UNIT 1: The beginnings of music for the cinema
The beginnings of music in the cinema
The French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the cinema in 1895.
The first commercial film that used music was in 1927 and it was called
The Jazz Singer.
But what about between those years? Was there no music at all in cinemas?
Yes, there was. Silent films (before it was discovered how to include talking and music in a film) were accompanied by a person sitting in the cinema room playing a piano or an organ. The idea was to liven up the images and also to cover up the noise made by the projectors, which in those early years were not separated from the public.
They were very noisy!
Listen to the recording of this. Then listen again, stopping it at the end of each sentence, and repeat it. Get your accent right!
Rutherford. The beginnings of music in the cinema. CC BY-NC-SA
What was it like to sit and watch a silent film with live piano accompaniment and the noise of the projector?
With this video you imagine watching a silent film with live piano accompaniment
in one of the first cinemas more than a hundred years ago.
Here the famous American actor Charlie Chaplin makes us laugh
and a pianist plays music by the famous American composer
Scott Joplin.
Pretend you are in a cinema about a hundred years ago
Danielle - Dlife Silent Film Music - Maple Leaf Rag (Royalty Free) Licencia YouTube
Can you hear the projector? Is it a bit annoying?!
Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin wrote a type of music called “ragtime”, which became very popular and was often used for silent films. He was born about 1867 (we don't know the year for sure). His father was an ex-slave and the family was poor, but Joplin was lucky and a local music teacher gave him free lessons. Most black children at that time didn't have that type of opportunity. He had a lot of talent and wrote music which became popular. He died when he was less than 50 years old and was buried in a poor person's grave which was not marked until 57 years later, when his music was made very famous in the film “The Sting”, which won the Oscar for best film.
EXTRA READING:
READ MORE ABOUT SCOTT JOPLIN IN THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE FROM "KIDS MUSIC CORNER"
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike License 4.0