Musical
Magic lantern slides belonging to the musical genre are defined as having four specific properties: (1) orientation to the professional lanternist market; (2) the social context of public exhibition involving public interaction; (3) high scenic complexity —the slides were designed to be shown with the reading of printed texts supplied by the manufacturer, a vocal performance and / or musical accompaniment; and (4) the use of contents of the musical and lyrical literary traditions. According to the variability of the musical work used, and to the combination of the auxiliary formal languages involved in the final mise en scene, lyrical genre slides can be grouped into three subjects: song, anthem and hymn.
– Song magic lantern slides were inspired by or adapted from an admired song, which expressed a range of topics, from a satirical or elegiac emotion, to didactic moral teaching.
– Magic lantern slides with hymns were inspired by or adapted from musical texts, which tended to exalt and praise religious issues.
– Magic lantern slides with anthems were inspired by or adapted from musical texts, which were used as a symbol for a distinct group, and often tended to exalt national issues.
These slides had the texts inserted into the image itself, and they were synchronously screened with an individual singer, or with a choral performance inviting the active participation of this audience in the hall, with or without musical accompaniment.
Musical
Magic lantern slides belonging to the musical genre are defined as having four specific properties: (1) orientation to the professional lanternist market; (2) the social context of public exhibition involving public interaction; (3) high scenic complexity —the slides were designed to be shown with the reading of printed texts supplied by the manufacturer, a vocal performance and / or musical accompaniment; and (4) the use of contents of the musical and lyrical literary traditions. According to the variability of the musical work used, and to the combination of the auxiliary formal languages involved in the final mise en scene, lyrical genre slides can be grouped into three subjects: song, anthem and hymn.
– Song magic lantern slides were inspired by or adapted from an admired song, which expressed a range of topics, from a satirical or elegiac emotion, to didactic moral teaching.
– Magic lantern slides with hymns were inspired by or adapted from musical texts, which tended to exalt and praise religious issues.
– Magic lantern slides with anthems were inspired by or adapted from musical texts, which were used as a symbol for a distinct group, and often tended to exalt national issues.
These slides had the texts inserted into the image itself, and they were synchronously screened with an individual singer, or with a choral performance inviting the active participation of this audience in the hall, with or without musical accompaniment.
Title
Title genre magic lantern slides include visual contents such as signs, inscriptions or decorative elements that served to lead, announce transitions, or finish any of the projected stories during the magic lantern shows. Magic lantern slides within the title genre genre include the chromotoscopic subgenre. Chromotoscopic magic lantern slides are defined as having two specific properties in addition to the sign genre: a cyclical format and the creation of their images by pictorial and / or printing techniques.
Title
Title genre magic lantern slides include visual contents such as signs, inscriptions or decorative elements that served to lead, announce transitions, or finish any of the projected stories during the magic lantern shows. Magic lantern slides within the title genre genre include the chromotoscopic subgenre. Chromotoscopic magic lantern slides are defined as having two specific properties in addition to the sign genre: a cyclical format and the creation of their images by pictorial and / or printing techniques.
Sequential art
Magic lantern slides assigned to the sequential art genre contain short series of drawings that make up a story –with or without text— inspired either by oral tradition, (without a recognized author and with multiple versions that match in structure but differ in details), or by the adaptation of brief narratives from the literary tradition, or by the printed graphic tradition of comic strips and cartoons (which had known authors and usually existed in a single version).