Avant-Garde Sound-on-Film Techniques and Their Relationship to Electro-Acoustic Music

Author(s): Richard S. James

Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 72, No. 1 (1986), pp. 74-89
Published by: Oxford University Press
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 Avant-GardeSound-on-Film
Techniques
andTheirRelationship
toElectro-Acoustic
Music
RICHARD S. JAMES

ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC musichas become an integralpartof recentWestern

music,both classicaland popular.Its history,fromthe earlyexperiments of
Schaeffer, Meyer-Eppler,andUssachevsky around1950 to thedigitalsynthesis
ofthe 1980s,is commonknowledge. Allbutignored, however,arethemostbas-
ic questionssurrounding itsrelationship to thepre-1950musicalmainstream.
Did electro-acousticmusicderivefromgeneraltendenciesin earlytwentieth-
centurymusic or is it primarily the productof technologicaladvance?Has
thisfieldfulfilledpreexistingneeds or createditsown?
and interests
In an effortto answerthesequestions,it was necessaryfirstto establish
the motivationsbehind the work of electro-acoustic musicpioneersin the
late 1940s. Carefulreviewof the literatureyieldeda listhighlighting desires
for new sounds, forfreedomfromthe limitationsof the humanperformer
and conventionalinstruments, and forthe abilityto sculptsound directly.
Withthisgroundwork laid, the searchforearliermanifestations of thesein-
terestsbegan. Numerousand diverseparallelsto theideas and techniquesof
electro-acousticmusic surfaced with primitiveelectronic instruments,
futuristnoise music, increased utilization of percussionresources,the
manipulationof phonographrecordings,and avant-gardesound-on-film
techniques-amongthe majorexamples.It is essentialthattheseforeshadow-
ingsnot be misconstrued to constitutean obligatoryfoundationupon which
electro-acoustic musicwould eventuallybe based. Yet theydo serveto put
electro-acoustic musicintoperspective as a naturaloutgrowth of basic trends
and interestsin twentieth-century music.'
The intentof thepresentessayis to detailone aspectof thisprecedence:
avant-gardesound-on-film techniques developed around 1930 and used
1 of electronicmusic
For more thoroughtreatmentof the broader topic of prefigurements
see my "Expansion of Sound Resources in France, 1913-1940, and Its Relationshipto Electronic
Music" (Ph.D. diss., Universityof Michigan,1981). The dissertationis summarizedin "The Relation-
ship of Electro-AcousticMusic to pre-1950 Music and Ideas," in Glory Laus et Honor: Essays in
Honor of Gwynn S. McPeek's SeventiethBirthday,edited by Carmelo Comberiati and Matthew
Steel (New York,Gordenand BreachScientific),to be publishedin late 1986.

74

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 Sound-on-Film
Techniques 75

well into the 1950s. These techniquesconstituteone of the least-known

yet most strikingparallels to the workingmethodsand ideas of electro-
acousticmusic,especiallythose of musique concrete.But,beforediscussing
these techniques and their relationshipto electro-acousticmusic, some
historicaland technologicalbackgroundis necessary.
Almostfromits inceptionin 1895, the silentfilmwas providedwithac-
companyingmusic and sound effectsby local theatermusicians.These live
accompaniments, thoughoccasionallyfirstrate,wereplaguedbyinappropriate
music,poor performance quality,and the difficultyof synchronization with
theimageon the screen.Eventually,theseproblemshelpedto precipitatethe
developmentof a synchronizable studiorecordingof both musicand sound
effectsthat could be distributedwiththe film.The initialbreakthrough in
this research,a synchronizablephonographmechanism,receivedworldac-
claim withthe 1927 premiereof WarnerBrothers'TheJazz Singer.The tre-
mendousthoughshort-lived popularityofthesynchronizable recordovershad-
owed the farmoreportentousadvent,in 1929, of the abilityto recordsound
and imageside by side on film.This sound-on-film methodprovedfarmore
preferable and is still in use today. It has also made possible the sound
manipulation and sound synthesis techniques that are the focusof thisessay.
Sound is recordedon filmas black-and-white patterns.It is made audible
againthrougha processdepictedin thehighlysimplified abstractionseenin Il-
lustration1. Insidea movieprojector,thesoundtrackis passedbetweena light
sourceand a photoelectriccell. Both areindividually and completelyenclosed
except forone slitin each container;theseslitsfaceeach otherthroughthe
sound track.As a result,the only lightreachingthe photoelectriccell must
pass througha thinwidthof film.As the filmmovesthroughtheprojector,
the black-and-white sound patternsrecordedon it cause the amountof light
strikingthe photoelectriccell to fluctuaterapidly.The photoelectriccell
generateselectricity whenilluminated, whilethe amountof the resulting cur-
rentvarieswiththeintensity ofthelight.Thusthesoundsrecordedon filmare
convertedto electricalimpulseswhichcan be made audible by meansof an
amplifierand loudspeaker.The sound-on-film patternscan take severalbasic
forms,three of which are shown in Illustration2. The left-handpair are
known as variablearea sound trackswhilethe thirdrepresentsthe variable
densitytype,labelsthatindicatethemeansof varyingthelighttransmission.
Film music innovatorssoon discovereda numberof unexpectedand
intriguingsecondarybenefitsto sound-on-film technology.For instance,
it allowed one to freeze and visuallypreservea sound for study.These
sound picturescould also be manipulatedand altered,generatingentirely
new sounds and sound arrangements. Parts of a sound mightbe excised
while individualsounds or entirepieces of music could be reordered,re-
versed, and superimposedby cutting,rearranging, and splicingthe film.

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 Illustration
1: Diagramofthesoundtrackreaderin a filmprojector

Image Frames

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 Illustration
2: Soundtrackpatterns

Image Frames

A~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sound
Track

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78 The MusicalQuarterly

Sounds could also be alteredby addingmarksto the sound trackby hand.

Finally, the recordingprocess itself could be circumventedcompletely,
eitherby paintingsounds directlyonto the sound-trackfilmor by taking
picturesof various designswith an ordinaryanimationcamera and then
reducingand combiningthemlikean animationsequence.
Unusual as thesenotionsmusthave seemedin the 1930s and 1940s,all
of themweretriedby innovativefilmcomposersin Europe,Russia,andNorth
America.Muchof theirworkwas highlyexperimental and theresultsarepre-
servedin a merehandfulof filmsand articles.Admittedly, theirtechniques
were limited,and oftenrathercrude,yet interestwas widespreadand their
successesfrequentlynoteworthy.2In the end, however,theseeffortswere
handicapped by shortsightedproducers,worldwideeconomic crisis and,
finally,the outbreakof WorldWarII. Theirmoreradicalideas wouldnot be
surpassed or even equaled prior to the work of electro-acousticmusic
pioneersin Paris,Cologne, and New York City nearlytwentyyearslater.
The intent and precise detail of individualexperimentswith optical
sound recordingare quite diverse,but two basic typesemerge:montageof
sound or musicand animatedor drawnsound.Montageis, of course,crucial
to the visual componentof the cinema-recallthe patchworkof sequences
seen in movies or on televisionwhen the directoris tracingthreeof four
simultaneouslyunfoldingevents. In order to fit music to these abrupt
cinematicsegues,earlyfilm-music composersand techniciansbecamehighly
and at cuttingand splicingthe sound track.
skilledat sudden transitions,
Some, however,perceivedcreative as well as utilitarianapplicationsof
montageto the sound track.Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, the progressiveBauhaus
teacher, painter,and photographer,suggestedthat montage was wholly
appropriateto the image,the sound track,and the integration of the two.3
In theirfamed"Sound Manifesto"(1928), Russiancinematographers Sergei
Eisenstein,VsevolodI. Pudovkin,and C. V. Alexandrovinsistedon "distinct,
non-synchronization [of sound] with the visualimage" and recommended
thatsoundbe "treatedas a newmontageelement."4
The firstsignificantattemptat sound-on-film montageis attributedto
WalterRuttmann.Alreadya leadingfigurein avant-garde silent-film
circles,
Ruttmanreactedto the adventof the "talkie" by makinga filmcompletely
devoid of visualmaterial.His Wochenende(1928) depictsa weekendtrip-
fromthe departureof the train throughits returnto a crowdedurban
station-by means of a montageof found sounds recordedon film.Two

experimentssee Roger Manvelland JohnHuntley,

2
For an excellent surveyof sound-on-film
The Technique of Film Music, revisedand enlargedby RichardArnelland PeterDay (London, 1975),
especiallypp. 184-93.
3 RichardKostelanetz,Moholy-Nagy(New York, 1970), p. 136.
4 PeterDart,Pudovkin'sFilms (New York, 1974), p. 138.

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 Sound-on-Film
Techniques 79

years later Ruttmannintroducedhis Melodie der Welt,a picture-postcard

montageof the world set to music, with a "nearlyabstractsymphonyof
ship sirens."5 This effect proved so strikingthat it enjoyed short-term
statusas a sound filmcliche.
Among those impressedby this nautical signaturewas Pudovkin,who
describedit as "the true way of handlingsound problems."6In his own
initialforayinto sound film,Deserter(1933), Pudovkinincludeda similar
harbor soundscape as well as creatinga montageof dock sounds-heavy
hammers,pneumatic drills, rivets,sirens,and chains-for a later scene.
Most original,however,was the accompanimenthe fashionedfora public
demonstrationin the same film.First he recordedexcerptsof street-band
music and songs; snatchesof slogans,speeches,and hurrahs;generalstreet
sounds and airplanepropellers.This raw materialwas thencarefullyedited
intothe necessary100 metersof film.
I tooksoundstripsandcut,forexample fora wordofa speaker
brokeninhalfbyan
forthe in turn
interruption, interrupter overswept by thetideofnoise
comingfrom the
crowd,forthespeaker audibleagain,andso on.Everysoundwasindividually
cutand
the imagesassociated
are sometimes muchshorter thantheassociated
soundpiece.
I havecutthegeneral
. . . Sometimes crowdnoiseintothephrases
withscissors,
and
I havefoundthat... it is possibleto createa clearanddefinite,
almostmusicalrhythm.7

Other Russians interestedin sound montagetechniquesincludedE. A.

Scholpo and Georgi Rimski-Korsakov, son of the composer.Togetherthey
experimented with excising small bits of sound, even individualnotes,
frompreexistingsound tracks and then splicingthese togetherto create
originalsoundeffectsand musicfortheirfilms.
A montage similarto that of Pudovkinwas createdby Frenchfilm-
musiccomposerArthurHoere to accompanythe stormsequencein a 1934
filmentitledRapt. This particularstormwasbothliteral,a mountainthunder-
storm,and figurative, a representationof the emotionaland moralturmoil
engulfingthe leading charactersof the film.Hoere instructedthe studio
orchestrato improvisean imitationof the sounds of the physicalstorm:
thunder,lightning,rain, and wind. Afterrecordingtheir cacophony on
about ten meters of film,Hoere returnedto his laboratoryand there
createda one-hundred-meter stormcollageby meansof duplicating, cutting,
rearranging,reversing, and splicing the original material. Sounds were,
in some instances,even strippedof theiroriginalattackand/orresonance.
The entire sound envelope was occasionallyreversedin order to give a
5 Han Richter,"Avant-gardefilm in Germany,"in Experimentin the Film, ed. Roger Manvell

(London, 1949), p. 228.

6
Ibid.
7 Film Techniqueand Film Acting,trans.and ed. Ivor
Montagu(London, 1929), p. 198.

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80 The MusicalQuarterly

wonderfulimpressionof distance.The resultwas far more subtle and ex-

pressivethanreal stormsounds.In Hoeree'swords,"The totalpsychological
content of the scene had been treatedmusicallywith fragments spliced
together."8 During the 1930s, Hoere himselfcharacterizedthe scene
as synthesizedsound9 but suggestedto me in a 1979 interviewthat it
mightwellbe consideredprimitive tape music.10
Hoeree's sound montageis distinctfromtheothersmentionedherein its
relianceupon considerablesoundreversal.This aspectof sound-on-film mon-
tagewas,in fact,quitepopularwithFrenchcomposersanddeservesadditional
comment.Sound reversalitselfwas scarcelynew. Duringthe 1920s,experi-
mentswithreversing the directionof phonographturntables wereconducted
by manypeople.1 A varietyof remarkableand intriguing effectsare made
possible by reversingrecordedwords and individualsounds,especiallyif
interestingsoundenvelopesare involved.Appliedto an entirepiece of music,
reversalhas further potential.Whilehearinga piece "fromfinishto start"is
novel, considerablygreatereffectwas achieved,as early as the 1930s, by
recordinga piece which was itself being played backwards,and then
reversingthe playback. The final result thus exhibitedthe normalpitch
sequence of the piece, but the decay of each note preceded its attack.
Hoere used simple reversaltechniquesin the aforementionedstorm
collage to achieve effects,includingthe suggestionof distance,thatwould
have been almost impossible with conventionalmusic and sound-effect
resources.He also employedreversalof a piece recordedbackwards,using
the reversedsound envelope to create a troublingaura for the dream se-
quence in Rapt. However,thelattereffectwas predatedand perhapsinspired
by composerMauriceJaubert,who used it in 1933 to accompanythe slow-
motion dream sequence in Jean Vigo's famous Zero de conduite. The
eeriness of the reversedsound envelope reinforcedthe fantasyquality
of the dream,whilethe hazy halo thatthe reversalgave to the musicmade
for a strikingparallelto the blurringeffectVigo used in filmingthe scene.
Sound animation,the second type of experimentalwork with optical
sound recording,is quite different fromthe montagetechniquesdescribed
thus far.Sound montageinvolvesthemanipulationof soundsalreadyrecord-
ed on film.Animatedor drawnsound, on the otherhand, constitutesthe
actual synthesisof sound by applicationof visual animationtechniques
to the sound track.Like itsvisualcounterpart, animatedsoundencompasses
two basic methods: sound drawn with paint or ink directlyonto blank

s InterviewwithArthurHo6ere,Paris,April25, 1979.
9 ArthurHo6ere and ArthurHonegger,"Particularit6ssonoresdu filmRapt," La Revue musicale,
XV/2 (Dec. 1934), 90.
10
April25, 1979.
n Ibid.

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 Sound-on-Film
Techniques 81

film,and the more commonapproachof usinga standardanimationcamera

to photographpicturesof sound which are then combinedin a seriesto
producea soundtrack.
An interestin animatedsound surfacedamong abstractfilmand ani-
mation pioneers in several European countriesaround 1930. The first
thoroughinvestigationof its potential began in Russia at the Scientific
Experimental Film Institute in Leningrad. There, music theorist and
mathematician Arseni M. Avraamov took an empirical approach,
experimentingwith sound tracks created by photographingdrawingsof
repeated geometricshapes. He found that any repeated patternwould
produce a distinctivesound. Pitch was controlledby the frequencywith
whichthe shapeappearedon the filmand volumeby thelengthof exposure,
for example the grayerthe print,the quieterthe sound. It was possibleto
achieve limited polyphony by means of double exposure, very rapid
alternationbetween tones,or dividingthe sound trackinto multiplestrips.
The weakestaspect of Avraamov'swork is reportedto have been timbre,
because of his use of geometricshapeschosenwithoutregardforthequality
of soundthattheymightgenerate.12 He did,however,readilyaccomplishhis
primary goal of microtonal music,receivingnationalrecognitionforhis work
in 1931.
N. V. Voinov,Avraamov'scolleagueand an animationspecialist,carried
thisworkstillfurther. He took a givenpatternand createda seriesof eighty-
seven drawingsin which the frequencyof patternrepetitionvaried incre-
mentally(see Illustration3).13 Whencombinedin sequence,thesedrawings
could be used to produce a chromaticscale of over sevenoctaves.Voinov
then synthesizedmusic by photographing arrangementsof these drawings
and actuallyreproducedRachmaninoff's Cl -minorPreludeand Schubert's
Moments Musicaux. Another Russian film music innovator, B. A.
Yankovsky,modifiedthe approach of Avraamovand Voinov somewhat,
by abandoningframesin favorof a continuousstripof filmforthe sound
track.He then created sound-trackpatternsby photographing the moving
teethon a rotatinggear.
Frenchand Englishcontributions to thedevelopmentof animatedsound
techniquesare more modest and seem to have been limitedto drawing
sound directlyon film.Here again ArthurHoere was the leadingFrench
innovator.In the process of developinghis sound montagetechniques,
he frequentlyfoundit necessaryto use a black stainto touch up junctures
and make minor alterationsto the sounds so as to smooth transitions.
From these modest, practical beginnings,this stainingtechnique,which

12
Manvelland Huntley,Techniques,pp. 186-87.
13 Ibid., p. 189.

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 Illustration
3: Incremental of soundtrackpatterns
variation

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 Sound-on-Film
Techniques 83

Hoere dubbed zaponage,became a creativetool. He could prolonga sound

that did not quite fit with the image, draw a perfectlytimed fade-out,
remove the attack of a sound, or alter its resonance.Whilenot refined
enough to synthesizemusic, his methods could be used to create new
sounds. In Hoeree's own words,"I inventedsoundswiththepaintbrush."14
Jack Ellit, a New Zealander by birth,seems to have been England'ssole
sound animatorin the early 1930s, yet he pioneered the extensiveuse
of cameralessanimationwith his techniquesfor paintingdirectlyon the
soundtrack.
The other major animated sound work duringthe 1930s took place
in Germany.By 1930, Moholy-Nagyhad begun a seriesof experimental
filmsand publishedan articlein whichhe suggestedthatsoundsbe "traced
directlyonto the sound track."'s He himselfhad used sound-on-film tech-
niques to convertdrawingsof humanprofiles,lettersequences,fingerprints,
and geometricdesignsinto sound. It seems,however,thathe believedthat
modeling(not copying) drawn sound designsafterthe patternson con-
ventional sound tracks had far greaterpotential.16Somewhat later he
would experiment withscratching lettersonto thesoundtrack.
AnimatorOscar Fischinger,alwaysintriguedby thelevelsof abstraction
possible in film and music, became fascinatedby the distinctiveness of
abstractsounds. For instance,the sound made by an object when dropped
on a hard surfaceis highlycharacteristic of thatobject. In orderto better
understandand capitalize on this phenomenon,Fischingerset about codi-
fyingthe visual images of such sounds recordedon photographicfilm.
His aim, at least partiallyrealized,was a visual calligraphyof sound that
could be used in the creationof sound tracks.
Musically,Fischingermasteredchromaticintervalsin severaltimbres.
His experimentsin synthesizing noises,on the otherhand,had interesting,
even provocativeresults.Most startling was a sound trackderivedfromthe
Egyptian pictograph for a snake. Upon replay Fischingerfound he had
actuallysynthesized a hiss. Other similarexperiments led him to postulate
a connection,largelysubconscious,betweensociety's ornamentalpatterns
and the sounds of what they represent.Fischingerpresentedhis aural and
theoreticalresultsat a meetingof theHaus derIngenieurin 1931, generating
considerableenthusiasmand press attention.He hoped also to attract
both interestamong composersand fundingfor furtherresearchon his
theories of a relationbetween visual ornamentsand sound, but neither
was forthcoming. 17

'4 Interview,April25, 1979.

'5 Kostelanetz,Moholy-Nagy,p. 136.
16
Ibid.
17 WilliamMoritz,"The Films of Oscar Fischinger,"Film Culture,58/60
(1974), 52.

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84 The MusicalQuarterly

A finalGermansound animator,Rudolf Pfenninger, an engineerfrom

Munich,arrivedindependentlyat a seriesof drawingssimilarto those of
Voinov. The primarydifferencewas that Pfenningeremployed pictures
of sine and sawtooth waves, ratherthan empiricallychosen geometric
designs. He also achieved remarkablecontrol over dynamicsby varying
the lengthof exposure. He even synthesizeda Handel Largo (1932) and
createdthe sound track for a cartoon.In 1932 his methodswere featured
in a briefdocumentary filmentitledTonendeHandschrift.
It was this documentaryand the visualanimations,frequently camera-
less, of New Zealand filmmakerLen Lye that firstinspireda Scottish-
Canadian art student,Norman McLaren. Destined to become one of the
most respectedand progressiveforcesin the field of animation,McLaren
embarkedupon the most thoroughinvestigation and utilizationof animated
sound techniquesto date, givingthis fieldits only wide and lastingvisi-
bility.18 McLaren was attractedby the rhythmicprecision,flexibility,
and modestcost of animatedsound,as well as the ease withwhichit could
be synchronizedand integratedwith his syntheticimagery.Like Hoere
and Ellit, McLaren initiallypreferredtechniquesfordrawingor scratching
soundsdirectlyon the film.The resultingwonderfulvarietyand patternof
percussivesounds were firstmade public in 1940 with two shortanima-
tions,Dots and Loops. Of the numeroussubsequentapplicationsof these
techniques,perhaps the most noteworthyis Blinkity-Blank (1954) where
thesetechniqueswerecombinedwithan improvised jazz score.
The calligraphyfor complex sounds and music quickly proved too
laborious to be redrawnfor each use. In the late 1940s, McLaren aban-
doned his techniquesfor drawingdirectlyon filmin favorof the greater
precisionand economy possible with Voinov's and Pfenninger's methods
-photographing assorted predrawnpictures of sound. With the help of
Evelyn Lambert, McLaren began adapting and refiningPfenninger's
approach. Most problematic,he found,was Pfenninger's method of using
the lengthof the exposureto controldynamics.Eventually,he opted for
a techniqueof varyingthe maximumshutterwidth,and hence the sound
track width, an easily and preciselycalibratedoperation.The firstfilm
to featurethe basic elementsof McLaren's new approach was Now is the
Time(1950/51).
Withthe success of thisfilm,he began to expand upon the basic tech-
niques. Illustration419 is a display of some of the patternsMcLaren has
employed in sound synthesis.He gave the sounds additionalcharacter
by means of sound envelope overlaysthat adjusted the timbrecreated

18
MaynardCollins,NormanMcLaren (Ottawa, 1976), pp. 73-74.
19
Manvelland Huntley,Techniques,p. 188.

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 Sound-on-Film
Techniques 85

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86 The MusicalQuarterly

by a givenshape. He also createdspecial cardswithsplayingpatterns(see

Illustration5)20 thatcould be used in conjunctionwithan envelopeoverlay
to produce glissandos.These improvements were introducedin what is
perhapshis most famousanimation,Neighbors(1952). By 1953, McLaren
had refinedhis abilitiesto such a degreethat he could specifytenthsof
a tone, about one hundred dynamic shadingsand durationsof 1/50th
of a second. He had six basic timbresand could mix theseto createaddi-
tionalones.21
Perhapsthe ultimatesynthesisof McLaren'svisual and auralanimations
is his 1971 filmentitledSynchromy.Here, he began by synthesizing the
sound track.He thenreplicatedit, cut it up, and createdhisvisualmaterial
by arrangingsound-trackstripson the visual frames.Finally,he applied
differentcolors to create a vivid,op-artdisplayderiveddirectlyfromthe
accompanying soundtrack.
An Americananimator,David Fleischer,was also involvedin the early
synthesisof sound by animation.Afterstudyingthe visual patternsof
sounds recordedon film,he attemptedto reproducethemmanually.The
resultingreplica was higherpitchedand less resonantyet clearerthan the
original.He believedthathe had discovereda promisingtool foranimating
music, sound effects,and conversation,suggestingfurtherthat composers
mightbe interestedin using it to work directlywith sound. In 1931 he
patentedthe basic processand sold it to ParamountPictures,yet neither
partyseemsto havecarriedtheidea intoproduction.
An ingeniousfinalchapterin pre-1950 animatedsound history22was
added somewhatlater by the AmericancomposerJohnWhitneyand his
brotherJack,a painter.The Whitneyswereinspiredby Frenchand German
abstractfilmwork and the serialmusicideas Johnhad learnedfromRene
Leibowitz and the writingsof ErnstKrenek.They soughtto embodythese
conceptsin theirown blend of abstractfilmand synthesizedsound. In the
late 1940s, they devised a systemof animatingsound that translatedthe
sine-wavemotion of a series of pendulumsinto sound. Each pendulum
was attachedby a thin wire to the wedge of the shuttermechanismused
to record variable-areasound tracks. The pendulumsdifferedin length
and were fittedwith an adjustable weightso that the frequencycould
be varied minutely.By using differentpendulums and weightsettings,
the Whitney'sachieved a four-octavemicrotonalrange.The replayspeed
mightbe alteredduringre-recording to extend this rangethroughoutthe
20
Ibid., p. 190.
21
Ibid., p. 193.
22 Animated sound effortsdid not cease with the advent of electro-acousticmusic, yet such
work, includingBarry Spinello's excellent films,are outside the scope of an essay addressingthe
relationof electro-acousticmusicto pre-1950music.

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 withsoundenvelopeoverlay
5: Glissandopatterns
Illustration

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88 The MusicalQuarterly

audible spectrum.The pendulumswere also used in combinationto create

overtonesfor each sound. The film moved continuouslyby the shutter
at a veryslow speed so thatextremelydetailedsoundsmightbe recorded.
The timbrecould, in fact, be manipulatedeven as the sound was being
recorded.23
Viewed fromthe perspectiveof history,techniquesof sound animation
comprise a highlyimaginativeand perceptiveexplorationof new sound
resources.The extant commentariesof both its pioneersand its observers
reassureus that they were at least nominallyaware of the extraordinary
implicationsof their work. Few of them saw any purposein attempting
to reproduceconventionalinstruments and sounds; theysoughtnew terri-
tory, new possibilities.Moholy-Nagystated that composersarmed with
such techniqueswould "be able to create music froma counterpointof
unheard of or even non-existentsound values."24 French film expert
JacquesHacquard concurred:"It is fromworkof thissortthatnew instru-
ments,new sonorities,and enhancedpossibilitiesof expressionoriginate."25
The prospectof exceedingthe limitationsof conventionalinstruments
and theirhuman performers was much discussed.Kurt London, in a 1936
book entitledFilm Music, noted that these effortscould lead to a time
when "one might . . . do without an orchestra, and instruct a composer
to put his musictogetherin patternson paper,whichwouldthenbe photo-
graphed and produce a very strangeand quite unreal sound."26 In the
words of the Russian filmscholar Leonid Sabaneev,"Gone are the limita-
tions of the orchestra,with its twentyor thirtytimbres."He predicted
the demise of scores,parts,engravers,copyists,and orchestrasas well as
"liberation . . . from intermediariesbetween the creator and the audience."
As a result,the composercould enjoy completecontrolover"everyvariety
and every fantasticdetail of harmony,timbre,nuance, and tempo."27
He recommendedconsiderableresearchin soundsynthesis, preferably carried
out in laboratoriesfarremovedfromthe commercialism of the filmstudios.
The parallelsbetweenthe techniquesof avant-garde sound-on-film work
and electro-acousticmusic are striking.Methods for splicing,rearranging,
altering,and reversingthe directionof soundsrecordedon movie filmhave
directcorollariesin electro-acoustic
musicin generaland musiqueconcrete
in particular.The notionof soundmontagewas also inherentin muchof the
work at the early electro-acoustic music studios. Furthermore, the direct

23
Their ideas and techniques are well describedin JohnWhitney,"MovingPicturesand Elec-
tronicMusic,"Die Reihe, VII (1960), 61-71.
24
Kostelanetz,Moholy-Nagy,p. 137.
25 La
Musique et le cinema (Paris,1959), p. 34.
26
(London, 1936), p. 197.
27 "Music and the Sound
film,"Music and Letters,XV (1934), 149-50.

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 Sound-on-Film
Techniques 89

synthesisof radicallynew sounds by the composer,a primaryenticement

medium,is clearlyillustrated
of the electro-acoustic in the workof animated
soundinnovators.
On a more subtle level, sound-on-film techniquesofferedcomposers
freedomfrom the limitationsof the human performer, musical notation,
and conventionalmusical instruments,allowing them to work directly
with sound and to controleveryminutedetail of the musicand its realiza-
tion. The range of sounds included in the categoryof musical resources
was broadened,new rangewas broughtto almosteverymusicalparameter,
and fundamentallynew ways of workingwith individualsounds were
explored.All of thesepossibilitieswould become central,attractivefeatures
of the electro-acousticmusic field and are nowheremore fullyprefigured
than in the avant-gardefilmsources,experiments,and conjecturesof the
1930s. Finally,therangeof radicallynew resourcesmade availableby sound-
on-filmtechniques necessitated an experimentalattitude toward com-
position similarto that seen in the early electro-acousticmusic studios.
Despite these parallels,it can be arguedthat no one, priorto the late
1940s, foresawthe full scope of the changesthattechnologywould bring
to music throughthe electronicmedium.It is also true that the pioneers
of electro-acousticmusic did not base their work directlyon earlier
experimentsin sound recordedon film,none of which they seem even
to have been aware of. However,both of these factsservemerelyto clarify
my thesis. While there is no direct, antecedent-consequent relationship
between early sound-on-filmresearch and electro-acousticmusic, the
existenceof such significant parallelsbetweenthem stronglysuggeststhat
electro-acousticmusic did, indeed,derivefromwidespreadinterests in early
twentieth-century music. The film techniques outlined above illustrate
that these interestsfirstsurfacedwell before 1950, motivatingdistinct
prefigurements of some of the techniquesand aestheticnotionsinherent
in electro-acoustic
music.

The photographsof animated sound equipment are used by permissionof ButterworthScientific

Ltd, Surrey, England, from The Technique of Film Music by Roger Manvell and John Huntley
publishedby the Focal Press.

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions