Movies Greatest Musical Hits PROGRAM NOTES

Movies Greatest Musical Hits: A Historical Perspective

The Early Years

When and how did the pairing of music and movies begin? In fact, from the very beginning of the film industry, movies were generally accompanied by music. Even the so-called “silent movies” were not silent, since music was provided by the theatre in which the film was being shown. Sometimes theatre owners would play music on a phonograph, hire a pianist, or employ an ensemble of musicians to accompany the action on the screen. From the very first, music and movies were a natural pairing. 

The earliest known use of music with film occurred on December 28, 1895, in Paris, when the Lumiere family tested the commercial value of their first films, accompanied by a live piano. In 1908, the French company Le Film d ’Art incorporated music with each of their films. Interestingly, Camille St. Saens’ Concerto for Strings, Piano, and Harmonium was first written for a film produced by that company. 

In 1909, Thomas Edison’s film company in New Jersey started distributing “special suggestions on music” for the films it produced, which included mostly music by European classical composers. Edison owned most of the patents on motion picture cameras, and through these patents he controlled who could make films. For several years New Jersey was the center of American filmmaking, but Edison’s tight restrictions understandably stifled innovation and crippled the film industry, causing independent film makers to flee the East Coast.  By 1915 Hollywood, with its physical distance from Edison and reliable sunshine and temperature for year-round filming, had become the capitol of the American film industry. 

The year 1923 saw the official creation of Walt Disney Studios, originally called the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, where Walt and Roy Disney produced animated short films. Walt Disney understood how important good music was to film. For almost eighty years people of all ages have enjoyed the music of Walt Disney films, and a look at Disney movies across time shows how music standards have changed. In the early days of movie making, there was no sound – no dialogue and no music. But in 1927 Walt Disney transformed all of that with his first Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat Willie. It was the first animated movie released to the public to incorporate sound, a new and exciting feature to movie goers of 1927. Disney’s Snow White became the first full-length animated film and the first to release a soundtrack album, with songs by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey. The film’s production cost $1,488,422,74, an unheard-of sum in 1937, but Disney wanted his film so badly that he mortgaged his house to help pay for it. It was worth the investment as Snow White swept across the globe, permanently raising the bar for the film and animation industries.

With the advent of talking pictures, music clearly established itself as a vital element of filmmaking, and composers were suddenly commissioned by Hollywood producers to write new music especially for the movies. A new profession was born. 

The Golden Age

The Golden Age in the history of film scores, which corresponded roughly to the years between 1930 and 1950, was a unique period in film history that saw an explosion of creativity in which the music matched the artistry of the films themselves. During this time, film composers primarily came from backgrounds in concert music, most of it in the European classical tradition. Max Steiner (Band of Angels, The Jazz Singer, Caine Mutiny, King Kong) was one such composer and is regarded as the Father of Film Music. Steiner made extensive use of leitmotif, a compositional technique created by the German operatic composer Richard Wagner wherein specific instruments or musical themes are assigned to individual characters or events. The use of leitmotif has subsequently become standard practice in film music. Other notable composers of that era include Enrich Korngold (The Sea Hawk), Bernard Hermann (Psycho), and Harold Arlen (The Wizard of Oz). 

Broadway musicals have long been a source of inspiration for film makers. Ever since song and dance first hit the silver screen with the invention of sound technology in the early 20th century, musical movies have been a part of cinematic history. Strike Up the Band is a 1927 song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Written for the 1927 musical Strike Up the Band, it formed part of a satire on war and militaristic music. Although the musical was not successful, the instrumental version of the song, titled "March from Strike Up the Band", has become quite well known. The song was also used in the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney 1940 film Strike Up the Band,  a 1940 American musical film produced at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. The story centers on teenage drummer Jimmy Connors (Mickey Rooney), who dreams of winning the contest for school bands hosted by popular band leader Paul Whiteman (who plays himself). To enter, Jimmy and his pals, including vocalist Mary Holden (Judy Garland), must raise $200 for the train fare to Chicago, where the contest will be held. A sudden illness threatens to cost the band their chance, but in true Hollywood style, it all works out in the end. In 1941, the year after the film was released, it was nominated for three Academy Awards and was nominated as one of the American Film Institute’s Greatest Movie Musicals in 2006. 

Change and Expansion – 1950s and 1960s

In the 1950s film music began to branch out and move away from its exclusively European sound. Released in November 1955, Guys and Dolls is the film version of the musical, starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, and Vivian Blaine. With lively music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, Guys and Dolls is about a couple of big city gamblers and the women who love them. Set in Depression-era Times Square, it tells overlapping stories (by Damon Runyon) of high-roller Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando), who falls in love with mission worker Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons), and lovable rogue Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra), engaged to Miss Adelaide (Vivian Blaine), a headliner at the Hot Box Club. The film won the 1951 Best Musical award from the New York Drama Critics Circle, and that same year a Tony Award for Best Musical. 

Frank Loesser received the 1951 Tony Award for Best Musical for his  music and lyrics, and is regarded as one of the more talented writers of his era. Loesser is noted for writing witty lyrics and his use of clever musical devices, such as imitative counterpoint in his Fugue for Tinhorns in Guys and Dolls. 

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 animated musical fantasy produced by Walt Disney Productions. Based on Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale, the film follows Princess Aurora, who was cursed by the evil fairy Maleficent to die from pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel on her 16thbirthday. She is saved by three good fairies, who alter the curse so that Aurora falls into a deep sleep, to be awakened by a true lover’s kiss. The handsome prince, Phillip, who falls in love with Aurora, finds her and kisses her. Released from the curse, Aurora and Phillip are met with joy by her parents and the good fairies. 

The use of music from Tchaikovsky’s 1889 ballet The Sleeping Beauty was discussed early in the film’s development. Although the idea was initially dismissed, Disney returned to it and hired George Bruns as the new musical director who experimented with Tchaikovsky’s music for three years to make it work as a film score. Four of Bruns’ songs based on the ballet score were used in the film, and recording of the music in the first true-track stereo soundtrack was concluded in November of 1958.

Funny Girl is a 1968 musical film with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, and based on a book by Isobel Lennart. The story deals with the life and career of comedian and Broadway star Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with gambler Nicky Arnstein. Barbra Streisand starred in the original 1964 Broadway musical, which received eight Tony Award nominations. The original cast recording of Funny Girl was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004. Don’t Rain on My Parade is a song from the original musical and further popularized by the film adaptation. Streisand has performed the song live on many occasions, helping make it one of the top tunes in American cinema. A major critical and commercial success, Funny Girl became the highest-grossing film of 1968 in the United States and received eight Academy Award nominations.

New Sounds and Directions – 1970s and Beyond

The 1970s ushered in a new era of Hollywood filmmaking, which diverged in two concurrent directions with the incorporation of synthesizers and a return to classic symphonic scoring. 

John Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist who single-handedly revived the symphonic sound of the Golden Age of Hollywood with his scores for Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars, ET, Superman, the Indiana Jones series, Schindler’s List, and numerous others. Because of his outstanding contributions to film music, John Williams deserves extra space in these notes. In fact, an entire book could be written on John Williams’ own collection of greatest musical hits; his work in the film industry is truly unique, both in quantity and quality. 

In a career that spans seven decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage. He has served as music director and laureate conductor of one of the country’s treasured musical institutions, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and maintains artistic relationships with many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mr. Williams has received a variety of prestigious awards, including the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honor, the Olympic Order, and numerous Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards. He remains one of the nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices.

Mr. Williams composed the music and served as music director for more than 120 films. His 40-year artistic partnership with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in many of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and successful films. He has worked with many legendary directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler and Robert Altman. In 1971, he adapted the score for the film version of Fiddler on the Roof, for which he composed original violin cadenzas for renowned virtuoso Isaac Stern. He has appeared on recordings as pianist and conductor with Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Jessye Norman and others. Mr. Williams has received five Academy Awards and 50 Oscar nominations, making him the Academy’s most-nominated living person and the second-most nominated person in the history of the Oscars. His most recent nomination was for the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He also has received seven British Academy Awards (BAFTA), 22 Grammys, four Golden Globes, five Emmys, and numerous gold and platinum records.

In January 1980, Mr. Williams was named nineteenth music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler. He currently holds the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor which he assumed following his retirement in December 1993, after 14 highly successful seasons. He also holds the title of Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood.

Despite his age, at 93, Williams insists he isn’t done making music and is currently working on a new concert piece. His longtime collaborator, director Steven Spielberg, claims Williams is eager to work with him on another movie. “Because John has been my primary creative partner across my entire film career. And that’s not gonna end until we do,” Spielberg told Variety. Williams fans everywhere look forward to his next chapter. 

The Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel by the English author J.R.R. Tolkien. Published in 1954-55 is one of the most popular books of the 20th century, with over 150 million copies sold, and translated into at least 58 languages. The Fellowship of the Ring is the first volume in the trilogy, followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The book is about power and greed, innocence and enlightenment – a battle of good against evil. It is also a story about war, probably drawn from Tolkien’s experience in World War I. The Fellowship of the Ring was formed as a brotherhood consisting of representatives from each of the Free Peoples of the World near the end of the Third Age. Its purpose was to take the One Ring to Mordor so that it might be cast into the fires of Mount Doom, the mountain in which it was forged, so that it would be destroyed and ultimately eradicate the Dark Lord Sauron. 

The Canadian composer and conductor Howard Shore composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced the film trilogy’s music. Noted for his film scores, Shore has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. He won three Academy Awards for his work on The Lord of the Rings, with one being for the song Into the West. He is a frequent collaborator with director David Cronenberg, having scored all but one of his films since 1979, and has collaborated with Martin Scorsese on six of his films. 

In the music for Lord of the Rings Shore included over 50 leitmotifs to represent the different characters, cultures and places. Shore treated the music of the three films as a continuous whole, stating that “the concept is opera. What I’m trying to do is to have the same feeling so that when you watch the film, it feels seamless, almost like the film was created to music.”

New Zealand film director Peter Jackson created the series of three films, which were shot simultaneously and released between 2001 and 2003, grossing over $2.9 billion worldwide. The scores and soundtrack albums of the film trilogy have won three Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and four Grammy Awards. 

Beauty and the Beast is a 2017 Disney animated musical romantic fantasy film based on the French fairy tale. A live-action remake of Disney's 1991 animated film Beauty and the Beast, the film marked a turning point for Walt Disney Pictures by appealing to millions of fans with its Academy Award-winning musical score by lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken.

The story is set in 18th century France when an enchantress transforms a selfish prince into a monster as punishment for his cruelty. Years later the Beast meets and falls in love with a young woman, Belle, whose love he must earn before the last petal falls from his enchanted rose. Failure to do so will mean he remains a monster forever. The jealous Gaston, who is also in love with Belle, fatally wounds the Beast in a duel before falling to his own death. Belle tearfully professes her love to the dying Beast as the last petal falls from the enchanted rose, restoring him and returning him to his human form. The prince and Belle happily host a celebration for the kingdom. 

The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its cast, songs, and visual detail.  It grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 2017 and the tenth-highest-grossing film of all time. 

The legacy of Beauty and the Beast is forever linked with the last days of lyricist Howard Ashman, who was suffering from AIDS during the time of production. Howard Ashman died on March 14, 1991, in New York City. 

The Greatest Showman is a 2017 American biographical musical drama film based on an original story by Jenny Bicks and is a heavily fictionalized depiction of the life of P.T. Barnum, creator of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. The movie premiered on December 8, 2017, aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2 and was released in the United States on December 20 by 20th Century Fox. The film features nine original songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and an original musical orchestral score composed by John Debney and Joseph Trapanese. A box-office success despite mixed reviews, the film grossed $459 million and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song – This is Me – which was also nominated for Best Original Song at the 90th Academy Awards. A stage musical adaptation is in development by the Disney Theatrical Group and is set to open in spring 2026. 

Wicked is a 2024 American musical fantasy film, adapted from the first act of the 2003 stage musical by Stephen Swartz and Winnie Holzman. The musical was loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, itself a reimagining of the Oz books and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Set in the Land of Oz before Dorothy’s arrival from Kansas, the plot follows Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, and her friendship with her classmate Galinda, who becomes Glinda the Good. Critics give high praise to the film’s soundtrack, calling it “intensely thrillifying.” As indicated by The Numbers weekly theater count report, Wicked has ended its run in North American theaters, with a final domestic tally of $473,231,120.

In Conclusion……

As film scoring has grown into a distinct art form, movies have continued to incorporate almost every musical genre imaginable. While symphonic scores remain popular, there are projects that forego orchestral music altogether, choosing to incorporate more contemporary genres of jazz, rock, hip-hop, and electronic elements.  The proliferation of synthesizers in the 1980s, and later digital audio workstations and virtual instruments in the 1990s and 2000s, has lowered the barrier to entry for aspiring film composers. But as diverse as scoring is today, it’s ultimately up to the director to decide how music should best serve the film, and informed decisions about music still must come from strong points of reference and study. 

Describing the crucial effect of music in film, composer Bernard Hermann of Psycho fame once said:

“I feel that music on the screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of the characters. It can invest a scene with terror, grandeur, gaiety or misery. It can propel the narrative swiftly forward or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry. Finally, it is the communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience.”