The scene opens, you are focused on the dramatic characters. There faces catch they light and allowing you to read their emotions like a book. The orchestra is playing. The music moves you from scene to scene as you slowly forget that words are not spoken. The imagery is so powerful, the focus on light and how it can change an image from exciting, to peaceful, from sadness to anger. We forget the importance of music during a silent movie and how carries us through ever scene provoking emotion.
The role of music is to embellish the movie. Making every scene more dramatic and more powerful. Claudia Gorbman writes in her book Narrative Film Music “music for silent films developed as an outgrowth of nineteenth century dramatic traditions” (Gorbman 185). Music has been an important part of society and entertainment for years and is important to silent films because of the lack of language.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse utilizes music to its full advantage. Though in my opinion the music is a little cheesy for the serious parts of the movie, it really gives a good atmosphere. The music flowed from one scene to the next, allowing the film to be easily watched. The director did a good job making sure that the music matched what the images were portrayed . However, the music in the beginning should have been more dramatic. I believe this because in the beginning scenes they show an evil man who is cruel to his people. The music playing during this scene was not dramatic or scary sounding but instead it was epic and powerful. I would have preferred more dramatic music as the tyrant beat his people. Overall the music did match the scenes and it was a good movie. For a silent movie to be a good movie, the music must not take away from the film but embellish it.
Work Cited
Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. London: BFI Pub., 1987. Print.
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