The union between sound and images may be considered the most powerful form of art. Its impact on us is immediate, since it provokes instinctivly feelings and emotions and thus conveys deep messages in a very natural and direct way. It is almost impossible to consider these things separate. Just think about the ancient Greek theater, where the choir of singers and dancers played a fundamental part in the performance. Think about the musical, a theatrical genre born in the XIX century, where the show is equally divided between acting, singing and dancing. Or we can even consider it from the music industry perspective: nowadays every song comes with its own video, which is considered part of the performance (and therefore also awarded with prizes).

As a matter of fact, the soundtrack has always existed since the Cinema was born. Even during the Silent Cinema Era movies were somehow provided with sound. A piano man or a small orchestra were usually present during the projections to play live music as a sound accompaniment for the images. Otherwise phonograph recordings were played. Sure enough there was always some music during the film exibition. First of all, music had a very practical function: it had to cover the noise of the projecting machines, but also the chatter of the audience. In second place, as we said, music has the power to enhance the effect of the images and even explain better their meaning. If you don’t trust me, let’s do this test:

1. Speechless actors : choose a movie that you like and try to watch a scene where the characters have a serious dialogue…but without audio, just with subtitles! Then rewatch it after putting the sound on again. Does it have the same effect on you? Were the actors able to move you even without their voices, just with their mime ability?
2. Helpful background music: now, choose an action or thrilling scene from a movie that you like and, again, switch off the sound. Then, rewatch it with the sound on. Have you felt the same suspence or spine-chilling atmosphere watching it without audio?
3. Purified sound: as we said, even if the main purpose of the soundtrack is to enrich the images and enhance their communicational power, soundtrack has also a really practical function, that is to say, to cover the annoying and “ordinary” sounds produced by the audience, but also by the actors in the movie! Without a proper sound editing, it would be difficult to enjoy the movie and be carried away by the cinematic magic. Just search on the internet “musicals with realistic sound” and you will see what I mean.

Well, now that you tested yourself the importance of the sound in movies, you can imagine how the audience expectations about music accompaniment were constantly increasing ever since the first decades of Cinema. As a result, the improvised live music was not enough to satisfy the audience requirement and theater owners started not to hire musicians anymore. On the other hand, another industry was growing in the film system: the soundtrack production. Musicians started composing customised music for movies and original scores were produced. The French silent movie ‘The Assassination of the Duke of Guise’ (1908) was the first film to do this, with a score written by the great French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. This new way of creating music accompaniment, allowed film producers to have a complete control on it and thus to decide how the music should have made the audience feel. Actually, we can do another test to prove how music influence our reaction to images:

1. Creepy rom-com: try to watch a romantic scene from a movie you like, while listening to a creepy song, such as the main theme of “Psycho” by Alfred Hitchcok’s. I bet that it won’t be that romantic then!
2. Boring action: try to watch an action scene from a movie you like, while listening to a very cheerful and relaxing song, such as “I’m like a bird” by Nelly Furtado. Is it still exciting?
3. Dramatically funny: try to watch a funny dialogue from a movie you like, while listening to a dramatic music. Does it make it more or less funny to you?
4. Never trust the appearence: try to watch a scaring or thrilling scene, while listening to a very joyous and calm music, such as a lullaby. Don’t you think that it is even more scaring now? Actually this device, which we can call “conflicting soundtrack” (becuase it is opposite to the music that you would expect to hear), has been used many times with great, and super scaring, results.
   Have you enjoyed experimenting with soundtrack? Keep going with it!

SOURCES: https://www.tracksandfields.com/blog/2016/02/10/history-power-soundtracks/
http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Music-MUSIC-IN-SILENT-FILM.html