Since the beginning of the film, music has been used to emphasize what is happening or to create a specific mood or feeling. This started first with a silent film with a pianist or orchestra which then lead into the soundtracks and scores we have for films today. Do films with specially composed music work better than films with pre-existing music. This can be viewed in many ways. Films with specially composed music may be seen to capture what is happening in the film a lot better, than films with pre-existing music but pre-existing music films may be seen to have a better periodic sense to them. This is something I am going to discuss and look at within my essay. Films started off as being silent which was due to limitations in technology. Usually, a pianist or orchestra in larger city cinemas would play along with the film adding music live. This music would be played from a book under the section which best fits the genre of the film or the scene happening. This music would either be specially composed for the scene genre or would be a pre-existing piece of music, which would fit what was happening on the screen. Mervyn Cooke stated that they believe that film music can be traced back to the early 1890s. in Paris In 1890 Paris Pantomimes Lumineuses by Émile Reynaud said to be the first animated films were shown in 1892 and featured specially composed music by Gaston Paulin Pantomimes Lumineuses features an animation titled Pauvre Pierrot translated as Poor Pierrot.
