Theater organ in the context of "Silent movies"

A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of inter-title cards.

The term "silent film" is something of a misnomer, as these films were almost always accompanied by live sounds. During the silent era, which existed from the mid-1890s to the late 1920s, a pianist, theater organist—or even, in larger cities, an orchestra—would play music to accompany the films. Pianists and organists would play either from sheet music, or improvisation. Sometimes a person would even narrate the inter-title cards for the audience. Though at the time the technology to synchronize sound with the film did not exist, music was seen as an essential part of the viewing experience. "Silent film" is typically used as a historical term to describe an era of cinema prior to the invention of synchronized sound, but it also applies to such sound-era films as City Lights, Modern Times and Silent Movie which are accompanied by a music-only soundtrack in place of dialogue.

The vox humana (from Latin 'human voice'; Spanish and Portuguese: voz humana; French: voix humaine; Italian: voce umana, also a term for a celeste stop, q.v.) is a short-resonator reed stop on the pipe organ, so named because of its supposed resemblance to the human voice. As a rule, the stop is used with a tremulant, which undulates the wind supply, causing a vibrato effect. The vox humana is intended to evoke the impression of a singing choir or soloist, though the success of this intent depends as much upon the acoustics of the room in which the organ speaks as it does the voicing of the pipes. It is almost invariably at 8 ft pitch, though on theater organs it is not uncommon to encounter a chorus of vox humana stops unified at 16 ft, 8 ft and occasionally 4 ft pitch on the Great manual and 8 ft and 4 ft pitch on the Accompaniment manual.

The vox humana is one of the oldest reeds in organ building, based on its appearance in very early instruments. It is common on French classical organs in the 17th and 18th centuries, where it was used as a solo voice. The vox humana also appears on German and Dutch organs of the period, though not as frequently as in France. French organs in the 19th and 20th centuries almost invariably featured a voix humaine in the Récit (the most commonly enclosed division of the French romantic organ), though by this time the literature had evolved and it was used to play rich, harmonic chordal progressions. Many American organs built in the romantic style include a vox humana in order to facilitate the playing of this literature.