In this second Milestones of the Millennium feature, commentator, film music scholar, critic and educator Royal S. Brown joins Performance Today host Martin Goldsmith to talk about the development of original music for motion pictures, from the silent era to the present.

As Brown notes, music has been associated with the movies since the beginning. During the 19th century, theaters used scores of recommended music which were performed live as accompaniment to the action. Since "talkies" first arrived, film scores have often been integral, if not indispensable, in setting the proper atmosphere, mood and tempo for a film and its narrative. It’s hard to imagine "Star Wars" without John Williams’ triumphant score supporting the protagonists in their intergalactic struggles against evil. Brown is certainly not alone in finding Bernard Herrmann's shrieking violins in Hitchcock’s "Psycho" more terrifying than the image of the weapon in the famous shower scene.

The Silent Era brought landmark early film scores including the first score ever written for a movie: "The Assassination of the Duke of Guise" by French composer Camille Saint-Saens. Royal and Martin also touch on the movie "New Babylon" by Dmitri Shostakovich, Max Steiner's music for the 1933 film "King Kong," and the final scene of "Alexander Nevsky," a movie by Sergei Eisenstein with music by Sergei Prokofiev.

Regarding Classic film scores, Brown discusses Steiner's "Gone with the Wind," "The Sea Hawk" by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the film noir classic "Double Indemnity" by Miklos Rozsa, as well as the gentle music Elmer Bernstein wrote for "To Kill a Mockingbird." Finally, Brown covers the modern era, including Danny Elfman's "Batman" score, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" by Ennio Morricone, John Corigliano's music for "Altered States," and the surprising score for "Koyaanisquatsi" by Philip Glass.

Hear Royal Brown and Performance Today host Martin Goldsmith discuss great film scores throughout the past century on this Milestones of the Millennium. Note: some music parts have been edited from the commentary because of internet rights issues. "Great Film Music" is the second installment of PT's new Milestones of the Millenium series.

In conjunction with Performance Today's Milestones of the Millennium series, a companion CD series is available from Sony Classical™.