The History of Sound Scores

Before the 1930's all movies were silent. In fact, between the 1900's-1920's accompanists either pianists or whole orchestras were hired to drown out the noise of the projector during the silent film viewing. Accompanists were either given books of musical ideas and suggestions or list of songs to play. The music will have a affect on the mood of the movie.

In 1927 the 'Jazz Singer' was the first featurette film with synchronised dialogue and song sequences. Majority of the songs were jazz as it was in the jazz era. The film even included some Jewish prayers

In the 1930's, due to the arrival of talking pictures music was a vital component in talking films. Sound within films were usually western classical which, would be played over the film. However original scores have started become a normal thing. Max Steiner was the person to write a original score for King Kong in 1933.

In the 1940's composers starts to develop their work, one of the most influential is Bernard Hermann who is best known for his work of 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' and 'All That Money Can Buy.'
In the 1950's jazz music was very popular in the movie industry. Fewer musicians are needed making orchestration less expensive.  The use of Jazz carried on into the 60's. In this decade there was a greater acceptance of new music. This linked to the scoring of INSERT HERE, the first movie to use a rock soundtrack.

Not much happened in the 1970's, this decade was mainly used for perfecting techniques used. People like John Williams created scores using techniques that are highly memorable even to this day. John Williams is best know for scoring the Star War movies.

In the 1980's the first widespread use of synthesized sounds in films and film scoring underwent a major revolution. For the first time, it became theoretically possible to score an entire film with only one performer – using the synthesizer to produce the sounds of many instrumentalists. This has caused popular films to be produced and used as film scores.

Today, with the daily development of new technology and the general knowledge gained from a century of experiences, film composers have the ability to create scores the perfect movie score which can be used to enhance a movie and transform the experience of the audience..