Silent Film Music Cue Sheets

In the 1910s and 1920s, cue sheets for silent film provided suggestions to film accompanists for live music to use in film screenings. In addition to production information about a specific film, cue sheets include music titles, composers, lengths and timings, publisher information, and indications for when to use the music within the film.

Here, you’ll discover the diversity of music used to accompany action, horror, romance, drama, western, and comedy films from their beginnings. Find cue sheets for lost films, as well as handwritten annotations by piano accompanists like Ida V. Clarke, demonstrating the ways in which women shaped the film industry - and its music - from the beginning.

Instructions: The primary goal of transcribing cue sheets for silent film is to facilitate page-level discovery of titles, subjects, and the creators and publishers of the work through the Library's website. Musical notation and other non-textual markings are currently beyond the scope of this program. See our illustrated and downloadable How to Transcribe Cue Sheets for more help and examples

• Transcribe titles, tempo markings (Moderato, allegro, etc.), publication information, and ads.
• Transcribe text in the order it appears on the page.
• Preserve line breaks. If a word is broken across a line or page, transcribe it intact on the initial line where it appears.
• Do NOT transcribe musical notation - including time and key signatures or dynamic markings (f, p, cresc., dim., <, >, etc.)
• Do NOT transcribe hyphens (or melisma) within words.
• Do NOT transcribe excessive ellipses between text. If many ellipses are present, please only transcribe three of them.
• Do transcribe the text of illustrated title pages.
• Do transcribe handwritten notes and Library of Congress cataloging stamps as marginalia.