Editing Max Steiner (section)

===Realistic and background music===
When adding a music score to a picture, Steiner used a "spotting process" in which he and the director of the film would watch the film in its entirety and discuss where underscoring of [[diegesis|diegetic]] music would begin and end.<ref name="history" />{{rp|138}} Another technique Steiner used was the mixing of realistic and background music. For example, a character humming to himself is realistic music, and the orchestra might play his tune, creating a background music effect that ties into the film. Steiner was criticized for this technique as the awareness of the film music can ruin the narrative illusion of the film;<ref name="reader" />{{rp|88–89}} however, Steiner understood the importance of letting the film take the spotlight, making the music, "subordinate..to the picture," stating that, "if it gets too decorative, it loses its emotional appeal."<ref name="gorbman" />{{rp|97}} Before 1932, producers of [[sound film]]s tried to avoid the use of background music, because viewers would wonder where the music was coming from.<ref name="gorbman">{{cite book |last1=Gorbman |first1=Claudia |title=Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music |date=1987 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington, Indiana |isbn=0253339871 |url=https://archive.org/details/unheardmelodiesn00gorb }}</ref>{{rp|54}} Steiner was known for writing using atmospheric music without melodic content for certain neutral scenes in music. Steiner designed a melodic motion to create normal-sounding music without taking too much attention away from the film.<ref name="reader" />{{rp|91}} In contrast, Steiner sometimes used diegetic, or narrative based music, in order to emphasize certain emotions or contradict them. According to Steiner, there is, "no greater counterpoint ... than gay music underlying a tragic scene or vice versa."<ref name="gender" />{{rp|70}}