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Silent Film Music Navigation: |
1. A
short history of silent film music 2. A short list of silent films 3. A manifesto of sorts |
Silent films were never silent. During the period that we call the Silent Film Era films were always (or with rare exceptions) shown with a musical backing, everything from a single pianist or organist to an entire symphonic orchestra. Numerous attempts, including succesful ones, were made to synchronise sound tracks with films. Films weren't made then to be shown and watched in silence any more than they are today.
And not only did musicians play written or improvised music to films, there existed numerous contraptions to provide sound effects to the movie theatre performances. Sometimes a musician would have an assistant whose only job it was to work the sound effects machine.
To show silent films without music is unhistorical. To have appropriate, well made music played along with the film is as important, if not more so, as it is to have the most complete copy availabled, to screen the film at the correct speed.
There is also something to be said on the practice of having musicians performing live to a motion picture performance, rather than to make copies with recorded soundtracks on the film. To have live music at a screening is to recreate the way in which these films were originally shown and watched, and allows the musical soundtrack to move with the times, to bridge the gap of years that separate the present time from the one in which these films were made.
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A dark, gritty view of postwar Vienna, where the lives a couple of young women are wrecked by starvation, greed and financial speculation. The film features a young Greta Garbo in one of the female leads. The orchestra premiered a new score in october 2002, which is soon to be released on record.
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Included in the repertoire are scores for many silent films, including the Swedish classics "The Phantom Carriage" and "Sir Arne's Treasure", Pabst's "The Joyless Street", Christiansen's "Häxan" and others, with more films being being scored at the moment. However, the orchestra also specializes in improvising music for silent film performances. [musical rendition available on video] |
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One of the earliest films with only female leads, Norrtullsligan is about a group of working women sharing an apartment in Stockholm. The orchestra premiered a score to this film in Berlin in 2002.
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One of the few true expressionist films made outside Germany, Page of Madness is a brilliant chiaroscuro about a a tragic love story confined to an insane asylum. A score is being prepared for this very interesting film during 2003.
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One of the most remarkable films of the silent era. A very expensive film at the time, it is a socio-historical essay on the subject of the medieval witch hunts. Parallels are drawn to the mass hysteria of modern times. Passionate and obsessed, feature film and documentary, it has been compared to the paintings of Breughel.
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The orchestra plans to premier a new score for this film at the October 2003 Victor Sjöström Retrospective in Stockholm.
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[coming soon]