance means in the accompaniment for silent films based on the selected musical and visual work”. The dissertation was written under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Karolak and was defended at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in 2020. The article touches on the process of adding sound to silent films, creating publications containing the so-called genre music (i.e., music for specific tyles of scenes), as well as cue-sheets which appeared since 1909 and which were particularly useful for improvising pianists and organists. It also describes the practice of orchestra accompaniment and different sizes of lineups connected with it.