Year 9 - Music
Action in early movies
Film Music
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit explores film music and how composers use music to enhance mood, atmosphere and storytelling. Pupils study common film music techniques and themes, and apply this knowledge by composing and performing music to accompany visual scenes, developing their composition and performance skills.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explain how music was used in early movies, and can create music for a typical chase scene in a silent movie.
Key Notes
- The silent movie era was between the 1890s and 1920s.
- In this period, film music was performed live by a solo performer (often improvised) or a group.
- The performers tried to capture and exaggerate the mood of scenes.
- Chase scenes were common in silent movies.
- The music often used a fast tempo, fast rhythms and scalic runs to create a sense of excitement.
Vocabulary To Learn
- silent movie: a film that has no recorded sound, common between the 1890s and 1920s
- chase scene: a scene in which a character is chased
- scalic: a melody that uses segments of a scale
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Music for films is always recorded and played through speakers.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
The silent movie era was between the 1890s and 1920s. In this period, film music was performed live by a solo performer (often improvised) or a group.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'silent movie'
a film that has no recorded sound, common between the 1890s and 1920s.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Music for films is always recorded and played through speakers. Correction: Before technology existed to do this, film music was played live by performers in the room. It would often be a solo piano/organ player, who would improvise along with the film. Sometimes, ensembles such as orchestras would play music live instead.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 9 Music guide library.