Articles and Essays by Anna Katharina
Cinémas, 2013
Abstract
Since the beginnings of western media culture, sound synthesis has played a major rol... more Abstract
Since the beginnings of western media culture, sound synthesis has played a major role in articulating cultural notions of the fantastic and the uncanny. As a counterpart to sound reproduction, sound synthesis operated in the interstices of the original/copy correspondence and prefigured the construction of a virtual reality through the generation of novel sounds apparently lacking any equivalent with the acoustic world. Experiments on synthetic sound crucially intersected cinema’s transition to synchronous sound in the late 1920s, thus configuring a particularly fertile scenario for the redefinition of narrative paradigms and the establishment of conventions for sound film production. Sound synthesis can thus be viewed as a structuring device of such film genres as horror and science fiction, whose codification depended on the constitution of synchronized sound film. More broadly, sound synthesis challenged the basic implications of realism based on the rendering of speech and the construction of cinematic soundscapes.
Résumé
Synthèse sonore, représentation et narration à l’époque de la transition vers le cinéma sonore (1926-1935)
Depuis les débuts de la culture médiatique occidentale, la synthèse sonore a largement contribué à façonner notre conception culturelle du fantastique et de l’étrange. Contrepartie de la reproduction sonore, la synthèse sonore venait brouiller la distinction entre copie et original tout en préfigurant la réalité virtuelle grâce à sa capacité de créer des sons inédits, sans équivalent dans le monde acoustique. À la fin des années 1920, la recherche sur le son synthétique entre dans une période cruciale, alors que s’opère la transition du cinéma vers le son synchrone et que le contexte s’avère particulièrement propice à une redéfinition des paradigmes narratifs en place et à l’élaboration de standards pour la production de films sonores. La synthèse sonore apparaît dès lors comme un principe structurant au sein de genres tels que l’horreur et la science-fiction, dont la codification reposait largement sur l’usage d’une trame sonore synchronisée. Plus largement, la synthèse sonore questionne les implications fondamentales d’un réalisme qui serait fondé sur la transmission de la parole et la construction de paysages sonores.
Conference Presentations by Anna Katharina
On March 18th 1918, the feature film Pax Æterna (DNK 1917, Holger Madsen) was screened as part of... more On March 18th 1918, the feature film Pax Æterna (DNK 1917, Holger Madsen) was screened as part of a benefit performance in the main concert hall of the Viennese Konzerthaus, an event organized by the women's committee of the Red Cross in order to raise funds for the tuberculosis relief. The music score for this performance was composed by relatively unknown Viennese Kapellmeister Franz Eber.
Being shown in one of Vienna's most prestigious concert halls, the performance was undoubtedly staged as a social event and, after a successful tour through Scandinavia and other European countries, the film was warmly welcomed by the war-weary Viennese public. While Eber's score is clearly an original composition (likely due to copyright considerations), it nonetheless furnishes the peace-promoting images of the film with local musical traits, thus creating a testimony for music as an agent that can shape and confirm national identity.
Talks by Anna Katharina
book chapters by Anna Katharina
History of cinema and film music in early Austrian film history
Articles by Anna Katharina
Over the last few years, sound and music practices during the silent
film period have received an... more Over the last few years, sound and music practices during the silent
film period have received an increasing attention from the academic
community, both in film studies and musicology. The emergence of
interdisciplinary networks, such as “The Sounds of Early Cinema in
Britain” (Brown and Davison 2013) and the “Cabiria Research
Project” in Italy (Colturato 2014), have contributed to widen the
frame of this field, revealing the importance of national, regional and
local specificities in the construction of early cinema as an auditory
experience. In the context of the thematic issue on “Music, sound
and cinema”, Aniki interviewed Claus Tieber and Anna K. Windisch.
Papers by Anna Katharina
Der in Wien geborene Komponist und Pionier des klassischen amerikanischen Hollywoods-Scores Maxim... more Der in Wien geborene Komponist und Pionier des klassischen amerikanischen Hollywoods-Scores Maximilian Raoul Steiner (1888, Wien-1971, Hollywood) gilt als der »Vater der Filmmusik«. Die Bedeutung von Max Steiners Wirken und dessen Einfluss auf die Entwicklung der Filmmusik seit Beginn der Tonfilmära ist tatsächlich nicht zu überschätzen. Wie kaum ein anderer hat Steiner mit seiner effizienten Arbeitsweise, seiner charakteristisch suggestiven Melodik, den meist üppigen Orchestrierungen und einer ausgefeilten Leitmotivtechnik Dekaden von Hollywoodfilmen musikalisch geprägt und somit Generationen von Filmmusikkomponisten beeinflusst. Die wissenschaftliche Forschung auf dem Gebiet der Filmmusik-vor allem von Seiten der Musikwissenschaft-beschäftigt sich längst mit Steiners Arbeiten, seine bahnbrechende Musik zu KING KONG (USA 1933, Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack) gilt nicht erst seit kurzem als Meisterwerk der Filmmusik sowie als Stunde Null des klassischen, sinfonischen Hollywoodscores. Es mutet darum umso erstaunlicher an, dass bisher keine biographisch vertiefte Aufarbeitung des Komponisten existierte. Max Steiner findet zwar in sämtlichen Nachschlage-und Lehrwerken zu Filmmusik Erwähnung, jedoch beschränken sich diese Beiträge zumeist auf überblicksartige Darstellungen seiner Hollywoodkarriere oder auf musikwissenschaftliche
Einträge in zeitgenössischen Fachzeitschriften sind wesentliche Quellen für die Untersuchung von ... more Einträge in zeitgenössischen Fachzeitschriften sind wesentliche Quellen für die Untersuchung von Stummfilmmusik. Neben Artikeln, die direkt die Musik betreffen, sind auch Anzeigen, Inserate oder Leserbriefe von Relevanz für den Rekonstruktionsversuch der heterogenen akustischen Praktiken der Stummfilmära. Die Entstehung und Entwicklung des Community Singinggemeinschaftliches Singen (meist) patriotischen Liedguts im Kinosaal während des ersten Weltkrieges-wird in folgendem Artikel anhand von Einträgen in der Fachzeitschrift Moving Picture World ergründet. Die Erforschung der akustischen Begleitung von Stummfilmen wird, sowohl in der Öffentlichkeit als auch in Fachkreisen, nach wie vor teilweise lückenhaft oder stark verallgemeinert dargestellt. Das öffentliche Bild war lange von der Vorstellung einer homogenen Praxis der Stummfilmbegleitung dominiert, die einen nahtlosen Übergang vom einzelnen Pianisten im dunklen Kinosaal zum 80-Mann-Orchester in den Kinopalästen erfuhr. Die populären Werke einiger weniger Regisseure und Komponisten galten als Maßstab für die musikalischen Errungenschaften dreier Jahrzehnte. Doch vor allem in der frühen Stummfilmbegleitung (1895-1915) manifestierte sich eine Komplexität und Mannigfaltigkeit, die erst seit den späten 70er Jahren-mit einigen Ausnahmenwissenschaftliche Beachtung findet. In den darauffolgenden Jahren kam es zu einem Aufschwung an akademischer (und Fan-) Literatur zu Filmmusik im Allgemeinen und somit auch im Bereich der Stummfilmmusik.
Springer eBooks, 2023
A cold and grey day in an urban environment, monotony reigns and dictates the mundane lives of th... more A cold and grey day in an urban environment, monotony reigns and dictates the mundane lives of the city's inhabitants. A boy wants to express his love for the girl next door. Timidly at first he starts to sing and an orchestral accompaniment slowly rises as the girl joins him in song and they begin to dance. Here the environment changes, the camera begins to 'move along' with the characters and the scenery shifts to vibrant colours. We see the world through the lovers' eyes; we hear their song and feel
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2014
ABSTRACT Findings of a research project about sound and music in Viennese cinemas during the sile... more ABSTRACT Findings of a research project about sound and music in Viennese cinemas during the silent era
Kieler Beiträge zur Filmmusikforschung
Die Recherche von Primärquellen zur Geschichte der Filmmusik stellt ein besonders schwieriges Unt... more Die Recherche von Primärquellen zur Geschichte der Filmmusik stellt ein besonders schwieriges Unterfangen dar. Während in anderen Gebieten der Filmgeschichtsschreibung Drehbuchversionen, interne Memos, Briefe und anderes Material diesseits des filmischen Texts schon längst Berücksichtigung gefunden haben, ist im Bereich der Musik die Suche nach entsprechenden Dokumenten ungleich schwieriger. Zudem macht der interdisziplinäre Charakter des Forschungsgegenstandes die Sache nicht gerade leichter: Musikwissenschaftler suchen primär nach Notenmaterial, Filmwissenschaftler sehen sich vielfach nicht imstande dieses zu analysieren. Die Autoren des hier zu besprechenden Werkes leisten jedenfalls eine Beitrag dazu, die Suche nach dem vielfältige Quellenmaterial zu erleichtern. Jeannie Gayle Pool und H. Stephen Wright veröffentlichten ihre kooperative Untersuchung zu Quellen für die Filmmusikforschung in Amerika. Die geographische Spezifikation schließt international relevante Quellen nicht aus, sondern bezieht sich hauptsächlich auf die Standorte der angeführten Sammlungen und Archive.
Public Knowledge Project PLN, Aug 1, 2022
For decades Kleiner embodied the "lost art" of silent film accompaniment, which had slowly come t... more For decades Kleiner embodied the "lost art" of silent film accompaniment, which had slowly come to an end with the commercial introduction of the technically synchronized sound film in the late 1920s. Beyond the affectionate, honorary title as the "world's only full-time silent movie pianist," 1 his job entailed the research, composition, compilation, and performance of piano scores for hundreds of silent films during his twenty-eight-year tenure at the MoMA until he left New York City in 1967. In the remaining thirteen years of his life, which he spent with his family in Hopkins, Minnesota, he devoted himself to touring, teaching, filmmaking, and researching, as well as to the writing of a monograph on film music, which remained unfinished. One year after his death in 1980, his wife Lorraine Kleiner donated his extensive library of music scores (printed scores and manuscripts for nearly 700 silent films), sheet music, books, tapes, broadcasts, and other material to the University of Minnesota. Today, it forms the * Research for this article at the Arthur Kleiner Movie Music Collection at the University of Minnesota was funded by the Botstiber Foundation, which I thank for their kind support. I am grateful to Timothy Johnson and Cheryll Fong for their kind hospitality when I visited the collection. I sincerely thank Erik and Ann Kleiner for taking the time to correspond and meet with me, and for sharing not only documents and photos but also memories of their father (in law) Arthur Kleiner. Finally, I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of my article for their insightful comments which greatly helped me develop my argument and the article overall. 1 The Museum of Modern Art, "Arthur Kleiner, who has been composing, arranging and playing the piano accompaniments for silent films at The Museum for 28 years to retire, "
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Articles and Essays by Anna Katharina
Since the beginnings of western media culture, sound synthesis has played a major role in articulating cultural notions of the fantastic and the uncanny. As a counterpart to sound reproduction, sound synthesis operated in the interstices of the original/copy correspondence and prefigured the construction of a virtual reality through the generation of novel sounds apparently lacking any equivalent with the acoustic world. Experiments on synthetic sound crucially intersected cinema’s transition to synchronous sound in the late 1920s, thus configuring a particularly fertile scenario for the redefinition of narrative paradigms and the establishment of conventions for sound film production. Sound synthesis can thus be viewed as a structuring device of such film genres as horror and science fiction, whose codification depended on the constitution of synchronized sound film. More broadly, sound synthesis challenged the basic implications of realism based on the rendering of speech and the construction of cinematic soundscapes.
Résumé
Synthèse sonore, représentation et narration à l’époque de la transition vers le cinéma sonore (1926-1935)
Depuis les débuts de la culture médiatique occidentale, la synthèse sonore a largement contribué à façonner notre conception culturelle du fantastique et de l’étrange. Contrepartie de la reproduction sonore, la synthèse sonore venait brouiller la distinction entre copie et original tout en préfigurant la réalité virtuelle grâce à sa capacité de créer des sons inédits, sans équivalent dans le monde acoustique. À la fin des années 1920, la recherche sur le son synthétique entre dans une période cruciale, alors que s’opère la transition du cinéma vers le son synchrone et que le contexte s’avère particulièrement propice à une redéfinition des paradigmes narratifs en place et à l’élaboration de standards pour la production de films sonores. La synthèse sonore apparaît dès lors comme un principe structurant au sein de genres tels que l’horreur et la science-fiction, dont la codification reposait largement sur l’usage d’une trame sonore synchronisée. Plus largement, la synthèse sonore questionne les implications fondamentales d’un réalisme qui serait fondé sur la transmission de la parole et la construction de paysages sonores.
Conference Presentations by Anna Katharina
Being shown in one of Vienna's most prestigious concert halls, the performance was undoubtedly staged as a social event and, after a successful tour through Scandinavia and other European countries, the film was warmly welcomed by the war-weary Viennese public. While Eber's score is clearly an original composition (likely due to copyright considerations), it nonetheless furnishes the peace-promoting images of the film with local musical traits, thus creating a testimony for music as an agent that can shape and confirm national identity.
Talks by Anna Katharina
book chapters by Anna Katharina
Articles by Anna Katharina
film period have received an increasing attention from the academic
community, both in film studies and musicology. The emergence of
interdisciplinary networks, such as “The Sounds of Early Cinema in
Britain” (Brown and Davison 2013) and the “Cabiria Research
Project” in Italy (Colturato 2014), have contributed to widen the
frame of this field, revealing the importance of national, regional and
local specificities in the construction of early cinema as an auditory
experience. In the context of the thematic issue on “Music, sound
and cinema”, Aniki interviewed Claus Tieber and Anna K. Windisch.
Papers by Anna Katharina
Since the beginnings of western media culture, sound synthesis has played a major role in articulating cultural notions of the fantastic and the uncanny. As a counterpart to sound reproduction, sound synthesis operated in the interstices of the original/copy correspondence and prefigured the construction of a virtual reality through the generation of novel sounds apparently lacking any equivalent with the acoustic world. Experiments on synthetic sound crucially intersected cinema’s transition to synchronous sound in the late 1920s, thus configuring a particularly fertile scenario for the redefinition of narrative paradigms and the establishment of conventions for sound film production. Sound synthesis can thus be viewed as a structuring device of such film genres as horror and science fiction, whose codification depended on the constitution of synchronized sound film. More broadly, sound synthesis challenged the basic implications of realism based on the rendering of speech and the construction of cinematic soundscapes.
Résumé
Synthèse sonore, représentation et narration à l’époque de la transition vers le cinéma sonore (1926-1935)
Depuis les débuts de la culture médiatique occidentale, la synthèse sonore a largement contribué à façonner notre conception culturelle du fantastique et de l’étrange. Contrepartie de la reproduction sonore, la synthèse sonore venait brouiller la distinction entre copie et original tout en préfigurant la réalité virtuelle grâce à sa capacité de créer des sons inédits, sans équivalent dans le monde acoustique. À la fin des années 1920, la recherche sur le son synthétique entre dans une période cruciale, alors que s’opère la transition du cinéma vers le son synchrone et que le contexte s’avère particulièrement propice à une redéfinition des paradigmes narratifs en place et à l’élaboration de standards pour la production de films sonores. La synthèse sonore apparaît dès lors comme un principe structurant au sein de genres tels que l’horreur et la science-fiction, dont la codification reposait largement sur l’usage d’une trame sonore synchronisée. Plus largement, la synthèse sonore questionne les implications fondamentales d’un réalisme qui serait fondé sur la transmission de la parole et la construction de paysages sonores.
Being shown in one of Vienna's most prestigious concert halls, the performance was undoubtedly staged as a social event and, after a successful tour through Scandinavia and other European countries, the film was warmly welcomed by the war-weary Viennese public. While Eber's score is clearly an original composition (likely due to copyright considerations), it nonetheless furnishes the peace-promoting images of the film with local musical traits, thus creating a testimony for music as an agent that can shape and confirm national identity.
film period have received an increasing attention from the academic
community, both in film studies and musicology. The emergence of
interdisciplinary networks, such as “The Sounds of Early Cinema in
Britain” (Brown and Davison 2013) and the “Cabiria Research
Project” in Italy (Colturato 2014), have contributed to widen the
frame of this field, revealing the importance of national, regional and
local specificities in the construction of early cinema as an auditory
experience. In the context of the thematic issue on “Music, sound
and cinema”, Aniki interviewed Claus Tieber and Anna K. Windisch.