Title Theme
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The main-title cue that scores a film's opening credits, stating the picture's central musical idea before a frame of story unfolds and setting genre, scale and tone in a single sweep. Sounds run from Golden Age symphonic overtures and modernist prelude cues to lean, motif-driven statements, typically foregrounding a bold primary melody with full orchestra. The craft is compression and first impression: a theme that must feel like the movie, be reprised throughout, and lodge in memory over the title cards. Tempo and instrumentation vary wildly by genre, but the piece always carries the burden of the "sound of the film."
History
Purpose-written main titles became a Hollywood fixture in the studio era, when Max Steiner and Alfred Newman scored elaborate opening overtures for prestige pictures and Newman's fanfare literally announced the studio. The form peaked in the 1960s epic and the rise of the composer-auteur: Maurice Jarre's "Lawrence of Arabia," Elmer Bernstein's brass-driven Westerns, Bernard Herrmann's nervous preludes for Hitchcock, and Ennio Morricone's genre-redefining title cues. John Williams' "Star Wars" main title (1977) revived the grand symphonic overture and became the template for the modern blockbuster opening, keeping the purpose-composed title theme central to film branding.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Main Title (Star Wars)(1977) — John WilliamsSpotifyYouTube
- The Magnificent Seven(1960) — Elmer BernsteinSpotifyYouTube
- The Great Escape (Main Title)(1963) — Elmer BernsteinSpotifyYouTube
- Lawrence of Arabia (Main Titles)(1962) — Maurice JarreSpotifyYouTube
- Prelude (Psycho)(1960) — Bernard HerrmannSpotifyYouTube
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Main Title)(1966) — Ennio MorriconeSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Mervyn Cooke, A History of Film Music (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
- Roger Hickman, Reel Music (Norton, 2006)
- Kathryn Kalinak, Film Music: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2010)