3 Cultural and Technical Factors

The conditions for differentiated sound composition were created with the arrival of magnetic multitrack formats, which became prevalent in the early 1950s. In contrast to traditional mono optical sound, these methods had a wider frequency range at their disposal. Above all, however, multichannel technology enabled the sound objects to be broken down, so that — in contrast to mono formats — they now no longer lay masked on one axis. The result was not only heightened acoustic spatial illusions, but also the creation of more complex sound spheres.

It is interesting to note that these improved technical possibilities were hardly used at the time. Instead, sound composition for films continued to be dominated by a stylized use of for the most part stereotypical sounds. Exceptions to this were Spartacus (US, 1960, directed by Stanley Kubrick) and Lawrence of Arabia (GB/US, 1962, directed by David Lean). For Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (US, 1963), Oskar Sala synthetically created the penetrating cries of the birds on a trautonium.