This collection of essays explores the many and varied ways in which composers have been depicted on the cinema screen. Beginning with some of the very earliest silent films examples – which were amongst the first feature-length “bio-pics” ever to be produced, these essays range in subject from the 12th century abbess, Hildegard of Bingen, through the great classical and romantic eras of Verdi, Wagner, Berlioz and Strauss, up to the 20th century, Elgar, Delius, Gershwin and Blitzstein.