A browser app by Ed The Wave
Score any scene the way the silent-film pianists did.
Photoplayer turns the mood books of the 1910s and ’20s into a cue generator. Pick a mood or describe your scene, hear an orchestrated mock-up in seconds, and drag the MIDI straight into your DAW.
37 moods · 4 ensembles · 2,089 public-domain pieces analysed · No sign-up
A century of film-scoring craft
What it is
Before film had soundtracks, it had a pianist, an organist or a small pit orchestra reading the screen in real time. Their secret weapon was the mood book: Ernő Rapée’s Motion Picture Moods, the Sam Fox and Remick folios, Schirmer’s Photoplay Series. Each was a shelf of ready-made cues filed under Hurry, Agitato, Misterioso, Love Theme.
Photoplayer puts that shelf in your browser and makes it generative. Every cue is written fresh from the techniques those books taught: the diminished chords of a Storm, the tiptoe pizzicato of a Burglar scene, the rising sixth of a Love Theme. Then it’s orchestrated the way Rimsky-Korsakov taught and handed to you as MIDI. It’s a hundred years of film-scoring craft, in your DAW in under a minute.
The instrument
Take your seat at the keys.
Pick a mood, press Play, and hear your cue.
Preparing Photoplayer…
PHOTOPLAYER
A silent-film cue generator built on Ernő Rapée’s Motion Picture Moods (1924) and the Remick Folio of Moving Picture Music (Detroit, 1914). Pick a mood, hear a mock-up, take the MIDI to your DAW.
public-domain MIDI movements analysed
key colours after Nistico’s Fundamental Harmony
Click anywhere on the roll to play from that point. Space plays and stops; L toggles looping. Chord symbols run along the top; heavier lines mark each 8-bar phrase.
Parts
Cue Sheet
From scene to score
How it works
Name the scene.
Type what’s on screen (“the villain creeps up the stairs”) and Photoplayer suggests the mood, or pick one of 37 moods filed the way Rapée filed them: Action, Psychological, Atmosphere.
Hear the mock-up.
Set the key, length, tempo and ensemble, then press Play. Every take is new; hit New Take until one speaks to you. Loop it while you build around it.
Take it to your DAW.
Export a multi-track MIDI file with one part per instrument, plus tempo, meter, key and chord symbols. Drop it into Ableton, Logic, FL Studio or any DAW and put your own sounds on it.
Features
37 moods from the original books.
Hurry, Agitato, Misterioso, Storm, Love Theme, Funeral, Western, Detective, Nocturne and more, each built on the devices the period scores actually used.
Four ensembles.
A full symphony orchestra voiced after Rimsky-Korsakov, the nine-piece theatre orchestra printed on the Remick folio, a Mighty Wurlitzer-style theatre organ, or a solo photoplay pianist.
Themes drawn from the masters.
Melodies and progressions are adapted from 2,089 analysed public-domain pieces by Grieg, Chopin, Schubert, Beethoven, Burgmüller, Zamecnik and others, with every borrowing credited on screen.
Scene-to-mood suggestions.
Describe the shot in plain words and get the right cue type, from “stampede” to “court-martial” to “rain on the window”.
Key colour.
See what 18th- and 19th-century theorists heard in each key, with keys suggested to suit your mood.
Intensity that builds.
One slider thickens the orchestration phrase by phrase, from a whisper to full tutti.
Loop and cue sheet.
Loop a cue seamlessly for games, or chain scenes into a full reel and export it as one file with every tempo and key change in place.
Clean MIDI out.
One track per part, standard General MIDI instruments and chord symbols, ready for your own sample libraries.
The books behind the music
The lineage
Photoplayer stands on a specific shelf of books, and it tells you which page every idea came from.
Ernő Rapée, Motion Picture Moods (1924). The Capitol Theatre’s music director sorted 52 moods for pianists and organists, observing that film footage splits roughly into action, psychological situations and atmosphere. Photoplayer’s three reels follow him.
The Remick Folio of Moving Picture Music (Detroit, 1914). Over 100 short cues by J. Bodewalt Lampe, published with parts for violin, cello, bass, flute, clarinet, cornet, trombone and drums. That lineup is Photoplayer’s Theatre Orchestra.
Sam Fox Moving Picture Music (1913–1923). J. S. Zamecnik’s volumes, among the first music written specifically for film: Burglar Music, Hurry Music, Western Round-Up, Detective Scene.
Schirmer’s Photoplay Series (1915–1929). Seventy numbered cues by Langey, Minot, Borch, Savino and others, each labelled with its job: “Thunderstorm, a storm at sea, a riot”.
Rimsky-Korsakov, Berlioz and Clarke. The orchestration rules: oboe for the pastoral, low clarinet for mystery, bassoon for comedy, trombones for solemnity, and octave doublings when the tutti has to cut through.
The public-domain repertoire. Grieg, Chopin, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Burgmüller and hundreds more, analysed into motifs and progressions, many of them the same pieces Rapée told pianists to reach for.
The pianists of 1924 didn’t improvise from nothing. They drew on a lineage. Now you can too.
Who it’s for
- Producers and beatmakers who want cinematic material that doesn’t sound like every other sample pack: a minor-key Agitato under a breakbeat, a Misterioso as a horror-trap intro.
- Game and film composers who need a fast mock-up for a scene, or a loopable cue to build on.
- Silent-film accompanists and festival programmers who want period-correct sketches for a cue sheet.
- Teachers and students of harmony and orchestration who want to hear how mood, key and instrument choices change a scene, with the sources named.
FAQ
Do I need to install anything?
No. Photoplayer runs in any modern browser on desktop. No account, no plug-in.
Which DAWs does the MIDI work in?
Any DAW that imports standard MIDI files: Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Cubase, Reaper, Studio One, GarageBand. Each instrument arrives on its own track, already named.
Can I use the music in my own releases, games or films?
The cues are generated and the source repertoire is public domain or Creative Commons. Please check the applicable source credits and terms before publishing.
Why does the built-in playback sound basic?
The preview is a quick sketch so you can judge the writing. The real sound comes from your own instruments once the MIDI is in your DAW.
What does “Loopable” do?
It ends the cue on a half cadence, so it runs straight back into its opening. Pair it with the Loop button for game music or for building a track around a cue.
Your scene starts here
The pit orchestra is waiting.
Pick a mood, press Play, and take a century of film-scoring craft into your next track.
Open PhotoplayerBuilt by Ed The Wave in Detroit. Repertoire from The Mutopia Project and Wikimedia Commons (public domain and CC BY-SA). Mood headings after Rapée’s Motion Picture Moods (1924), the Remick Folio (1914), Sam Fox Moving Picture Music and Schirmer’s Photoplay Series. Key characters after Schubart, Pauer and Riemann, as collected in Daniel Nistico’s Fundamental Harmony.