Journal of Film Music 5.

1-2 (2012) 93-100

doi:10.1558/jfm.v5i1-2.93

ISSN (print) 1087-7142

ISSN (online) 1758-860X

ARTICLE

Theory and Practice in Erdmann/Becce/Bravs

Allgemeines Handbuch der Film-Musik (1927)
Irene Comisso
Freie Universitt-Berlin
iricom75@yahoo.it
Abstract: The Allgemeines Handbuch der Film-Musik (1927) undeniably constitutes an epoch-making landmark in film
scoring. Besides representing a chronologically specific stage in the evolution of musical theory as applied to silent
film, it displays a number of groundbreaking features, which set it largely apart from the coeval musical production
both under theoretical and practical respects. Starting from an analysis of the illustrative table contained in the
Handbuch, the present article aims at reconstructing the development of the theoretical foundations on the basis
of which its authors elaborated a complete methodology, which could be applied to the creation of stylistically
elaborated accompanying music.
Keywords: Erdmann; Becce; silent-film music

acing the question of the role of music in film,

in 1927 the authors of the Allgemeines Handbuch
der Film-MusikHans Erdmann, Giuseppe Becce
and Ludwig Bravestablished the following basic
principles aimed at developing an effective musical
accompaniment to motion pictures:
films need music as a matter of course;
if there is no original music, existing repertoires
can be used to create a compilation;
rhythm functions as a films unifying element;
composers should strive for an ideal in their
practice.
This reference work may be considered as both
the central and conclusive statement about music in
the era of so-called silent pictures. Each authors
contribution reflected his unique background:
Erdmann had already developed theoretical ideas on
the subject in the journals he was editing; Becce had
achieved fame and gained experience in the field as

a Kapellmeister, and met with considerable success

through his Kinothek;1 and Brav could boast both
theoretical and practical knowledge of the field.2 The
work well reconciles the authors tendency to theorize,
as shown in the complexity of their presentation,
with the practical side of the solutions suggested. It
consists of a theoretical volume followed by a thematic
catalogue with a dedicated index.
The Handbuch is an organic treatment of all the
main trends and theories about music for film,
arranged in a systematic order. It functions almost
like a seismograph to such trends, in that it traces and
elucidates their development, giving a uniform outlook
to their aesthetic postulates.
The Handbuch is an innovative, almost pioneering
work: as they gathered and examined all kinds of
1 On G. Becce, see E. Simeon, La nascita di una drammaturgia della musica
per film: il ruolo di Giuseppe Becce, Musica/Realt 12, no. 24 (1987).
2 L. Brav, Die Praxis der Bearbeitung und Besetzung fr kleine Orchester, in
thematischen Fhrer durch die Orchestermusik des Verlags Ed. Bote und Bock: Zum
besonderen Gebrauch fr Film, Bhne, Konzert (Berlin, Bote & Bock, 1927).

Copyright the International Film Music Society, published by Equinox Publishing Ltd 2013, Unit S3, Kelham House, 3 Lancaster Street, Sheffield, S3 8AF.

94 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

writings on the subject, the authors rejected the

dichotomies between music and film on the one
hand, and systematic and occasional writings on the
other, recognizing that the latter may sometimes
have a significance which eluded more complete, and
admittedly coherent, publications.
The authors did not want the Handbuch to be a
simple survey of what the state of the art was at
their time; rather, they aimed for their work to offer
an exhaustive overview, from both a theoretical and
aesthetic perspective, of what music for film should be
(and had not yet achieved). Considered in the context
of the history of film-music theories, the Handbuch is
thus a crossroads between theories prior to, and those
subsequent to, the rise of the talking pictures. The
structure of this work is indeed heavily influenced by
its position in the history of the medium: the Handbuch
acknowledges the value of the already-existing theories
whilst showing an acute awareness of the limitations
of contemporaneous practices, and thus foreshadowing
or indicating future developments.
A recent study of German-language publications
on music for film of the 1920s proves how, in both
Germany and Austria, the theoretical debate on the
subject grew steadily during that decade, increasing
from the mid-1920s on, and reaching a peak in the
period between 1927 and 1929.3
The debates carried out by the main music journals,
such as Die Musik, Melos, and the Musikbltter des
Anbruch, had, however, been already the focus of
cinematic publications since at least the 1910s; this
provides further evidence of the unwillingness on the
part of the musicologists at the time to acknowledge
the artistic significance of musical accompaniment,
and to legitimate its status as an independent genre.
Keen to seize the debate around film music at its
most sizzling, by contrast film journals kept track of
it in an almost fastidious manner. Indeed, it was on
the pages of a film journal that Erdmann, in an article
predating the publication of the Handbuch, reviewed
the studies carried out till the mid-1920s.4 Among
the writings on film that also focused on music, and
echoed the theories found later in the Handbuch, worth
mentioning are Urban Gads 1921 Der Film, seine Mittel,
seine Ziele,5 Georg Otto Stindts Lichtspiel als Kunstform6
(1924), and, in part, Bla Balzs Der sichtbare Mensch7
3 M. Beiche, Musik und Film im deutschen Musikjournalismus der 1920er
Jahre, Archiv fr Musikwissenschaft 63, no. 2 (2006): 94-119.
4 H. Erdmann, Der knstlerische Spielfilm und seine Musik, Versuch einer
kritischen Umschau, in Das deutsche Lichtspieltheater, ed. Rudolf Pabst (Berlin:
Prisma-Verlag, 1926), 100-16.
5 U. Gad, Der Film, seine Mittel, seine Ziele (Berlin: Schuster und Lffler, 1921).
6 G. O. Stindt, Das Lichtspiel als Kunstform (Bremerhaven: Atlantisverlag,
1924).
7 B. Balzs, Der sichtbare Mensch oder die Kultur des Films (Vienna, Leipzig,

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(1924). In particular, Stindt devotes an entire chapter

of his work to the relationship between music and film;
there, besides providing a detailed analysis of some
practical issues, he contributes to the then-heated
discussion over whether film should be considered
an independent form of art (an issue which, since the
1910s, had been the main focus of a burgeoning filmcritical practice). From around 1915 on, moreover,
journals such as Der Kinematograph and Der Film had
been systematically publishing articles and notices
on the subject. Sometimes these were substantial
pieces of writing in their own right and, while they
focused primarily on the practicalities of musical
accompaniment to a film, they were not altogether
lacking in theoretical value.
The theories stated in the Handbuch are therefore
imbued with principles and ideas borrowed from
the publications available at the time of its writing,
and reworked by the authors in such a way as to
appear axiomatic. Their sources, though not explicitly
named, are anyway inferable with a sufficient degree
of certainty. All one needs is a careful review of
the writings published during the gestation of the
Handbuch itself. In the introduction to the Handbuch,
the authors explain that the first volume is meant
as a humble attempt to elaborate a theory on music
for film;8 for its part the catalogue, systematically
arranged according to dramaturgical criteria, is meant
to illustrate, in a rational and accessible manner, the
existing musical material, so that both musical and
cine-dramaturgical elements are dealt with in equal
measure.9 The authors also explain how they were
able to organize a broad and stylistically heterogeneous
collection adopting dramatic atmosphere and mood as
their main criteria; in this they followed the principles
of musical hermeneutics (even though this was at the
time still an unbeaten track in musicology).
The first chapter moves from the issue of whether
to recognize the artistic nature of film. At the time,
this question stood at the center of the debate on the
cinema. According to the Handbuch authors, the first
step towards the legitimization of music for film as an
independent art form is the scientific demonstration
that film itself is an art (this, it will be noted, links
their argument to the crux of Otto Stindts work).
They identify rhythm as the key element, enabling
the theorist to subsume film within the so-called
dynamic arts. In this connection, the chapter develops
a definition of dynamic arts understood as those
Halle: Knapp, 1924; reprint, Hamburg, Medienladen, 1979; Taschenbuch
Wissenschaft, 1536; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2001).
8 Erdmann/Becce, Handbuch, vol. 1, Einleitung, xi.
9 Ibid.

Theory and Practice in Erdmann/Becce/Bravs Allgemeines Handbuch der Film-Musik (1927)

artistic forms whose very impact is contingent on

the unfolding of time across a deliberately designed
chronological arc. Dance, poetry, and music are
dynamic in this sense, while painting, sculpture, and
architecture are static. As such, the art forms based
on movement have their rationale in the principle of
rhythm: to be considered a form of art, film must,
as all dynamic arts do, be subject to a given rhythmic
pattern. At the time, the idea that a dichotomy existed
between dynamism and stasis was not merely a facet of
art theory; the idea was central to German historicism.
In particular, the concept of dynamic arts encountered
in the Handbuch is ascribable to the writings on musical
hermeneutics published by Hermann Kretzschmar
around that time.10 I am referring to the 1902
Anregungen zur Frderung musikalischer Hermeneutik11 and,
more to the point, his meditations in the Musikalische
Zeitfragen.12 The connection with Kretzschmars work
is easy to trace. Erdmann had studied with Otto
Kinkeldey, the latter being one of Kretzschmars
best pupils. It is with Kinkeldey that Erdmann
developed those precepts of performance practice, with
particular reference to the eighteenth century, which
subsequently found their way into the Handbuch.13
The question of whether music is necessary to film
is thus tied into the debate on the so-called dynamic
arts. The authors give different answers to another,
and related, question, namely whether a film can
function without music; on the one hand, they echo
previous statements made on the issue while, on
the other, they foreshadow positions which will be
discussed in music journals only towards the end of
the 1920s. Indeed, their analyses mirror the topics of
discussion found in non-academic publications, tracing
their evolution in time. So, for instance, one finds ideas
that hark back to those found in the writings of Poldi
Schmidl (pseudonym of music critic Leopold Schmidt).
As early as 1916, Schmidl distinguished between
music for film and music in the cinema, explaining
that musical accompaniment had the function of
clarifying and supporting the images with something
like a muting or heightening effect, as if giving voice to
the gestures and echoing the movements seen on the
10 H. Krones, Optische Konzeption und musikalische Semantik. Zum
Allgemeinen Handbuch der Film-Musik von Hans Erdmann, Giuseppe
Becce und Ludwig Brav, in Bhne, Film, Raum und Zeit in der Musik des 20.
Jahrhunderts, ed. Hartmut Krones (Vienna: Bhlau Verlag, 2003), vol. 3, 11942.
11 H. Kretzschmar, Anregungen zur Frderung musikalischer
Hermeneutik, in Gesammelte Aufstze aus den Jahrbchern der Musikbibliothek
Peters (Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1911).
12 H. Kretzschmar, Musikalische Zeitfragen (Leipzig: Peters, 1903).
13 On Kretzschmars hermeneutic, see S. Mauser, Zu den philosophischen
Grundlagen des Kretzschmarschen Hermeneutikbegriffs, in Hermann
Kretzschmar: Konferenzbericht Olbernhau 1998, ed. H. Loos and R. Cadenbach
(Chemnitz: Schrder, 1998), 121-28.

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95

screen.14 This interpretation, in turn, was influenced by

philosopher Ernst Bloch, who, in his well-known essay
ber die Melodie im Kino (1913) considered music for
film as having the specific function of substituting for
all the other sensorial stimuli.15
From there onwards, the debate on the function of
music for film was to remain a central concern. Many
preeminent theorists, from Kracauer and Balzs all
the way to Kurt London, share common ground with
Bloch. The Handbuch echoes, too, Rudolf Stephan
Hoffmanns thought that musics noise injected a
veneer of reality to an otherwise lifeless screen16 as
well as Stuckenschmidts thesis according to which,
in line with Edwin Janetscheks theories,17 music is
an auxiliary element whose primary function is to
bring a breath of life into film. The authors of the
Handbuch, for their part, try to justify such a position
from an aesthetic and psychological perspective. They
point out how difficult it is for the audience to watch
a show for a long time in complete silence (this is a
clear reference to mass psychology theories, which
supported the idea that audiences needed music). In
this respect they anticipate ideas which, a few years
later, will be discussed in music journals by the likes
of Robert Beyer and Franck Warschauer, for whom a
film without musical accompaniment is comparable
to a form of mutism which in the long run becomes
unbearable, especially if a film is shown to a large
public.18 The need for music in film is thus linked to
a view of collective perception: films are addressed to
masses and cinema is an art which was born to be
experienced by many people, hence it cannot be silent.
The authors of the Handbuch, nevertheless, do hold that
the true and main reason for the presence of music in
film is aesthetic: To be considered an art form, the
cinema, as all dynamic arts, must be subject to a given
rhythmic pattern; that is, a rhythm that is fleshed out
acoustically, for the history of the artistic practices
does not bear witness to artfully arranged movement
lacking an acoustic equivalent.19
Having thus come to the conclusion that films do
need music, and taken stock of the fact that music
14 P. Schmidl, Filmmusik oder Kinomusik, Der Kinematograph-Dsseldorf
500 (1916).
15 E. Bloch, ber die Melodie im Kino, in Literarische Aufstze (Frankfurt a.
M.: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1965). See E. Simeon, La musica nel cinema tedesco
fino al 1918, in Prima di Caligari: Cinema tedesco, 1895-1920, ed. Paolo Cherchi
Usai and Lorenzo Codelli (Pordenone: Biblioteca dell immagine, 1990),
79-93.
16 R. S. Hoffmann, Kinomusik, Musikalischer Kurier 2 (1920), 116, Beiche,
Musik und Film, 101.
17 E. Janetschek, Tonkunst und Lichtspieltheater, Zeitschrift fr Musik 87
(1920), 210, in Beiche, Musik und Film, 101.
18 F. Warschauer, Filmmusik, Musikbltter des Anbruch 11 (1929), 131,
Beiche, Musik und Film, 102.
19 Erdmann/Becce, Handbuch, vol. 1, 5.

96 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

could only be composed ex post facto, hence applied

to a film at a late stage of the production process, the
authors identified three moments in an ideal evolution
of their practice:
The first step consists of a refinement of the
practice of musical illustration so as to render
it susceptible of evaluation as an art form in its
own right; when choosing pre-existing music,
this can be achieved by avoiding a mix-andmatch of incompatible styles.
The next step up is the composition of ad
hoc (i.e., original) music, which Erdmann
calls Autorenillustration (Author, or, in
modern film jargon, Auteur Illustration). This
option was difficult to realize at the time, as is
confirmed by the meager inventory of original
scores featured in the Handbuch.
The ideal is the creation of what, at the time,
was considered an unrealizable dream: the
production/composition of an artwork that
combined the best of the film and musical arts,
respectively. The authors anticipate here Hans
Kaysers own wish with regards to the talking
pictures, namely the possibility that composers
be allowed to take up a primary role in the
evolution of film as an art form (provided that
they are involved from the start, that is, from
the choice of the subject and the writing of the
storyboard to the development of the script).
The authors are realistic about the dominant
modus operandi; therefore, whilst wishing for the day
in which films will be composed together with
their music, they focus on a systematic presentation
of the use of music as illustration. Having endorsed
the idea that films cannot be shown without music,
and anxious to ensure that music remains a true
resource for the cinema, they identify a criterion
which functions as the least common denominator
between film and music. Given that both film and
music are dynamic arts, this criterion is rhythm (this
stance, too, clearly betrays the influence of Stindts
theories on film). Rhythm underpins the cinemas
own narrative techniques. As the general principle
behind movement, rhythm is thus enshrined by
Stindt: Im Anfang war der Rhythmus (at the beginning
was rhythm).20 Stindt distinguishes between internal
and external movement within the same action. In a
film, internal movement is rooted in the emotional
state of mind whilst external movement coincides
with the plot, the change of scenes, and the struggle
20 Stindt, Das Lichtspiel, 25.

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between characters. By plot Stindt means the action

resulting from the influence of external events on
internal events, hence on the characters inner life.
The conflict arising from the opposition of these two
developments (the internal and the external one) is
the basis of the unfolding of the plot itself. Music
must therefore perfectly adapt itself to the rhythm
of the pictures, and in so doing it should not draw
inspiration from the external plot; rather, it must
give voice to the characters states of mind. The
Handbuchs authors share this idea, applying it widely
throughout the text. Lastly, Stindt repudiates the use
of compilations of preexisting music, stating the need
for an original, ad hoc score, composed expressly for
the film in question.
The authors of the Handbuch endorse Stindts
conclusion, viewing it as the basis for the creation
of film as a form of art; on the other hand, they
also realize how Stindts uncompromising position
cannot accommodate the everyday needs of musical
illustration (such as it was practiced at the time).
Understood as the alternation between strongly
and weakly accented scenes, rhythm is therefore
the technical-elementary foundation of musical
accompaniment. Its primary contribution is best
appreciated in scenes defined by rhythmic and
visually stylized movement; for example, in ballet
sequences, dances, and marches. These scenes allow
musicians to capture the so-called small rhythm:
that is, the primary cell of a (more complex) great
rhythm. The latter is a more dilated rhythmic tension
stretching across a longer span of time, and is called
eurhythmics by the authors. A good film is defined
by its inner musicality. Put otherwise, music for film
does not simply have to adapt itself to the external
rhythm, the one resulting from the movements shown
in the pictures; rather, and more importantly, it must
fit its internal rhythm or trail of emotions: the inner
plot of a film. The concept of eurhythmics, or great
rhythm, is replaced in the Handbuch by the concept
of style, cryptically defined as the communication
of the purely natural, the result of the will to craft
an expressive form which glorifies the essential and
represses the superfluous.21
In an article written in 1928, and thus after the
publication of the Handbuch, Erdmann defines the
concept of eurhythmics in terms of what we would
now call tension and dynamics and high and low
climaxes of tension; eurhythmics is the counterpart
21 Erdmann/Becce, die Aufgabe des Natrlichen um willen einer
knstlerischen Ausdrucksform, die das Wesentliche betont und das
Unwesentliche unterdrckt, Handbuch, vol. 1, 42.

Theory and Practice in Erdmann/Becce/Bravs Allgemeines Handbuch der Film-Musik (1927)

97

to morphology in music analysis and dramaturgy

in the study of opera and the spoken theatre.22
The concept of eurhythmics, then, does not merely
refer to rhythm in movement, but also captures the
dramaturgical structure of a work itself, as grasped
through the alternation of moments of high and low
tension.
Hence, the task of a musical illustrator is to capture
a films climaxes from a dramaturgical perspective;
it is these that ought to function as benchmarks in
the creation of music. Upon considering the plot of a
film, therefore, a musician should not merely follow
its rhythmic or metric criteria; rather, he or she should
embrace a dramaturgical point of view, thus weaving a
musical span capable of encompassing the different
levels of emotional tension present in the film as a
whole. To provide an effective accompaniment to
the plot of a film, a musician must make use of a
dramatists whole store of knowledge, including such
fundamental principles as the theory of unity and
conflict.23 This basic principle does affect music, as
the latter is indeed based on the contrast between a
question and answer, subject and countersubject,
consonance and dissonanceand so forth
maintaining all the same its formal unity. To preserve
such unity, the authors also have recourse to the model
of Italian number opera. After all, the latter is based on
the antithesis between high and low levels of tension
and, as such, it is a model that may well be reconciled
with the structure of a film. But how is the union of
music and film to be practically realized?
There are three factors a musician must pay
attention to when illustrating a film scene: dynamics,
movement, and Stimmung. Dynamics sets up a parallel
between the crescendos and diminuendos of the
music on the one hand, and the contrast between
unity and conflict in the film on the other. Dynamics,
for example, are frequently used to illustrate changes
of location. The second factor is movement, which
is based primarily on the understanding of a films
rhythmic aspect. The third factor, what the authors
call Stimmung, is the most difficult. It emerges from
the synchronization between the mood of the music
and that of the scene, and as such it is often difficult to
attain.
The convergence of these three factors makes it
possible to bring out the climaxes in the story. In
particular, a musician must directly refer to the films
internal plot, defined by the authors as its trail of

To flesh this out, the authors of the Handbuch

compiled a veritable artistic thesaurus of music
for film, arranging systematically works from the
classical, operatic, and concert repertoires. To make
consultation easier, the authors also provide a large
apparatus of indexes.
This thematic catalogue/Skalenregister, i.e.,
the second volume of the Handbuch, was penned
by Giuseppe Becce. It is a thorough, analytical
anthology of musical authors and themes of truly
monumental proportions (especially when compared
to the digests published until then). The directory
numbers more than 200 composers, mostly from the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and as many
as 3,050 musical incipits. The titles are coupled with
a set of symbols, whose meaning can be divined
by consulting a dedicated spreadsheet. This great
work of systematization gave great impetus to the
fixing of musico-semantic topoi still in use today.
The Stimmungen are indeed depicted by recourse
to metaphors for the emotions such as agitato
or mysterious; these, in turn, correspond to
specific musical themes and clichs, here arranged
like a hermeneutic code. For example, tremolo
is associated with torment and obsession, while
chromaticism is correlated with pain, tragedy,
fright (and so on). In constructing this classifying
structure, clear reference is made to the musicorhetorical figures devised by the Affektenlehre, and
which Kretzschmar, having appropriated the principles
of Diltheys historicism, adopted as the basis of his
renowned musico-hermeneutic practice.24
A distinct section of the theoretical part of
the volume, titled On the method of compilative

22 H. Erdmann, Auf der Suche nach einer Filmschrift, Filmtechnik 25

(1928), 478-81.
23 Erdmann/Becce, Handbuch, vol., 1, 39.

24 See A. Nowak, Dilthey und die musikalische Hermeneutik, in Beitrge

zur musikalischen Hermeneutik, ed. C. Dahlhaus (Regensburg: Gustav Bosse
Verlag, 1975), 16ff.

The International Film Music Society 2013.

emotions. This can be done not by merely adapting

music to the quick turnover of scenes and locales but
by identifying in a film those moments that best lend
themselves to a change in Stimmung.
Music for film is subsequently broken down into
three large categories:
music for dramatic and lyrical moments,
defined as expressive, dramatic or lyrical
music (which, as such, will therefore conform
to the different levels of emotional intensity
present in the story);
connective or transitional music;
music for rhythmic film scenes, defined as
incidental music (e.g. dances, marches, etc.).

98 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

illustration,25 distinguishes within the thematic

catalogue between two fundamental types of music
for film: expressive music and incidental music.26
Within the expressive category Becce distinguishes
between dramatic (traditionally understood as the
product of antithesis and conflict) and lyrical music,
which implies a contemplative state of mind instead.
According to this distinction, dramatic music has an
irregular structure (one in which progressions are
rare), and features short and mordacious, as opposed
to melodic, thematic passages; finally, dramatic
music is defined by strong dynamic, rhythmic, and
harmonic contrasts. Unlike dramatic music, lyric music
has an essentially regular structure (characterized
by frequent progressions), leaving plenty of space to
melody unencumbered by sudden dynamic, rhythmic,
harmonic, or timbral contrasts. As to the definition
of incidental music (after the so-called notion
of Incident), the authors adopt a dramaturgical
perspective and limit its application only to music used
as an event or element of the environment. Because of
this, they deny that incidental music may function to
support the dialogue and plot of a film, thus moving
away from the meaning the term had had until then
(in particular with reference to the accompaniment
of theatrical plays). The corresponding type of music
is to be found in conventional, generic pieces, such as
marches, dances, and songs.
These main sections are themselves divided into
so-called upper groups.
For instance, dramatic expression encompasses
climaxes; these are pieces of dramatic music
proper, that is, examples that feature a dramatic
climax.
There follow other upper groups related to
the expression of dramatic tension: tensionmysterious and tension-agitato. The
mysterious register is a form of pent-up
dynamism and movement, holding back any
release of tension, while agitato lets it flow
unconstrained.
The last group is dubbed passionate climax,
a rubric referring to music in which the lyrical
and the dramatic registers are intertwined.
Within lyric expression one finds the upper
group called tension-pathetic;
The last significant group to be subsumed
under lyric expression is named point of low
tension and indicates music with a loosened,
almost null tension.
25 Erdmann/Becce, Handbuch, vol. 1, 58ff.
26 Ibid., 62.

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The last section is dedicated to incidental music

and consists of the groups nature, state, church,
and people and society. This section comprises all
music that arises out of a particular incident in the
plot: ceremonies, feasts at court, village fairs, national
festivities, and so forth.
The second part of the work contains concrete
film examples for each of these concepts, and aims at
offering, on the basis of the conceptual apparatus of
the first, all the means necessary to create effective
and insightful compilations. The basic concepts of
Lyrical Expression, Dramatic Expression, and
Incident apply to a whole range of emotional,
dramatic, rhythmic-visual situations; these are
arranged accordingly in an illustrative table, a map
of sorts which can be used by musicians-illustrators
to choose the music most appropriate to a certain
film scene. This table encapsulates the theoretical
and practical efforts made by the authors of the
Handbuch in developing a systematic method to
create musical illustrations shaped by the composerauteur. In light of the concepts defined above, it is
then possible to explain the structure of acronyms,
symbols and figures that effectively sum up, with
regard to Stimmung and movement, the framework of
suggestions set by the authors. A solid understanding
of the table can be accomplished only through a
thorough knowledge of the acronyms and symbols
used by the authors in order to guide musicians in
the musical illustration of specific film scenes. The
authors break down the musical examples into groups
using as criteria the emotional content expressed
therein (that is, their Stimmung) and their distinctive
movement; moreover, they include in the same section
a number of groups which share an affinity as to their
musical form.
The first seven columns express the emotional
content of a certain scene: dster (bleak), dunkel
(dark), melancholisch (melancholic), ernst (serious),
gesangmig (cantabile), heiter (gay), freudig (joyous).
The three geometrical shapes indicate movement and
mean, respectively: calm (triangle), stormy (circle),
calm-stormy or stormy-calm (square, which is used in
scenes where there is a shift from one to the other).
The eighth column acts as an appendix, and lists
types of incidental music (distinctive scenes, dances,
marches, national music) that the thematic register
does not arrange by either Stimmung or movement.
The horizontal sections of the table, Lied-Tanz
(song-dance), March, Religious, Pastorale, Path.Apps. (pathetic-passionate), Agitato, Mysterious,
and Hhepunkt (climax), coincide in part with the
upper groups there indicated. However, unlike such

Theory and Practice in Erdmann/Becce/Bravs Allgemeines Handbuch der Film-Musik (1927)

groups, they are not devised according to precise

dramaturgical criteria; rather, these sections are
like large folders filled with similar groups of
musical examples. Each section comprises three
essential levels: incident (IN), lyric expression (LY),
and dramatic expression (DR). The figures in the
rectangles refer to pieces in the thematic catalogue
displaying the prerequisite characteristics. A brief
analysis of the table shows that dramatic expression
prefers a calm or calm-stormy movement, and a bleakdark, rarely joyous Stimmung. Lyric expression is also
defined by a calm or calm-stormy movement and,
in most cases, a melancholic, serious, and cantabile
Stimmung. Incidental music is instead more prone
to allegro and joyous movement, and its dominant
groups are calm-stormy (square) and stormy (circle),
whilst the prevailing Stimmung is drawn from the
allegro-joyous groups.
Let us take as an example a scene which is serious
(ernst, fourth column), Pastorale (fifth horizontal
section), moving from calm-stormy (square) to calm
(triangle), one in which lyric music is appropriate
(LY). A musician wishing to illustrate this scene can
find a wide range of pieces available in the thematic
catalogue, but the simplest solution is to follow the
authors own suggestions: first, example n. 1677
from the Pastorale group, which in the catalogue
corresponds to Hirtenmusik Pastorella alten Stils
Weihnachten by J. S. Bach; then, an example from the
natur-romantisch group (for instance, n. 1654 Manon by
J. Massenet).
The pointers placed in the boxes near the figure
indicate that, within the same group, it is also possible
to use prior numbers to negotiate a transition towards
a slower movement (for example, to go from calmstormy to calm). The main aim of the authors, then, is
to provide a compiler-illustrator with an outline of all
the available material, as well as to suggest practical
illustration methods: in this way, a musician can
easily and directly approach the aesthetic principles
explained in the theoretical part of the Handbuch, and
which should inspire the creation of music for film in
the first place. The importance of the thematic

99

catalogue does not lie in its exhaustiveness; after

all, the authors themselves never made such a claim
for their work. Its significance, rather, lies in the
systematic organization of musical material, which
on the one hand fully responded to the concrete and
urgent needs of musical accompaniment practices
while on the other contributed decisively to a
refinement, as pertains both the aesthetic and musical
dimensions, of said practices.
Despite some inevitable structural limits, such as
the severity of its classifying structure and the overtly
simplistic treatment of such issues as, for instance,
the role played by music in filmwhich will play a
major part in instigating later writings by Zofia Lissa,
Konrad Ottenheim, and Lothar Proxthe Handbuch,
all things considered, is a remarkable contribution to
the study of music for film, standing, in many ways, as
an almost prophetic work. Indeed, many questions
tackled by the Handbuchs authors have remained
the focus of the debate on music for film till the
present day; consider, for example, their insistence on
conferring the status of composition only to music
composed in perfect synchrony and harmony with the
other elements of film (this is an almost obsessive
leitmotif in their work), all such elements being part
of the same audio-visual construct. A further example
of the books prescience is the consideration that the
rationale for the presence of music in film should be
aesthetic (not practical or merely empirical): to be
considered a form of art, film must, as all dynamic
arts do, be subject to a given rhythmic pattern.
A musicians task is therefore to sublimate the
connection between music and onscreen action,
that is, to capture the eurhythmic movement that
transcends the everyday, and pertains only to the
highest sphere of art.
The authors ambitious prospect of founding
a method, which could serve as a basis for the
development of an independent discipline, is an
attempt to open a new chapter in music history, one
that the forward-looking Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt
had already wished for only a few years before, in
1924.27

27 H. H. Stuckenschmidt, Die Musik zum Film, Die Musik 18, no. 2 (August
1926), 807-17.

The International Film Music Society 2013.

100 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

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The International Film Music Society 2013.

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