The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-13

boy, also, and the music was clever and unusual. The man from Atlanta was greatly impressed with it and when he got back home he built a theatre in At
 anta, called it the Aleazar. and the drums and the piano were used for the first time-that was in 1908
 Since then music in the movies has become wonderfully a part of the pro- gramme," MT. Hamrick continued, "andI in the best theatres throughout the coun- try the most talented organists and pianists are now employed. I regard music in the movies as an art, and Il work out the appropriate music for eachf picture just as I would for a wedding or a funeral; certain music goes with certain pictures, and usually in the big pictures where I do not play entirely through the story. l make the climaXes the time for my best work; the climaxes usually occurs in the last three reels of picture, and there is always a pretty opportunity for effective organ work.
 Music in the movies is just as differ ent from music in other instances MT. Hamrick said, "as black is from white; a. concerto-from a Fugue-a violin solo from dance music for the violin. It is true also that the best of the classics lend themselves to the best pictures; for instance, Beethoven is especially adapt able; I've played the Andante from the Fifth symphony for several pictures, oneI being a picture of William S. Hart also the Andante from the Sonata Pathetique. Bach is not adaptable. but Schumann and k t,,fp ;c charming than Tschaikowsky or more adaptable. I have seen ragtime music and cheap music pass almost entirely from the programmes of the movies, and while the music used now is simi- lar to music used in vaudeville, loud, l then soft; fast, then slow-to meet the exigencies of the photoplay-still 1t requires discriminating judgment on | the part of the organist and keen musical instinct to affiliate the two"
 T have most complete musical library" said MT Hamrick; T believe, as complete as any in the country. l have never been asked for a selection that l couldn't answer the request. I love to work out the themes of cer- tain concertos, symphonies and son. atas, with certain pictures; for in- stance in the picture Geraldine Farrar played, The Woman God Forgot, I wrote on weeks ahead to the producers to furnish me with a score if they had one; it is very expenive, of course, to have scores written especially for pie lures as in the case of The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance and few other big pictures; so I got busy and found the most enchanting Spanish
 music; this I worked up into a con-
 secutive musical setting for the pie ture and it was not only pleasure to
 me to play it, but a pleasure to have my auditors tell me afterward that
 they enjoyed the music and felt that
 it added great deal to the picture.
 "The love theme in The Birth of a Nation," said MT. Hamrick, has be-
 come almost universal in it's popular
 ity; it is a beautiful thing, and, while
 the composer made a most execrable attempt in Intolerance to duplicate
 his success in The Birth of a Nation,'
 we will always like him for the love song which is truly beautiful.
 ''The love theme of picture-that is, the leit-motive, as it were, the
 phrase of music which is used throughout the picture, adopted some
 time ago; I heard Naughty Marietta,
 the pretty comic opera, several years
 ago, and was impressed then with the idea, and so when I began to play for