[Smt-talk] theory of film music

[Ildar Khannanov]

And Dr. Khannanov's clarification is about chronology: Debussy wrote his
orchestral masterpieces already by 1903. Montage technique did not exist at
that time. Neither the term (which comes from Russian word montazh,
introduced by Eisenstein while he was working with Vesvolod Meyerhold, much
later), nor the idea of montage were present at that time. Single reel
films with rather primitive methods of development, like those by Georges
Melies, did.

Mere cutting and gluing the segments of film does not constitute montage,
just as putting some notes and chords together does not guarantee that the
outcome will be music. Montage is not a technical idea, just as Debussy's
music is not a mechanical combination of blocks.

The film in 1900s did not play a role it did later, in 1920s and on. It was
not a serious form of art; rather--a cheap form of entertainment. The film
was in its infancy; music has helped its development.

Best wishes,

Dr. Ildar Khannanov
Peabody Institute
etudetableau at gmail.com


2014-07-06 23:05 GMT-04:00 Andrew Schartmann <andrew.schartmann at yale.edu>:

> Regarding Dr. Khannanov's proposal that Debussy influenced the advent of
> montage technique in film:
>
> (1) It is worth checking out Mark McFarland's 2004 article, in which he
> argues that montage technique in turn-of-the-century film prompted Debussy
> to develop an analogous technique in music (and not the other way around).
>
> (2) Debussy's own words on this matter provide food for thought: "There
> remains, however, one means of renewing the taste for symphonic music among
> our contemporaries: to apply to pure music the techniques of
> cinematography..." (Lesure and Langham Smith 1988, 298).
>
> Best wishes,
> Andrew Schartmann
> PhD Student, Yale Department of Music
>
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