Query: a trip to the moon and new soundtracks--2 responses

From: *filmgene* <[email protected]>

I find that the choice of a musical score for a silent film is subordinate
to the authenticity and quality of the film's visual representation. Unless
there is clear evidence for an original score approved by the director, a
silent film is subject to a wide variety of choices for its accompaniment.
Indeed one of the strengths of silent film is its ability to take on
different coloration in its performance. Not unlike theatrical plays or
symphonic music which can be interpreted in a variety of ways, silent films
can, as they have since the day they were created, be  subtly reinterpreted
by succeeding generations.

Even upon original release, most silent films were routinely presented with
widely variable accompaniments. Indeed, Carl Dreyer preferred "the Passion
of Joan of Arc" to be presented without a score.

In any case, as long as the visual quality of the picture is authentic and
as close to the original as possible, the accompaniment can always be
switched off and replaced by another form of accompaniment.

Gene Stavis

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From: *Leo Enticknap* <[email protected]>

Jeffrey Masko writes:

"I'm curious what folks think about writing new scores for silent films,
especially when they use instrumentation
that did not exist when the film was first scored?"

It's an issue that's been ruminated about at least since Georgio Moroder
produced his infamous version of 'Metropolis', which was almost universally
condemned on provenance grounds (the instruments, style of music,
everything did not exist when the film was first scored).

My personal feeling is that if scores, recordings or other substantial
surviving information exists as to the music that was either intended to be
performed with a silent film contemporaneous with its original release or
endorsed or linked to the filmmakers in some way, then this should be
available. For example,I find it troubling that the recent BD publication
of 'The Birth of a Nation' did not include the Breil score, but did have
several contemporary ones. Likewise, the Reisenfeld score for 'Sunrise',
even though it was intended and conceived to showcase the audio technology
used to record and play it, is rarely heard in contemporary screenings.In
my projectionist days, I was on many occasions asked to show combined
prints (i.e. prints that had the Reisenfeld Movietone track on them) with
the sound muted and a live performer taking its place. As these scores
and/or recordings do give us important empirical data about the way in
which a film was originally received, I don't like it when they're
suppressed or if they were to be materially altered (e.g. if someone
decided to digitally monkey about with the Reisenfeld soundtrack and
reconstitute it into 5.1, which is now frequently done with DVDs and BDs of
films from the '50s onwards that were originally only released in a mono
mix).

But all that having been said, we can't stop new scores or musical
performances taking place, and neither would I want to. After all,
most performances of Beethoven's symphonies now take place using
instruments of a radically different design to those in use in the
composer's day. Shakespeare plays staged in contemporary settings rarely
attract criticism on authenticity grounds - the debate they precipitate is
usually about how well the change of time and/or place works as a metaphor.

Incidentally, it's not just silent films that are shown with live musical
performances. A friend was telling me the other day about screenings  of
'West Side Story' in New York in which a version of the final audio mix was
played with the orchestral and vocal tracks digitally edited out, and a
live performance took their place.

So in short, if people want to show, for example, 'The Passion of  Joan of
Arc' to The Doors' 'Light My Fire', let them, but such a performance will
say very little to anyone who is trying to understand how that film was
made and originally received immediately following its production. An
historian approaching the film as source and/or evidence should have the
research skills to work that out anyway, and so the two audiences will be
experiencing the film in two very different ways.

Leo