Mystery of the Wax Museum: An Original Film Score for Orchestra and an Analysis Outlining the Evolution of Film Music Through American Horror Films of the Early 1930s
ABSTRACT
This thesis illustrates the transitional period between silent films and fully-scored sound films. Connecting the history between producers, directors, and composers reveals how and why film scoring became an accepted practice by the mid-1930s while shedding light on the commonly-overlooked composers whose innovations in these early films paved the way for future film composers. The principle objective of this project is to score selected sequences of Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) by synthesizing contemporary film scoring practices with techniques commonly used in horror films of the early 1930s. An accompanying analysis of the score will explain the purpose of each cue and how it functions to appropriately enhance the already-completed film.
Unfortunately (due to copyright claims) I have been forced to take down all 53 video examples from YouTube.