Casablanca Movie Essay

601 Words3 Pages
1. The three basic types of music heard in original scores during the silent film era include arrangements, adaptations, and newly composed music. Arrangements are the adaptation of a previously written musical composition for presentation, usually sourced from well known melodies. Adaptations are when an entire piece of work is borrowed. The third type of music used for films in the silent era was music that was composed specifically for a particular film. The most notable adaptations used in The Birth of a Nation are in the scene of Lincoln’s assassination as well as at the end of the film. One of the most well known arrangements used in this film is Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner. Other popular arrangements included “Maryland, My Maryland” which was used to help lighten the mood. Joseph Carl Breil was the composer of all the original scores for The Birth of a Nation. Breil created music specific to the scenes and mood that D.W. Griffith wanted to portray to the audience. 2. The film Casablanca use sources music throughout its entirety to accomplish several things. Casablanca takes place during World War II with a storyline that bounces around from scenes in Paris, Morocco and New York. Some of the source music is used to help identify the various locations in…show more content…
The music for Gone with the Wind is the paradigm of the Classic Hollywood film score, and the music for Citizen Kane represents, like the film as a whole, a departure. The classic Hollywood style is defined by the following features: wall-to-wall music, music scored for symphony orchestras, a Post-Romantic style, employed well-known melodies which have a full range of emotions and reflect drama, and used leitmotifs which tend to be full melodies. A specific example of this in Gone with the Wind is evident in the use of the “Tara Theme” which is the Principal theme of the film. It is heard in the opening credits and in the film with the mentioning of Tara which was Scarlet’s
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