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Throughout their history, motion pictures have been accompanied by music, and the combination has affected us in a variety of ways both simple and subtle. Like the film medium itself, moreover, film music has undergone such rapid development that today it ranks among the most widely dispersed and influential genres of dramatic music. For all its influence and importance, however, film music has fared rather poorly as a subject of scholarly inquiry. In part this neglect is due to film music's unusual position: it inhabits a special domain, removed from the older and more traditional forms of music-making. Its world is that of the motion picture theater, rather than the concert hall or the written score. Thus the study of the history and theory of film music depends upon the study of film itself; and careful analysis of a motion picture score requires that the music be examined side by side with the film for which it was composed.
Such analyses are very much needed for the advancement of our understanding of film music, and a fascinating example with which to begin is Erik Satie's score for Entr'acte. This is the first complete original score we have by a leading avantgarde composer; and although it is Satie's only film score, composed for a picture lasting a scant twenty minutes, it has been highly praised and even termed a model of film music (see Gallez 1976). But if it is a model, it is a thoroughly puzzling one, rich in paradoxical effects and novel solutions to the problems of film music. The film's unconventional nature forced Satie (or rather, reinforced his customary desire) to compose unconventional music. His score called into question the prevailing film music aesthetic of its time, on behalf of an avant-garde seeking new forms and meanings in the artful combination of music and image.
As its title indicates, Entr'acte was an "intermission piece." Directed by René Clair, the film was originally presented between the two acts of the ballet Relâche, as premiered at the Champs-Elysées Theater in Paris on 4 December 1924. Satie composed the ballet's music, Francis Picabia created its scenario and design, Jean Börlin its choreography.
These men were all conspicuous figures in the world of Parisian avant-garde art....