Coming Of Sound

The coming of sound was an innovation to cinema that forever changed the way films were produced, viewed and performed. Sound plays many roles in the way a film is narrated and perceived by the audience. Sound, as defined in the Oxford Dictionary of Film Studies, ‘is central to the way in which a film establishes setting, shapes character, signposts its narrative, directs the audience’s and instils general emotional states’ (2012: 385). Sunrise: a song of two humans by F.W. Munrau was released in 1926, at the turning point of the transition to sound after years of ‘silent’ films, and used brilliantly sound. In relation to Sunrise, we can explore the use of sound, especially the use of music and sound effects, and their functions and effects.
For instance, when the Wife is deeply affected by her husband’s departure to meet with his lover - The Woman of The City. In this short scene, through a combination of a low timbre, high pitched violin and low trumpets coming in crescendo, the music expresses or underlines her sadness and distress of her husband’s affair. Not only does the music creates a mood for the sequence, but it also tries to embody the character’s feelings and ignite reactions from the audience. Moreover, a score allows to voice the character’s feelings, as seen in a particular scene of Sunrise where the Man’s calls out for his wife: his voice is expressed through the score, which plays two roles, one of acting his voice and the other as representing his
They are both ambience and foley sounds, and they have a meaning and a narrative function. For instance, the second time we hear them is when the couple is going on the boat. They are played as background sound, while we see the church of the small village in the background as they sail off, acting as onscreen and space sound. The use of the bells at this point builds up a certain apprehension and tension as the audience knows the husband’s plan. In addition, the score playing in the background is, at first, rather sweet before picking up and having a lower timbre and higher pitch building up the tension. The third time we hear them is when The Man almost kills his wife. The bells rings appropriately at the moment he aborts his actions. The sound of the bells is louder than the music, underlining the significance of the bells in this particular scene. They represents his guilt, his sudden realisation and the turning point of the