For more than 100 years, from the earliest experiments in silent movies to the modern, digitally enhanced, computer-aided action blockbusters, music has played an essential role in films, relied upon to enhance the mood, set the atmosphere, signal changes and magnify the impact of the action on screen. Music can do what words and pictures cannot: it gives us hints of characters’ thoughts and emotions, warns us of impending danger before anyone on screen has spotted it (just think of Jaws), and makes us cry, smile or jump out of our skin when we’re least expecting it.
