Page - 189 - in Der Filmkomponist Max Steiner - 1888 - 1971

3.5. Die Musik 189 Kathryn Kalinak schreibt über die regulativen Möglichkeiten der Musik für derartig montierte Sequenzen: „The montage made even greater demands on the music. Quick cuts seldom matched su- perimpositions of sometimes three or four images including overlays of text and graphics, and the abscence of dialogue, diegetic sound, or both, taxed the Conventions of narrative construction, particularly the representation of time. Music lent its rhythmic temporality to such sequences, regulating the flow of images ... it was almost impossible to allow a montage to exist without accompaniment."2'8 Roy Prendergast ist ebenfalls der Auffassung, dass der Film ein Medium ist, welches ohne die Musik als Bindeglied leicht auseinanderfallen könnte. „Music can tie together a visual medium that is, by its very nature, continually in danger of falling apart. A film editor is probably most conscious of this particular attribute of music in films. In a montage, particularly, music can serve an almost indispensable func- tion. It can hold the montage together with some sort of unifying musical idea. Without music the montage can, in some instances, become nearly chaotic. Music can also develop a sense of continuity on the level the film as a whole."2S9 Steiner hat sich viel Gedanken gemacht, wie er als Komponist das Problem der schnellen Bilderfolge eines Filmes angeht und die Aufgabe, Handlung und Musik zu synchroni- sieren, löst. Er hat dies immer wieder in Interviews oder Artikeln erklärt. So auch im folgenden Abschnitt aus seinem Aufsatz Scoring the Film: „The great difficulty lies in the many cuts (sections, locations) which make up a modern motion picture. For example: The first two minutes on my imaginary cue sheet consist of the arrival of a train in some little town. I would write music that conforms with the pounding of the locomotive, a train whistle or the screeching of the brakes, and perhaps some gay music to cover the greetings of the people getting on and off the train ... After these two minutes the picture cuts directly to the death of the father in a little attic in an outlying farmhouse, the scene lasting three minutes in all. I must, therefore, devise some method of modulating quickly and smoothly from the gay music in the Station to the si- lence and tragedy in the death room. These two scenes would consume five minutes of the 258 Kathryn Kalinak. S. 82. 259 Roy Prendergast. S. 222.