Música e imágenes hasta la llegada del cine. (Linterna mágica, armónica de cristal, fantasmagorías y teatro de sombras)

Abstract

The prehistory of talking movies where the coordination of moving images and sound is concerned, comprises a very extensive period of time of thousands of years stretching from the musical illustration of projected shadows as documented in Ancient China, up to practically the very dawn of cinematography, a technological advance unthinkable today more than ever without the contribution that music and sound have made to the so-called seventh art. This study sets out to offer an overall view of the history of continued human interest in capturing movement in sound and vision at the same moment in time, paying particular attention to certain technical achievements of some relevance (the magic lantern, the harmonic crystal, phantasmagories and the theatre of shadows) within the evolution that was to facilitate the birth of the "talkies". A simple introduction to a fascinating and modern world, that, from a purely musicological view is practically nonexistent today (the meagre and marginal bibliography available is the best evidence of that) and which requires new and more detailed studies to be done.