Film music (1908–2026)

Silent cinema was never silent: in theatres, a pianist, organist or orchestra accompanied the film live, improvising or drawing on collections of pieces sorted by mood (chase, tenderness, storm). In 1908 Camille Saint-Saëns wrote one of the first original scores composed for a film, L’Assassinat du duc de Guise.

With sound film in the late 1920s, music was recorded onto the film itself. In Hollywood, European-trained composers such as Max Steiner (King Kong, 1933) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold invented the grand symphonic style inherited from Wagner: leitmotifs, themes tied to a character or an idea.

After 1950 styles diversified: jazz, modern music, song. Ennio Morricone renewed the Italian western with whistling, electric guitars and choirs; Nino Rota, Michel Legrand and Bernard Herrmann asserted their personalities. From 1975 John Williams (Jaws, Star Wars) revived the great symphony orchestra in Hollywood.

Cinema also borrows a great deal from classical music: Debussy’s Clair de lune, Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries and Ravel’s Boléro owe part of their fame to the big screen. Today film music mixes orchestra, electronics and synthesized sound.