Musicology and the Presentation of Silent Film Author(s): Philip C. Carli Source: Film History, Vol. 7, No. 3, Film Preservation and Film Scholarship (Autumn, 1995), pp. 298-321 Published by: Indiana University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3815096 . Accessed: 15/06/2011 09:01

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http://www.jstor.org FilmHistory, Volume 7, pp. 298-321, 1995. Copyright?John Libbey& Company ISSN:192-2160. Printedin GreatBritain

Ir i ilof-

PhilipC. Carli

Mus lusicologists, musicians and film those of my musicologicaland filmcolleagues, but scholarsare, to a large extent, un- with modernstandards of taste and scholarshipas aware of theirinteraction and com- well. My irrepressiblypopulist loves fight intellec- mon ground in silent film/music tually with my scholarly training and instinctive restoration.The aesthetic of the performeris strong sense of qualityand artisticworth, so thatwriting in both a person playing for a silent film and a thispaper has been a monumentaleffort in produc- persondescribing, restoring or presentinga silent ing a text that is both compatiblewith my pref- film, and there are points where personal aes- erences and a considered studyof the subjectat theticscollide or have differingagendas. Personal hand. taste in silent film accompanimentis as decided Thebest termfor my aesthetic approach to film and strongas a love of chocolate or a hatredof accompaniment,given the two threads I have to pickled beets, and often considered to be as un- reconcile, is 'scholarly emotionalism'. In truth, communicable;however, the passionate antipa- emotionalismdrives much historio/aestheticcriti- thies expressed to particularfilms or the music cism, as the fiction writer'sdictum 'write about associated with themoften involvespartial educa- what you know' translatesto scholarlywriting's tion. Musicologistsfeel certain films are stinkers 'write about what you care about'. In scholarly without realizing the differing culturaland aes- etiquette, however, footnotes are normally theticcriteria peculiar to differentschools of film- preferredto enthusiasticjudgements of taste. Bear making, and film scholars hate certain scores with me. This paper seeks to delineate instances withoutunderstanding their period effectiveness or where musicalscholarship, alongside of taste and theirappeal in differentperformance approaches. physical materials, may be of help in under- In termsof presentation,this conflictof educated standing,presenting and preservingsilent film. tastes can interferewith mutualagreement, to the The issue of personaltaste is becoming more detrimentof the performedproduct. importantas the numberof silentfilm presentations This article is a synthesisof many of my re- and venues for filmaccompaniment grows. Fifteen searches and interestswith a look at trendsin the years ago, silentfilm screenings were uncommon, accompanimentof silentfilms. It is notstrictly about and elaborate musical accompaniments even musicologyand film historyper se, because the two disciplineshave so manyfeatures in common, and these featuresin turnoverlap into less clearly markedterritories of musicin general and film in general. At base, historio-aestheticdisciplines that work with performancearts have muchcommon ground.As an historicalperformer, I mustadmit to personaltastes that not only conflictat times with MusicologyMuiooyadth and the presentationrsnainofsln of silent film im9 299 rarer.Now, the presentationof a silent film with the culturethat originally produced silent films, and live musicalaccompaniment is stilla 'special occa- we could be forced to overplaya few 'box office' sion', butmore on the accountof expense or venue films through sheer economics. In point of fact, than actual scarcity. Therehave been panels on there is stillno way to effectivelyconvince a mod- film accompaniment,festivals with special atten- ern general audience of the viabilityof the 'little tion to the pairingof musicand image (Cinemem- pictures'that made up the bulkof silentfilm produc- oire, Paris; the Strasbourg Film Festival), and tion and which constitutethe largestgroup of ex- festivals which make the most of special 'guest' tant materials; modern audiences not only rely accompanists(Bill Pence and the Telluridefestival; upon a certain element of star recognition(Lon the Pordenonefestival)1. Chaney, GretaGarbo, DouglasFairbanks) but on Silentfilm has resurgedto the point where it an expectationof being dazzled in some way. Itis has become verynearly a majorperformance form much easier to sell a grotesque fantasy such as again, an exercise where money, reputationsand Phantomof the Opera (1925), or even a lesser egos can be made to an appreciable extent knownadventure film like Old Ironsides(1926) or (thoughit is still hard to make a living at it). This The Sea Hawk (1926), than a smaller-scalepro- comes through in the sheer number of perfor- ductionlike SmoulderingFires (1925) or Regener- mances each year2 and in the dependence of cer- ation (1915) (questions of rarity aside). Is the tain venues on silent film presentationswith live upsurgein silentfilm presentations an encouraging musicas a noveltyor a special event. Many sym- sign of greater cultural awareness among the phonyorchestras now have one or moresilent film cinema- and symphony-going public, or will it eventseach year, a situationwhich simplydid not prove merely a novelty, to be pursueduntil the exist ten years ago. short attentionspan of the audience is sated or Some of these events take advantage of the exhausted- a situationeven more transientthan performancehalls of these orchestras,of which a that governing film presentationsin the 1920s, growing numberare revampedmotion picture pal- when the productindividually was used and imme- aces3. The special occasion natureof having live diately discarded? The collaborativeabilities of musicis not the only attraction;deeper, perhapsis film and music specialists may well bear on the the sense of seeing 'how it was done' - an extinct answerto thisquestion. format brought forward for public view again. The presentationand interpretationof silent People have a strong urge to see 'vanished' or film has been hampered by numeroustechnical obsolete activitiesthat were once everyday.Thou- problemsand inadequacies in projectionprints; sands of people attend 'living museums'like Stur- forthe mostpart, the attitudehas necessarilybeen bridge Village in Massachusetts, Greenfield 'you'relucky to see it at all'. To that end, the pro- Village, Michigan, Colonial Williamsburg,Virgi- cess of restorationhas two purposes:(a) to arrest nia, and the Genesee CountryMuseum in western decompositionand preservea filmfrom vanishing New Yorkevery year. entirely,which sometimesmeans thatthe resultant Buildinga new audience foran older medium copy is of mixedvisual quality, and (b) to preserve througha combinationof nostalgia, noveltyand the work in the formclosest to its original release supportivecreativity (in the formof liveaccompani- format. ment) is not without obstacles, however. One Restoringa film is in many ways more like danger arising fromthe new interestin silentfilm, restoringa musicalwork than restorationin other because of its new economic viability,is that the art forms. In paintingand sculpture,for the most films presentedare expected to have immediate part,what you see is what you have to workwith, audience recognitionin some capacity in orderto a matterof filling in the blanksand cleaning up fillthe theatreand pay fortheir presentation (unlike what is already present;and you have from the culturalactivities whose supportis almostentirely start an extremely limited number of physical based on sources beyond ticketsales). Therewill source materials.The difficultyin film is that you be an ever more limitednumber of filmswith this have, fromthe start,myriads of people interfering qualityas we grow furtherand furtheraway from withthe outcomeof the final product,from screen- 300 Philip C. Carli

contemporarypaintings in better condition than the one you are workingon, cleaning and remov- ing varnishes,repairing deterior- ation due to chemical alteration or decompositionof the painter's materials.The means of judging the cumulativeeffect of a restora- tion, the combinationof all ele- ments mentionedthus far, is like restoringa musicalcomposition - the effect cannot be properly judged except in a performance venue with the work actively in use, and (except in rarefied in- stances)in itseffect upon an audi- ence. In many ways, this last is mostimportant. Musicians are specializing in reconstructingand composing scores for restored silent films. One interesting aspect of the renewed interestin silentfilm and film music comes in the form of festivals where the differingap- proaches to film appreciation throughmusic are combined:rec- onstructionsof original scores, compilationsin the mannerof the original scores, and completely new scores thatowe littlein their approach to earlier models. The exploration of new methods of Fig. 1. GillianAnderson. [Photo: Claire Flanders.] filmaccompaniment has become a matterof hotdebate and strong writerto director,thence to the editorand the print- emotions comparable in some cases to the emo- ing lab, and once it has emerged fromproduction tions engendered by the filmsthemselves. The Por- it is in the handsof distributors,censors, exhibitors, denone SilentFilm Festival (Le giornate del cinema and (witholder films)collectors. Any or all of these muto)has made a specialityof invitingmusicians can altercontent or structure. to bring both period and contemporary ap- Theproblems inherent in restoringmotion pic- proaches to silent film accompaniment,and it is tures each have parallels in restorationof other fascinating that two camps have not arisen. In- media, however. Establishing a 'final' format stead, with those who take a stronginterest4, each when only limitedsource materialsare at hand is filmand its musichas been approachedas an indi- ratherlike the workof literaryscholarship in recon- vidualcase; some thingswork, and othersdo not. structingElizabethan dramas from extant printed Divisionis not made according to whetherit is the and manuscriptmaterials. Working with the visual originalmusic or not, butis based on whetherwhat elementscan be likenedto the cleaning and resto- emanates fromthe pit complementsand enhances ration of paintings, determining pigments from the images on the screen. Because of its refresh- Musicology and the presentation of silent film 301

ingly experimentalattitude, Por- denone has commissioneda few of the worst accompaniments I have ever heard - and many of the best as well. As an historicalmusician, I will begin by considering the preparationof scores using orig- inal materials or methods. The two principalmusicians who re- vive the orchestral accompani- ment practices used in the pre-talkieera are the conductors Gillian Anderson and Donald Hunsberger.Anderson prefers to takea score as itappeared, com- plete, and then to adapt the film to fit, the underlying principle being not merelythat both score and film should correspond exactly in length, but that the musicoriginally used is an inte- gral partof the originalfilm, and thusa primaryresource in trying to recreatewhat people saw. Her approachhas producedsome re- markable and aesthetically re- warding performances, espec- ially when both score and film evince complementary care, taste and craftsmanship.Huns- berger uses cue sheets as practi- cal models, and often creates his own cue sheets and scores for Fig. 2. DonaldHunsberger. films,taking the filmgiven as the productto be fittedin a mannersuperior to itsorig- cal aesthetics'. The year 1915 also marked the inalaccompaniments. Thus he defines the filmand appearance of Vachel Lindsay'sArt of the Moving its musicas separate entities. Picture5,which is principallyan aesthetictext, but The academic disciplines of musicologyand its authorshipby a noted high-culturalfigure ac- film scholarship are (perhaps surprisingly)near knowledgedthat motionpictures were an art form contemporaries.The word 'musicology'is gener- worthyof seriousacademic and criticalattention. ally conceded to have appeared in 1915, in the Musicology seems a more likely partnerfor firstissue of the Musical Quarterly,which articu- film scholarshipthan many other disciplines be- lated in magazine formatwhat had been regarded cause bothdeal withperformance arts. Music, ulti- in scholarlycircles as a branchof antiquarianism. mately, is meaninglesswithout someone to hear it Thecurrent Webster's definition lists it as 'the scho- other than the performer;likewise, film has no larly or scientificstudy of music, as in historical meaningwithout an audience besides its makers. research, musical theory, the physical nature of Manyof the same scholarlytechniques used in one sound, etc'. To these disciplinesI would add 'musi- disciplinemay be applied to the otherwith equal 302 302 Philip C. Carli Philip Carli~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ success. In recentyears several elementshave en- cal performances,and also a great increasein the tered musicological training that make it a study of 'vernacular'and less easily classifiable broader, and in many cases more tactile, field. musics than the traditionalEuropean-based art Semiological and deconstructionisttheory has musicrepertory. For instance, in the UnitedStates, found its way into musicologyas it has into film Americanmusic in general and the 'business'of studies.Cultural history, the impactof musicupon public music-makingat the turnof the centuryre- its audiences, and the audience's feedback into ceived greater scrutinyand emphasiswithin edu- musicalgenres, is the strongestmovement in musi- cational institutionsthan previously, as well as cology to-day. These elements have been major studies of personalitieswhose compositionsand facets of film historiographyfor some time, but performancesencapsulated social trends(such as have also gained greater importancethere in the JohnPhilip Sousa and ScottJoplin). last fifteenyears. Studiessuch as CharlesMusser's The resultof such studies is that ratherthan Beforethe Nickelodeon, with theirdirect examin- lookingfor the 'greatAmerican masterpiece', com- ation of culturalinfluences upon the creationand positionsand performancemedia are now being creatorsof films(in his case, EdwinS. Porter)have evaluatedon a morecontextual footing. This is not directcorollaries in Jane Fulcher'sstudy of French to say thatwe can ever fullycapture the appeal or grand opera and contemporaryFrench politics6 artisticexcitement of musicalworks that were the and RalphLocke's and CyrillaBarr's collection of emotionaland artisticproperty of a recognizable essays on how women patronsshaped American butstill distant society, butwe can at least fit them attitudesto art musicat the turnof the century7. into a larger picturethat may allow us to under- Musicologistshave only begun looking at si- standthe contentbetter. Some of the contextsnow lentfilm accompaniment and its practiceas a legit- underexploration are: a countrywhere practically imatescholarly pursuit within the last fifteenyears. every town and village was proudto have a wind What publicationsexisted that examined the music band; the upper-classintellectual stimulus and ar- performedwith silent filmswere few and, on the tisticpatronage of Bostonand New York;and the musicalside, were the workof enthusiast/scholars commercialdrive and recklessenergy of vernacu- ratherthan academics, with a very few except- larperformers from bordello parlours to Broadway ions8.There were a few publicationsfrom the film pitorchestras. side; if not studies,at least importanttexts from the With the increasinglyeclectic trendin histori- silentera were reprintedin the 1970s by the Arno cal and aestheticstudies, many more film scholars Press in conjunctionwith the Museumof Modern than previouslyare also showing interestin the Art and the New York Times, including Erno musicalside of silentfilm presentation, and some Rapee's two principal works, Encyclopedia of of these scholarsare able to encourage a recipro- Music for Motion Pictures and Motion Picture cal interestin silent film among musicians. Like- Moods for Pianistsand Organists(both originally wise, it seems that musiciansare makinginroads publishedin 1925). These works, as well as the into communicatingtheir viewpoints to their film enthusiast books (some of which, such as Ben colleagues, with, once again, mutuallybeneficial Hall'sclassic The Best RemainingSeats9, are still results. My own experience as a musical scho- invaluablemodern sources) provided accessibility lar/performerand a filmscholar exemplifies this. to materialsthat provedvery helpfulto those who Few of my musicologycolleagues at the Eastman startedexamining what Rapee'stexts and the jour- School of Musichad any knowledge of silentfilm nalistic data of musicians in cinemas actually in anythingbut a cursoryfashion before I came as meantwhen puttogether with films. a student;the only personwho had done any work Theupsurge in this kindof worktook place as with silentfilm was Donald Hunsberger,who had a great change began coming through musico- curtailedhis activitieslocally as a silent filmcon- logy, a diversificationof scholarlyapproaches to ductorto focus on buildinghis nationalreputation the questions inherent in studying musical aes- (which he has done, much to his credit). At the theticsand history.Notable among these was the same time, my colleagues at the George Eastman upswingin examiningsocial ramificationsof musi- Housein the MotionPicture Department were puz- Musicology and the presentation of silent film 303 zled at firstby a practicingmusician who not only only demonstratesthe subject'snew academic le- accompaniedsilent films but was passionateabout gitimacy, but also points the way for educating the filmmedium on itsown merits.But they immedi- practicing professional musicians, thus building ately recognized the value of an extrafilm trained both a pool of performersand a new audience scholarin the contextof filmstudies and preserva- withan informedcritical stance. tion work. It is particularlyapt at the Eastman Tastesand knowledge have changed consid- House,for no one in theMotion Picture Department erably in the past eighty-fiveyears, and there is a was originallyschooled as a film scholar; each conflictin filmmusic circles as to whetherto follow came from other academic disciplines, applying the originalscore or cue sheetl' foraccompanying them to film. Over the years, both the Eastman a film,thus presenting it in as nearlyas possible its House and the EastmanSchool of Music have 'original presentation',or adapting the score to shown greater interestin each other's activities more modernaural tastes in orderto help the film and agendas, and indeed Paolo Cherchi Usai, bridge the gap of time and be more readily ac- Senior Curatorof the EastmanHouse MotionPic- cessible to a differentviewing culture. Any element ture Department,wishes to increase the ties be- of popularculture dates itselfand becomes an arti- tween the two institutionsboth intellectuallyand factwith the passage of time,but in some ways film publicly. and music have aged in differentways because Social and culturalstudies are now a very hot differingcultural assessments have been imposed itemin Americanmusicology (and increasinglyin upon them. Photographytends to produce an in- Europeanmusicology), and the studyof filmmusic, tense impression of realism, and presenting a for bothsilent and soundfilms, fits perfectlywithin drama on film gives it an air of veracity- and this framework.Two Americanmusicologists who specific location- far beyond that achievable by have devoted considerable effort to examining any othermedium. A filmmade in 1915 will notbe (and performing)silent film musicare GillianAn- confused with a film made in 1995, simply be- derson and MartinMarks. Anderson is in many cause of productionvalues that are apparentin the ways the perfectexample of a scholarpractitioner, photographed background. Thereforean audi- in that she has not only writtenextensively in aca- ence is visuallydiscouraged from applying the aes- demic journalson the musicused by cinema musi- thetic values of 1995. The sense of nostalgia cians, but has reconstructed and conducted evoked by the unavoidablevisual dating of a film performancesof the originalaccompanying music usuallyhelps a naYveaudience to bridgethe gap of for fourteenfilms. As presidentof the SonneckSo- generations,and to attempt,at least, to follow the ciety, the musicologicalorganization devoted to narrativeas it is presented. the studyof aspects of musicin the UnitedStates, The effect of conservative'highbrow' culture Ms. Andersonorganized and chaired an interdis- on the consumption of the relatively abstract ciplinarysession on film music for the Society's 'classical'music still canonized in 1995 is an over- 1995 national conference; the participants in- whelmingimpression that standard musical works cludedpopular culture scholar Philip Tagg fromthe have remainedconstant - on a superficiallevel - Universityof Liverpool(UK), film and literaryscho- despite the passage of ninetyyears. Withoutcon- larClaudia Gorbman from Indiana University, and crete clues to past musicalexpectations, it is as- filmmusic composer David Raksin.Martin Marks, sumed that the passage from Tchaikovskyfirst professorof musicologyat MIT(Massachusetts In- quoteda filmscore in 1910 is 'the same' passage stituteof Technology),has often accompanied si- as it is heardtoday, even thoughthe mentalears of lent films as a pianist in the Boston area, in the past audience were as different from ours addition to publishingthe most extensive single today as a Locomobilelimousine from a Lexus.The studyof the aestheticsand practice pertainingto natureof thatdifference is at the centreof musico- silentfilm music, using specific scores as individual logical attentionnow. case studies (includingJoseph Carl Breil'scom- On the one hand, the argumenthas been put piled score for The Birthof a Nation10).This in- forwardthat the average Americanfilmgoing audi- crease in scholarlyinterest in silentfilm musicnot ence in 1910 was more widely educated in ca- 304 Philip C. Carli

..-.. -,_- Iq Shakespeare was popu- .tt ''.-.. - culture in the sense .,-.. : :lar u,, /' that it was to be L\: v4 I^X^6-vs expected . . i s ; part of a middle-class ' - . t.. i ;t, 1.. "'- :':- education and .. l". :.. :~. enjoyed W Z ?I. .. i! as entertainment,while at ./.-a el.:Xp *' L eathesame timeproviding a morally and artistically otoPh..FS.... , :'; ouplifting experience; O e o meanwhile, the same h hd audience enjoying Sha- kespeare on the boards and on the screen prob- ably could identify a Rossini overture better than modern audi- ences 4. The turn-of-the- century audience also made the operatic tenor Enrico Caruso a house- hold name not so much because of his American stage performances, but because of his recor- dings, several of which sold in the millions.The di- vision of cultural enter- tainmentinto 'highbrow' and 'lowbrow' was less defined at the turnof the century,and the attitudes Fig. 3. MissLulu Belt (1921 ). LoisWilson, Ethel Wale a, Ma6elVan Buren pervading other perfor- and TheodoreRoberts. mance arts such as music [GeorgeEastman House/Intemtional Museum of Photogropl,y and Film.] and drama naturallyfol- lowed into early attitudes nonic literaryand musical'masterworks' than the towardsfilm and filmmaking. average 1994 audience, includingShakespeare's On the other hand, 'highbrow'people to-day plays'2. WilliamUricchio and RobertaPearson, in have had deeper acquaintance with the musical their study of the Vitagraph'quality' one-reelers, 'masterworks'- manynow become musical'work- express a certainamount of surprisethat their re- horses'- throughrecorded media, the contempor- search indicatedthe wide familiarityof manyseg- ary classical radio station,and the emergence of ments of the American public with so-called more opera companies than was possible at the 'high-art'cultural figures such as Shakespeareas turnof the century,when first-handknowledge of partof theireveryday lives, and that in fact 'mem- opera was distinctlylimited as comparedwith rec- bers of all social formationswould thus have had ordings and excerpts. Passages that were once intertextualframes for making sense of the 'quality' heard as allusions to elevated art are now con- films, even though some would have been more sidered barbaricallydetached cliches. The dislike widespread than others and some would have of the original score evinced by some scholars is been more culturallysanctioned than others'3. based on the differencebetween the public once MusicologyMuiooyadtepeetaino and the presentation of silentietfl film 3050 knowinga littleof everythingand the public now what constitutestheir ultimate worth (if such a thing knowing a lot about certain things. There is no exists), instead of insightsinto the specific culture auditorycue, with most reconstructedlive accom- thatproduced them. Music, therefore, is especially paniments,to invitea naive modernaudience to preyto being consideredas non-contextual.In film listento pastichescores with any otherthan 1995 scoring,this approach works well forfilms that are expectations. mythicor highly romanticized,films that do not Meanwhile, some people find the sound depend uponculture-specific references in orderto quality of early recorded scores, no matterhow make their dramatic points. The hallucinatory well preserved,objectionable for nearlyopposite world of Wiene's Cabinetof Dr. Caligari(1919), reasons; they specifically date the object and the exaggerated symbolic aestheticismof I'Her- remove the timelessquality which many scholars bier's Rose-France(1917), or the romanticlong- and criticsfeel to be the supremeattribute of any ings of Borzage's LuckyStar (1929) can accept 'great' artwork- its universalapplication to any many differing and often contradictorymusical generation, no matter its cultural background. treatments,because they subjugatetheir few direct PaoloCherchi Usai, who has perhapsthe strongest referencesto the businessof ordinaryliving in Ger- opinions about the musicalaccompaniment of si- many,France and Americato the overall'timeless' lentfilms among the Pordenonecommittee, worries tone of the film.A good composercan seize upon about dating the filmtoo specificallyby elements such a film's salient point and illuminateit in a (suchas transfernoise) that he and manyof the film modernfashion, thus speaking directlyto a mod- communityfind old-fashioned in a destructiveway. ern audience in its own aurallanguage. The differentvaluation of 'old-fashioned'- Most silent film, however, is highly culture- positive as applied to photographedelements of specific, and to deny in the scores the stereotypes setting,negative as applied to auditoryqualities - and conventionsinherent in every productionfrom suggests several culturalassumptions relating to every countryis a riskybusiness. Gussieing-upa music and sound, some of which will be con- filmwith a new score is not likeperforming Shakes- sidered at length below. The first, that the poor peare in moderndress. Theworks of Shakespeare fidelityof worn early recordings,especially those and otherclassic dramatistshave been redefined made mechanically,distracts the ear as well as through generations of European reception in dating the sound, certainlyis understandable.Bat- termsof timeless merit.American mass-audience tered copies of film are visuallyobjectionable in productionswhose plotsare intimatelytied up with much the same way, and the contemporaryre- specificsof a deliberatelyrecognizable, narrowly sponse to early synchronizedscores suggests that defined culturalschematic cannot always stand audiences of the period found the distortionsun- suchtreatment. pleasant. This objection only applies to modern WilliamdeMille's Miss LuluBett (1921) pro- presentationsusing early recorded materials,of vides an example of a filmwhose emotionaland course,and is one of the reasonsthat synchronized narrativethemes derive in part from a specific scores have not been used at Pordenone even time, place and mannerof thinking.The tale of a when they are available. I would plead that this gentlewoman downtrodden by herinsensitive fam- reason alone, however, shouldnot be considered ily has immediateresonances that transcend cultu- sufficientto bar all synchronizedscores fromscho- ral specifics, as a story, but the film's character larlyattention. motivationsand the specifics of this familial un- Thesecond assumptionwas brieflyreferred to healthinessderive from American small-town life in above - that a great work of art should be ex- the first twenty years of the century. There are pected to 'rise above' considerationsof place and plenty of stereotypes,from the brotherwho has time.This assumption is familiarin musicalscholar- been to the big city, and who speaks of a worldfar ship. Europeanmusicological circles are histori- greaterin scope thanthe circumscribedone avail- cally driven by the original German didactic able to Luluand her horriblein-laws, to the country elementsof the discipline,and are stillhot on the railroad-passenger-agent-cum-telegraph-operator. trailof timelessmasterworks and the elucidationof In its 1991 retrospectiveof the work of both Cecil 306 Philip C. Car/iCarli and William deMille, the Pordenone festival bloody good religion he thinksShintoism is. The presentedthe filmwith an amorphousharp accom- argumentlevelled against using the period score panimentwhich did not evoke any feeling or situ- was, according to one scholar of my acquaint- ation in the story other than a general sense of ance, itsextreme sweetness - 'likesugar poured on sentimentality.The harp's limitedcolouristic and chocolate syrup',referring to the effect of the film volumecapabilities and its stronglydefined socie- and its music together. The alternate approach tal associations ('heaven', 'beauty', 'restaurant presentedfailed in that it seemed to negate this dinner music')- which do not traditionallyallow perceived sweetness, therebysetting the filmand muchin the way of wit or irony- workagainst it as itsaccompaniment in directopposition rather than a instrumentcapable of expressinga wide range complementarity. of emotions,thoughts or dramaticsituations. Since At the opposite pole from the 'timeless'ap- the instrumenthas no special association with proach is the 'authentic'presentation. In this area small-townlife, its weakness for the dramaticcol- once again, filmsand musicalworks presentvery ourationdemanded by filmaccompaniment is not similarproblems. In music and musicology,the clo- offsetby any otherfactor. sest practice in termsof performance(thus analo- Frank Borzage's Seventh Heaven (1927) gous to film presentation) is the historical presentsa similarcase, but here Borzage's pas- performancemovement - presentingmusic with sionatelyromantic outlook colours and defines the techniquesand instrumentssimilar to those used at story'sspecific cultural contexts. Baldly, the storyis the timethe musicalwork was composed. Itis sup- of two people who fall in love in Parisat the out- posed that in presentingthese works in theirorig- break of World War I, and the film'sdreamlike inal formatsand with the original instruments,we qualityis rooted in early-20th-centuryideas about gain insightinto the aural world of the audiences Paris.The sets are not factuallyParisian, but ideal- that firstheard them, and therebyunderstand the isticallyParisian - ExpressionisticallyParisian, if colours and balances that inspiredcomposers to you will, since the set design was so heavilyGer- writethe way they did. man influenced- what an enthusiasticallyimagin- The problemfor the movementhas been to ative romanticAmerican would like Paris to be. distinguishbetween the 'authentic'validity of orig- The film's world premiereat the Carthay Circle inal instruments and arrangements, and the Theatrein LosAngeles on 6 May 1927 had a score (merely)aesthetic validity of convincinginterpreta- compiledby Carli Elinor,who also conductedthe tionsbased on the 'authentic'borrowings. It is true cinema's orchestra. However, a Movietone syn- that Beethovendoes sound ratherdifferent on a chronizedscore compiledand composed by Erno Viennesestyle pianoforteof 1830 than on a mod- Rapeeand played by the RoxySymphony Orches- ern concertgrand; whetherthe resultantsound is tra of the RoxyTheatre, New York,was added for one thatBeethoven imagined, or wanted,or would the New Yorkpremiere on 25 May at the Harris have preferredis anotherquestion, prompted as it Theatre15.Regardless of the sound quality com- is by a comparisonof two centuries- notavailable pared to modernsound reproduction,the accom- in Beethoven'sday! Recently,the pianistMalcolm panimentprovided was culturallyin context with Bilsonpresented a series of concertsin New York the film,and metthe filmon itsown romanticterms. with his studentsthat caused these questionsto be For its 1993 screening at Pordenone, Bor- reassessed afresh, and an articleby Allan Kozinn zage's elegant sweetness was severely com- appearing in the New YorkTimes on 15 Septem- promised by the over-amplified,insensitive and ber 1994 argued for the validityof both modern musically inept accompaniment of an English and historicalperformances. groupwho seemed to have no concept of what the Aestheticscholarship boils down to a matter filmwas about. Theiraccompaniment, based upon of taste - taste as relatedto or discerned in differ- currentBritish popular music trends, completely ent culturesand historicalperiods but taste none- distortedthe importof a filmthat wears its hearton theless. Therefore,in the process of restoration, its sleeve. Theeffect was preciselythat of someone sometimes personal taste can be confused with standingup in a Shintotemple and yelling what a scholarship.It is especiallydifficult to come up with Musicology and the presentation of silent film 307 a canonical formatof any dramaticwork, due to after Bizet'sdeath, among otherchanges) into an elementsof practicalitythat enter into every perfor- uncomfortablesingle version17.Oeser's edition mance situation. Sometimes the restorationpro- has been frequently performed throughoutthe cess of an artworkthat has seen manyalterations world as the 'authentic'version, and it has only from its original format, structureand purpose, been withinthe last few years that opera houses takes a degree of creativitythat verges upon fabri- have startedto presentCarmen in its originalfor- cation. Sometimesthis fabricationis necessaryto mat - and the discovery has been made that it fill in lacunae in mutilatedoriginal sources, to reallystands very well on itsown. make the restorationintelligible at all. Howeverit These situationsinvolve starkself-aggrandis- may also be done to bringthe artworkmore in line ementor self-delusion;but what of instanceswhere withcurrent traditions; in timeswhen the elementof a careful restorationaccepted as 'authentic' is 'authenticity'was not a primaryaesthetic criterion, based upon practice exactly contemporarywith this kind of uncreditedrestoration and improve- the artifact- but not tied to it in any documented mentwas accepted as a markof an interpreter's fashion?ScottJoplin's folk opera Treemonisha,for good taste. whichJoplin's original orchestral score has disap- I refer here in drama to David Garrick'sno- peared, was reorchestratedin the 1970s by the toriousacting editionsof Shakespeare,which are composerGunther Schuller using a turn-of-the-cen- 'cut and paste' versions (witha lot of 'cut')of the turycollection of Joplin rags arranged for dance originalplays; at the timeof theirproduction in the band (commonly referred to as 'the Red Back 1770s, they were not only successfulbut lauded Book')as his model'8. The use of this source, be- for their refinementof what was then considered cause of its direct contemporaryties to Joplin (it primitivedramaturgy. In music, the German and was issued by his mentorand principalpublisher, Englishrevivals of Handel's oratorios in the late John Stark), plus the newly-currentfamiliarity of eighteenthand early nineteenthcenturies involved audiences with the sound of these orchestrations composers(including Mozart) writing new orches- due to MarvinHamlisch's inclusion of them in his tral parts- now referredto as 'additionalaccom- score for George RoyHill's film The Sting (1974), paniments' - for instrumentsHandel had not has given Schuller'sreconstruction an air of auth- includedin his originalscores, in orderto makethe enticitydespite the knownfact thatJoplin had in- works palatable to new audiences. These modifi- tended his opera for the pre-warBroadway stage, cations persistedin performancesof the oratorios, where a dance band orchestrationwould have and indeed were often considered necessaryele- been considered laughably crude alongside the ments,until the 1960s. elaborate quasi-symphonicorchestrations of com- The crime arises when such improvements, posers likeVictor Herbert and RudolfFriml19. even if they reallyare betterthan the originalver- In film, Enno Patalas's restorationof F.W. sion (as best as can be determined),are created Murnau'sNosferatu (1922) is a similarcase. The and publicizedas authentic,period elements.The checkeredhistory of the film'soriginal distribution claim negates theirintegral value, as in the bench- and legal suppressionis well known,as is the prob- markcase of the Victorianliterary scholar John lemof the sourcesin allowinga canonical, 'perfor- PayneCollier and his Shakespeareedition, which ming' edition. Patalas's version of Nosferatu is incorporatedCollier's postulationsabout quest- visuallyvery attractive,and in manyways it is the ions arising in the text in (Collier'sforged) Elizabe- most viewable version of the film available to a than-Jacobeanhandwriting in a batteredcopy of modernaudience. However,purporting to present the ThirdFolio16. An example frommusicology is the 'original'tints - even thoughchances are they FritzOeser's performingedition of Georges Bizet's are probablyclose to the originaltints - of the film Carmen,which purportsto be a scholarlyedition withouthaving a periodcopy of the filmwith those butis actuallya farragoof assembledsources that same tints as a referencedoes the restorationa combines two versionsof the work (originallyan disservice. The approach is indeed based upon opera-comiquewith spoken dialogue, which was contemporarypractice; but it is always a moot replaced with recitatives by another composer point how far a modernscholar or archivistcan 308Philip308 Philip C. Carli

accuratelyor empatheticallyinterpret a practice mentsof filmsis now consideredstandard practice sixty or seventy years dead. The scholarlytools in filmpreservation. However, little has been done developed throughthe authenticitymovement are withthe interiorinformation present on cue sheets, invaluable in producing convincing, empathetic i.e. the timingsfor each cue as placed against ex- scores, butthe 'authenticpresentation' recedes like tant prints.The only people doing this are those a rainbowthe furtherit is pursued. puttingtogether music and image for performance With exploration of non-Westernnational purposes. The restorationof Intolerancefrom its cinemas and accompanimentstaking a greater publishedscore is a benchmarkin thisregard, and part of the Pordenone festival, the resultshave will be considered shortly,but littleattention has been at once freshand naturallyless susceptibleto been applied as yet to filmswith cue sheets. preconception;they give rise to a thirdframework An interestingsituation has arisenwith respect from which to approach film accompaniment, to Frank Borzage's Humoresque(1920). The neither'timeless' nor 'authentic'.A strikingcollec- George EastmanHouse has copies of both a non- tion of Indiansilent films presentedat the 1994 incipitcue sheet (thatis, a cue sheet with only the festivalwere accompanied by a group of Indian titlesof compositionsrather than both the titleand musiciansspecially assembled for the event by the a lineof music)and a piano/conductorpart for the National FilmArchive of India. The linear, non- compiledscore; the sources matcheach other but cumulativestyle of the classical Indianmusic per- thetiming for the complete film given at the head of formedwould seem on the surfaceto be ill-suitedto the cue sheet differsfrom the aggregate timingsof a group of films that drew in many ways upon the individualcues by nearlyfive minutes20.A num- Western filmmakingpractice, but these practices ber of possible explanationspresent themselves, were adapted to conform with Indian narrative the simplestbeing thatthe timesindicated are inac- traditions.A film such as Gallant Hearts(1931), curateand that no-one botheredto add them up. with its spacious storytellingand continuousnar- Sucha large differencein runningtimes is unusual, rativeflow, is artisticallycongruent with the long however - it represents nearly a half-reel'sdif- periodsof Indianclassical music-making;the result ferencein filmterms (about 420 feet at the advised is both aestheticallygratifying and culturallycon- runningspeed of 21 fps). At what point priorto vincing. release was the filmgiven to JamesBradford, who Itwas logical to expect the Indianfilms to be compiledthe score? DonaldHunsberger has men- successfulwith Indianmusic, since the culturalin- tionedto me that, in his examinationof cue sheets, fluences that produced the musical style also al- such discrepanciesoccur relativelyfrequently; if it tered the film narrativestyle. If Western filmsare is simplya matterof sloppy addition,what does it approached similarly, as culturalartifacts of a tell us of the attitudesand practicesof these com- foreign (though intimatelyrecognizable) milieu, pilers- even when the scores they preparedwork the constructionof musicallycongruent original verywell? scores offersthe possibilityof even greaterrapport A mostrecent example of GillianAnderson's between filmand score, since the same culturedi- workthat has directlyaided filmresearch has been rectlyproduced (rather than adapting, as in India) her reconstructionof the score to Chaplin's The both narrative media. Thus the scholarly disci- Circus (1928), which was compiled and com- plinesdevoted to historicalaccuracy may be used posed by Chaplinhimself in collaborationwith Art- to providea culturalgrounding for a score 'transla- hur Lange. This project presents a number of tion' into modernmusical idiom.This should not be interestingwrinkles on the music/restorationques- impossibleto do that from a modern musician's tion:Chaplin was intenselyinterested in musicand perspective. the accompanimentsto his films, but some critics Twoessential tools for determiningthe histori- consider The Circus the weakest of Chaplin's cal and culturalbackground of silentfilm music are 1920s featurefilms, and the filmhas notbeen seen thecue sheet and the synchronizedscore; the latter with its originalrelease score since 1928-29, be- will be discussed at length below. The use of cue cause Chaplinprepared a new (and quite ineffec- sheets as a guide to establishingpresentation ele- tive) score to be synchronizedwith the filmfor its MusicologyMuiooyadtepeetaino and the presentation of silentietfl film 3090 sound re-issuein 1969. EdwardRothstein's review Howeverthere are other 'authentic'versions in TheNew YorkTimes of 28 February1994 em- besides the MOMA print.The copy of the filmat phasized not only the excellence of Chaplinand the George EastmanHouse dates froma retouring Lange'sscore, treatingthe event from a musical of the filmin late 1917, and has bothnew footage standpoint21,but also noted that the original run- and considerable excisions. The EastmanHouse ning speed of the film was indicated on the cue also has a copy of the orchestralscore adapted to sheet as 20 fps. Thisis an unusuallyslow running followthis version; it is no less 'authentic'than Ms. speed for a late 1920s production,but such do- Anderson's.An analogous case in musicologyis cumentaryevidence needs to be takeninto account Mussorgsky'sBoris Godunov;Mussorgsky's first as the problemof generallydating runningspeeds version of 1867 was extensivelyrevised firstby comes to the foregroundwith the increaseof silent Mussorgskyhimself and then, after his death, by filmpresentations. hisfriend Rimsky-Korsakov. There are, in fact, three 'authentic'versions of the - two versions Another on the same wherethe opera example issue, and the score would introducefurther preparedby Mussorgsky Rimsky-Korsakov original complica- the latter least until re- is Frank version, being (at quite tion, however, Borzage's LuckyStar, orig- the one most released with a Movietone cently) commonlyperformed to-day. inally synchronized The MOMA/AndersonIntolerance has score. The additionof the Movietonescore would 'pri- in that it is takento the filmin the have forced the filmto runat 24 the macy' represent fps; viewing closest state to its initial artistic film in the silent version restored the possible release, strictly by considerations a role in Nederlands severalscholars- includ- perhapstaking secondary Filmmuseum, this instance.An could be made thatthe - believe the film best at 20 argument ing myself appears fps. laterversion is both no less authenticand artisti- Rothstein'scomment on the filmic of a implications more as Carl Breil'sinef- musical reconstruction The noted cally successful, Joseph (of Circus, fective score benefits from The to the firstsuch critical only cutting. above) is, my knowledge, controversialsilences which disturbsome modern and it is that it comes froma discussion, gratifying viewerswho see the filmwith Breil'sscore are ulti- music critic. It will be valuable if film and very of the and woof of that musiccritics can address themselvesto issuesfrom matelypart warp particular score. Todecry themas being wrong is a denial of their complementaryfields with, if not complete the printedsources; simply because theyare there, technicalassurance, at least comparable interest however, does not negate the possibilityof other and appreciation. experiments,and the existence of Breil'sscore for GillianAnderson's work also presentsthe text- the film in itself does not negate the possibility book studyof the intermarriagebetween film his- (and, indeed, desirability)of newly composed ac- toryand musicology;I refernow, of course, to the companiments,as Andersonnotes herself23. restorationof D.W. Griffith'sIntolerance (1916) The weakness of Breil's score may be re- undertakenby Ms. Andersonin collaborationwith garded as a furthercompromise of the effectof the the Libraryof Congress and PeterWilliamson of film,bringing us intothe thornyproblem of 'authen- the Museumof ModernArt. In this film the studyof ticity'as opposed to ultimateartistic effectiveness. physicalmaterials beyond the filmitself immeasur- Thesubjectivity of the lattercriterion is equalledby ably aided the reconstructionof the film. Relying the unattainabilityof the former,for part of the upon Griffith'spersonal set of orchestralparts and materialssimply no longerexist. TheMOMA/An- his copy of the reduced score, they formulateda dersonreconstruction of the filmmay be the closest time frame into which to fit their edition of the thing in durationand sound to what was initially film22.The version of Intolerancethat they pre- presentedin 1916, but it does not resemblewhat pared has been the subjectof muchcriticism, both was originallyseen, largelybecause of the tempo- pro and con, concerning its artisticmerits; yet it ralshifting of consciousnessoccasioned by pristine must be admittedthat what they prepared is as movementjuxtaposed with artifactualstills. It is an close to an original version- or, in her words, a extraordinary piece of reconstruction,but ulti- 'premiereversion' - as could be made. matelyyet anotherversion of the film,since not all 310 Philip C. Carli

intoa preparedscore fora major T To the townspeoplehe wa an inhuman!I min. 3' sec-4. CHANEYTHEME No 2. 2 studio butalso a N t. r.. tt tlr.yed lelw. tMac...sc production, par- T And Parishad an uncrowned...... 2 min.40 oe-5. Joie de Vivre ...... Fron Suite Flrac*ise ....Foul".&d ticular studio's release policy. S Hunchbackclimbing down Cathedral.. 2 min. 25 rec--6. Myterioo DramntiqutK No. 54.. Boch V T Enerald. Enmeralda ...... I min. 30 ti-7. Dense Hongroie .... .AnMdreMwrA The Hunchbackof Notre Dame T Thatpoor mad creature wae ...... I min. -- 8. Ma apric ...... Baon (Parisiaa ltcueazo) T Whileshe wa away ...... I min. 10 aec 9. Meditation...... o (1923) was Universal's largest (raxthetlc-Dranatck) T The Festival continued ...... I min. O sec. 10. Scherzino ...... '. and costliest to (Frot Two Old French I Bombio production date; T Let Emeraldadance ...... 50 scj II. Gypsy Dance ...... cs . Merker T With the noe of the ...... I min. 45 eo.12. Loui XIll ...... y, it was also one of the firstto (Gavotte) Gh: open S Flash back to Esmerlda dncing ... 45 enr3. Repat "Cue No. 1" a New York house. T The home of Madame ...... I min. 10 GE. Cavotte Louis XV... ..Heryn in major S Flsh backto Eameraldadancing .... I min. 25 sec-..5. Repeat"Cue No. 13" S Hunchbackringing bells ...... 30 sec-16. CHANEYTHEME Nc ,.I Thomas Schatz details Univer- S Flushback to Emeraldadancing...... I min. 0In e17. Repeat"Cue No. 15" T Jehanknew the lonely ...... 2 min. 25 s-o 18. CHANEYTHEME Nc b.2 . sal's in the Note: To I playertdtripo, Myltrrios. marketing policies Note With adtibitum FF Tympani rolls dur- ing cene ofIluschback attacking gil. T It in't afe for a prettychild ...... 50 sec.19. LOVETHEME early 1920s and the kindof films T The Courtof Miracles...... I min. 30 see-20. Danceof the Serpents"...... B cc eote: Slow a*d t .ctiu. it producedfor a varietyof differ- T At te aignof the ...... ' 4 min. 5 sec-21. LOVETHEME S Fsh backto Bemgg Camp...... I nmin.25 s-e-22. Danuedes Savoyard. ent none of theminclud- T Hanghim, hang him. that'swhat the.. I min 30 seC23. Drmatic Agitato ...... e.a markets, Noter To ace. pp or t. Drm,aticI min. 25 sc. 24. Reproach ...... Bre ^ T Have you o little moery that you must the first-runhouses in T The Hunchbackfor the attempted.... 2 min. 35 sod 25. QCANEYTHEME N o. 2 ing large T Againwa a laveto ffer ...... 1 min.45 see- 26. CHANEYTHEME N 1 * New and San S Hunchbackbeing flogged ...... 2 min. 10 s 27. SlimyV r ...... Bch. York, Chicago. (A Mrsterioo Tone Pict T Thuawa "Justice"rendered ...... 2 min. 55 sets 8. Queen of My Hert.. ."...... n. Francisco that Paramount and (Dramatic-Pathic) T To celebratethe honor ...... I min.45 S 29. Menuet ...... Bochedini Note: With adlibitum effects of Fanfare calls...... ' Metroused for their S Interior of Cathedrl ...... 35 CHANEY THEME N 6. 2 premieres25. S Cloe upof Begp' Camp ...... 50so dd 31. GpsCHANEYTHEME!Gypy Rondo ...... T An amtocrathas takenour Emerad. 20 ec\ 32. Turulence ...... Borh / Hunchbackdiffered in that S Flashbak to Court ...... 2 in. 20 sec 33. LOV THEME witih adiAum FF decided to ex- Tympani roll dturing short mobo% Irving Thalberg urin.gshc hibitthe filmon a road-show T Shedescend foraline more ...... 3 min. 34. Furioo No. 60 ...... Shepherd , ap- T Emerald you would forrakeme now I min.45 sec 35. LOVETHEME T Nightlong payer brought...... I min. 10 sc. 36. Continueto ction proach, witha grand opening in T Jut when Pou haddecided ...... t min. 37. ComedyAi gro .... T Slowlyit dawed on aopin ...... 2 min.20 ec 38. ChantEegiaq .. .T...ls.aikowy New York at a major theatre26. nT en ...... 3 min. 5 e-39. CHANEYTHEME N 'hoebus,it was only to ee you onoe more .3...... min. 15Iet. 40. LOVETHEME .v Thalberg left Universalin early 1 this acredemblem ...... I min. 10 g 41. Mysterio Agitato 66 mth T . ain the King' Jutce ...... 3 min. 42. Pardise s Mine.. 1o. ... 1923, and apparently the road- ;ote: To be tpked as Cetlo oo (Dram.) T The Question,"the systemof the .... 2 min. 10ae 43. TragicTheme ...... Veb show out and T hroughnight* of delirium...... min...... Chant roiqu ...... B,rgee - screenings petered S Kingof Beggas enteringCathedral ... I min. 45. CHANEYTHEME N 4o. I were replaced by Universal's S Cloneup of Kingof Beggarslaughing.. I min.40 sre. 46. CHANEYTHEME N S Esmeraldain prison ...... 2 min. 20 sec. 47. Allegro Inferle ...... A bo rm us ua l m a rk e ti n to ne i hb o ur - 1 Stddenlythe date for l'jmeralda.... I milt. 10 ec. 41. CHANEYTHEME N g g hood and better-classsmall city theatres. The George Eastman Fig. 4. Detailof general releasecue-sheet for TheHut nchback of House possesses sources for two NotreDame (1923). [GeorgeEastman House/Internc itional different original accompani- Museumof and Film.] Photography mentapproaches; one is the first the parts(image, duration,sound) cohere withone violin part for the road show version, the other a another.Film scholars should perhaps move away standardizedcue sheet for smaller,less musically fromthe idea of 'release version'and understand lavish houses. Thusthis film offers a fascinating thatwe will neverknow precisely what a silentfilm opportunityto compare musicrepresenting differ- looked like to its original audiences. Once again, ent culturalcontexts in the same timeperiod. 'authenticity'in itself is a chimera, though its pur- Thefirst violin road-showpart makes substan- suitoffers valuable side benefits. tial technicaldemands upon the performerand in- Indeed, Ms. Anderson's work with period cludes a large amountof classical musicfrequently scores, and especially the scores to Griffith'sfilms, used by cinema orchestrasat the time; the over- has providedmuch more cultural information than turesto Glinka'sRussian and Ludmillaand Auber's we mighthave expected. Griffith'sown participa- La muette de Portici,the ballet music fromJules tion in the constructionof the scores is as mucha Massenet's opera Le cid, and a numberof other guide to his culturaland intellectualbackground as worksthat Erno Rapee's Encyclopedia would class- the image on the screen; in fact, coupled with the ify as 'Heavy Dramatic- Difficult'.The cue sheet, image, the correlationof the two providesa histori- on the otherhand, consists almost entirely of pieces cal contextof its own24.The musicalmaterials pro- by the standardcinema musiccomposers such as vided with another film can give insight not only J.S. Zamecnikand Gaston Borch,music that was MusicologyMuiooyadtepeetaino and the presentation of silentietfl film 3111

common fare at the smaller cinemas that constituted -15- Universal'smain market. D. Quasiished. _ 4 A rationalefor altering ...1 bIeCYXX1 -|.>X t X 1 1_ the suggestions used in the cue sheets is that modern 2 ! lkotS 4. r,tk CLo. audiences who attend -oe.L-(s-ismer( screeningsare moresophisti- cated musically than audi- ences in the 1920s, and '~ ...... i.'^rL, Fr would object to the chop- t frr tIr.rlor1 rJi1 iIr-M r ping up of classical literature - not to mentionthe use of of u[' f -TrIT-Li rI1 cliched pieces now over-fam- iliar to everyone - that was characteristicof the typical T CourtofMiracles. silent film musical accom-

Dr.Hunsber- ' 'i 3 :. ... paniment.Also, _ g i ^ ger, whose reconstructed score for Hunchbackuses ' br~j>?qa;l a a :i::i I r 1' r - elements of both the road- I show score and the cue sheet, admits to a certain ' -r.' ' j -.- ,,- r r leeriness (though less than many conservatory col- leagues) about much of the semi-classical literature turned out i by composers :3I fI I suchas Borchand Zamecnik _ strictly for motion picture use. Fig. 5. A page fromthe road-showscore of TheHunchback of Notre As to audience overfam- Dame,first violin part. [George Eastman House/International Museum iliarity with classical lit- of Photographyand Film.] eratureand theirdisdain of excerpting,such feel- audiences whose mostextended span of attention ings were not evidentat the screeningsI attended is spent in coming to see a silentfilm! of Anderson's Carmen or Intolerance,both of You never know what people will or will not which contain bits and pieces of numerouslarger accept untilyou try. As an example, in 1988 I worksfrom the standardorchestral literature. Pas- acted as musicaldirector for a college production tichescores understoodin lightof musicalallusions of VictorHerbert's 1913 operettaSweethearts, in in dialogue with the narrative pictured on the which the originallibretto was used - a librettoby screen may be a muchmore sophisticated art form Fredde Gresac with Harryand RobertSmith that than the haphazard mishmashthey are stereo- has been described as 'old fashioned' and typed to be. Also, with the attentionspan of the 'musty'27.The audiences quiteenjoyed the perfor- so-calledMTV generation, not to mentionthe pro- mances, includingthe incrediblyclumsy joking al- pensityof manyclassical radio stationsto play ex- lottedto the comicvillain. Hunsberger admits to the cerpts as standardpolicy, the use of the original plastic nature but undeniable appositeness of pastichescores may now fulfilthe exact same pur- muchof the utilitymusic, and indeed some of his pose that they did in the 1920s - particularlyfor audiences identifythese littlepieces as being by 312 312Carli~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Philip C. Carli

Fig.6. Orchestralrecording stage for synchronizedscores. the famous composers - such as Tchaikovsky- signed. At the very least, even when differentap- whose betterknown works envelop these littlemu- proaches and new scores are essayed for silent sical links by Gaston Borch and his confreres. films,cue sheets providea culturalframework for Hunsberger'sonly criterionfor what works is a the interpretationof a film,and I would urge com- matterof quality- which again is personal opi- posers preparingoriginal scores to take advant- nion, in his case an educated one - and he does age of the resourceas a gloss even when they do not hesitateto replace musicwhich seems to him not wish to use it as a model. overly commercialor artisticallyinferior. Ander- Synchronizedscores also presenta fascinat- son, however, tries to use the exact utilitypieces ing and at the same timefrustrating documentation specified in the cue sheets, in keeping with her of what audiences expected and what cinema or- concept of film/musicintegrity, and no complaints chestrapractice was by the late 1920s. Warners' have surfaced;this indicates, as I thinkboth scho- principalidea behind Vitaphonewas to present lars will agree, that the film music 'hacks' of the accompanyingacts, largelyinvolving singing, and silentperiod were always professional,if commer- a first-rateorchestral accompaniment to silent cial in theiroutlook. films;the idea of dialogue was not seriouslycon- Finally, despite strong arguments against sidered at first28.However, when Warners and usingthe originalcue sheets on the groundsof their Fox began releasing films as a rule with syn- perceived musical ingenuousness or dramatic chronized music-and-effectstracks, the response baldness, Ifeel they shouldbe heard- if onlyonce. was mixed. Itappears that people preferreda live As manyoperas work infinitelybetter on the stage orchestrato a recordedone, thoughthey preferred thana musician'sindividual study of a piano score a recordedorchestra to a live theatreorganist. would indicate,cue sheets need to be performedin Forone thing, the orchestrain the pit gave an orderto evaluatewhether they do or do not appro- added sense of occasion. Thissense of occasion priatelysupport the filmsfor which they were de- and pride in publicevents and social ritualsis well Musicology and the presentation of silent film 313

Fig. 7. Settingup miniaturesfor the eui l,quake sequencein Old San Francisco documentedby manyfilms, and the publicdressed and modernconductors would not tolerate- port- up to go to the cinema as they did to go to other amento (slides) in the strings;percussive, clipped publicvenues. Insome instances,it was suggested attacksand plentyof vibratoin the brass; littleor that cinema attendance, particularlywhen 'pa- no vibrato in the woodwind parts; and a much laces' became the normin the 1920s, should be more forgivingattitude towards mattersof intona- treatedas a social occasion on a par withgoing to tion, within the ranges of single instrumentsand the legitimatetheatre, a concert, or an opera. Ex- between sections in the orchestra.I and a clarinet- tant programmesfor the EastmanTheatre in Ro- istfriend of mine,who is a graduateof the Eastman chester, New York, suggest that patrons might School of Music,recently listened to a 1926 recor- considerbooking places in the mezzanine (which ding of Edward Elgar's Enigmavariations per- were the only reserved,and thereforethe plushest formedby the RoyalAlbert Hall Orchestraunder and most exclusive, seats in the theatre) as an the directionof the composer.My friendconceded agreeable activity for their dinner-partyguests. thatit was an excitingperformance, but noted that Synchronizedscores (and their sound-on-filmde- the orchestradid thingsas a matterof performance scendants)had the effect, perhaps more than has style that the Eastman conductors would call been realized, of taking this occasion and sloppy. cheapening it29- puttingthe turtlesoup in a can, These sounds date the performancefor many as it were30. people, musiciansand non-musiciansalike, and However,in theircapacity to give to a modern by one argumentmight distance them emotionally musicianinsight into the aural world of the audi- fromthe work. However, in combinationwith the ence of 1929, these recordings are invaluable. images on the screen, performancepractices con- Orchestralplayers had differentpriorities about temporarywith the films mighthave the opposite ensemble, intonation,and handlingof theirinstru- effect of drawing the audience furtherinto the illu- ments than today's impeccably precise musi- sion of intimacywith the cultureof the time, much cians31.There are many elements in the playing as the foreign-soundingIndian music brought out that modernconservatory teachers simply forbid Indianfacets of the filmsit accompanied.With the 314 314 Car/i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Philip C. Carli passage of sixty-fiveyears, the distancingfrom the always use castanets whenever Dolores Costello experience and the nearlytotal disappearanceof and her father,the 'Spanish'characters, appear? the art of silentfilm accompaniment in its original Why play a jig when Charles EmmetMack, the formhas lefta culturalgap thatcan nonethelessstill 'Irish'hero, entersthe scene? And why, especially, be filledby the remainingrecorded scores. mustwe heara pentatonicscale (justthe blackkeys The most importantwork in preservingsyn- on the piano, for you laymenin the audience)and chronizedscores as a single undertakingwas the a xylophonegoing ricky-ticky-tickwhenever War- touringexhibition of The Dawn of Sound, which ner Oland, the traditional'Oriental' villain, de- was put together by the UCLAFilm Archive, the scends into his undergrounddragon- festooned Museumof ModernArt, the Libraryof Congress, hideout32? and the George EastmanHouse. The collection Theperhaps unpalatable answer is thatall the was taken from films that had originally been overdrawnethnic and racial stereotypesdepicted presentedwith sound-on-disc,and was therefore on the screen were answered simplyand directly limitedto Warners, FirstNational and MGM re- with equally overdrawnstereotypes portrayed in leases. Themost influential films in the collectionin the music,evoking the actors'characterizations in termsof soundusage were, of course,the Warners a mannercongruent with the unabashedlymelo- releases of 1927-28, since Vitaphonewas their dramatic narrative. In some ways, a failing of particularbaby. The scores that UCLArestored some modernaccompaniments is that they try to fromthe original discs were a revelation;in par- achieve a musicalsophistication in modernterms ticular,the range of sound thatwas capturedwas which is alien to the considerable sophistication astonishing.Alan Crosland's Old San Francisco thateven the mostegregious of these filmshad in (1927) is by no means a masterpiece, being a theirown terms.The cinema organists and conduc- bizarreracist melodrama with a chaotic climactic torsof the silentperiod, sophisticatedcraftsmen in earthquakesequence, butthe combinationof a vis- their own right, adopted an approach in suiting uallyglistening print with an aurallyglistening syn- music to film content - a term, in this instance, chronized score made the film a much more encompassingaction, characterizationand tone - artisticallyconvincing document than it had any that is now denigrated because of its seeming rightto be. straightforwardness. Itmust be statedthat, as a musicalwork, Hugo In practice,the subordinationof the musicto Riesenfeld'sscore for Old San Franciscois far infe- the filmcontent, by aurallyreinforcing the structure riorto his sensitiveand evocativescore for Sunrise of the filmnarrative, allows the audience to partici- (1927), being a workmanlikepastiche with some pate moredeeply in the unfoldingof plotand char- extremelyseedy fake Orientaliain the Chinatown acter. The best scores of the period are both sequences, but it is performedwith tremendousvi- straightforwardand undeniablythrilling in theway gour and nuance. I enjoythe filmand itsscore as a theysuit their materials. They are not unlikea Verdi whole because I do not have an intellectualprob- opera to a good librettoby Cammaranoor Boito, lem - perhapsto my discredit- with the musically the two librettistsVerdi worked with who main- and socially objectionablethemes that it presents, tained their literaryidentity in the face of Verdi's simply because it works well on its own merits. insistentdemand for convincing dramas; good ma- Musicians,and especially musiciansengaged in terialis closely allied to splendidmusic. providing new musical accompaniments, have Unfortunately,not all synchronizedscores - problemswith the synchronizedscore on a number perhapseven not many- standup to a comparison of levels, the most basic being the ratherobvious withVerdi, and severalextant late silentsare burd- selectionof echt-Spanishthemes, echt-lrish themes, ened with poor synchronizedscores. It appears and echt-Orientalthemes that the compiler/con- thatas the noveltyof synchronizedscores wore off ductorused. Withour greaterawareness of world and the attention of studios turned to dialogue culturesand betterinformation about musicaland films, the quality of both score compilationand sociomusical practices, the use of these motifs orchestral performance dropped substantially seems not only naYvebut at times insulting.Why even at the largeststudios33. Jacques Feyder's The Musicology and the presentation of silent film 315

Kiss(1929) was both Greta Garbo's and MGM's so ineptlyplayed, poorly recorded,and composi- last silent film, and it was released with a syn- tionallyat variancewith the tone of the production chronizedscore thatconsists primarily of Tchaikov- that it seems likelyto have hastenedthe film'sde- sky's Romeoand Julietand the slow movementof miseat the box office. Althoughthe filmitself has a his FifthSymphony played ratherbadly over and problematicalclosing sequence, it is a another over again - though the Frenchhorns finallyget primecandidate for a new score. their part right by the umpteenthrendition at the Hunsbergerand Anderson's reconstructions end of the film. If this was the case at MGM, the of (non-synchronized)film scores have been aimed situationat smallerstudios was worse. at moreor less canonical films;The Birth of a Na- One filmwhose score seems prettyrank today tion, Intolerance,Wings, The Covered Wagon, is TayGarnett's The Spieler (1 928). Thescore was The Hunchbackof Notre Dame, The LastCom- compiled by Josiah Zuro, the house maestro at mand, TheMark of Zorro.There are, however,less Pathe (and a conductorat the prominentRivoli knownfilms in whichthe musicologicalapplication Theatrein New York),and recordedon the RCA of scholarlytechniques would be helpful,and a Photophonesystem. Due bothto the rapidlyshrink- score restorationwould perhapsaid the filmcon- ing economic viabilityof silent films in 1928-29 siderably, for instance William Furst'sscore for and Pathe's patchy fortunesas a producer,the Cecil DeMille's Joan the Woman. Also, some compilationwas apparentlyrapid and the perfor- archives have preservedfascinating musical ma- mance, distractinglysloppy. Variety'sreviewer ac- terialsfor filmsthat no longer exist. Universalhad tuallypraised the score34,but compared with other a special score compiledand printedin individual synchronized scores (notably Sunrise, or on a partsfor John Needham's Double(1916); thiswas moretypical level Old San Francisco),The Spieler evidentlysupposed to be partof a seriesof closely seems very crude. Unfortunately,the score for the coupled Universalmusic/film releases, of which filmis almostinescapable, for thereare two short littleis known36.Also, in the courseof UCLA'sVita- talkingsequences, but it could hugelybenefit from phone restorations,many music-and-effectsdiscs the treatmentrecently accorded PaulFejos's lone- have surfacedfor filmswhose pictureelements are some (1928) in substitutinglive musicfor the music partlyor whollylost. and effects trackwhile allowing the dialogue se- Letme, however,repeat my plea forrespect of quences to be heard. The filmhas remainedrela- original musicalsources; however dated the syn- tively unseen for many years, and it is Garnett's chronizedscores or cue sheets may seem to mod- firstimportant work. Any takers? ern ears, the composer/compilershad a tradition Eisenstein'sAlexander Nevsky (1937), with upon which to draw, and a set of standardsas an originalscore by Sergei Prokofiev,provides an criteria.It was, after all, their livelihood,and the example of a score that did not even have an ac- most prominentcinema conductors had an ac- ceptable performanceby the standardsof the time; knowledged proficiency, just as their orchestras it was recordedineptly, and performedby an ex- had to maintaina certain performancestandard. cruciatinglyincompetent orchestra35. Part of Pro- Moderncomposers may believe that 'filmmusic is kofiev's rationale for turningthe score into his film music', but film historiansare beginning to concertcantata of the same namewas the horrible understand the difference between currentap- qualityof the filmrecording. There was every justi- proaches and what was done sixty-five years ficationfor redoing the score underthese circum- ago37. Historicallygrounded restorations are more stances, and the artisticcontent, quality and intent likelyto serve theirfilms, whatever the musicallan- of the filmas it is now seen on touris enhanced by guage finally used, than restorationsthat do not the performanceof the music in a technicallyac- take into account the original contextof the film, ceptable manner. includingthe originalscore. Perhapsthe worstof all the late synchronized Two majortours with live accompaniment,for scores was assembled in Britainfor HenrickGa- instance, have been undertakenwith filmsorigin- leen's After the Verdict(1929), recorded on the ally producedas sound prints:City Lights (1931), deForestPhonofilm system. The score forthis film is witha score by Chaplin(but orchestrated and con- 316 Philip C. Car/iCarli ductedon the trackby AlfredNewman), and Alex- trator with a rather delicate sense of colour38. ander Nevsky.The rationale for the Nevskyrecon- Davis's extensive use of tuned percussionin the structionwas discussedabove, butfor the Chaplin latterpart of the score was quite alien to practice, filmthe questionarises, Why presentthe filmwith even in exotica. His 'reconstruction'is more of a live music(as reconstructedby Carl Davis),when 'reworking',unless one believes (and Icertainly do the soundtrackbrilliantly pokes fun at itself as a not)that orchestration contributes little to the over- soundtrack?I refer of course to the opening se- all effectof a composition. quence, where Chaplinis discoveredasleep on a On the other hand, I must urge against the public monument,and HenryBergman delivers a practice of doing silent film scores that make a speech that is representedon the soundtrackas pretenceat period 'feel' if that feel is ineptlycar- electricalmuddle. It may be thatChaplin preferred ried out; it is far betterto maintaina credibleartis- live music,but having accepted the compromiseof tic identitythan to puton a costumethat convinces a synchronizedscore, thiscompromise is now (ifin no-one. The Alloy Orchestraof Cambridge,Mas- a small way) an integralpart of the artwork.Un- sachusetts,was commissionedto create its firstsi- doubtedly,modern performances of the filmwith a lent film score for the 1994 Pordenone live orchestraare moresonically satisfying to pres- presentation of Lonesomeand performed it to ent-dayaudiences - and have the greatersense of great acclaim at the Tellurideand Pordenonefesti- occasion described above - but questions do vals this past year. Thereare elementsin it which arise: (a) the soundrecording on theoriginal film is are marvellous;an importantsequence in the film perfectly acceptable, and the orchestra under is the opening, withthe two protagonistsgetting up Newman is competentif not world class; (b) the and going to workat extremelynoisy jobs, she as film was never originallypresented with live ac- a telephoneoperator and he as a die-pressoper- companiment, because cinema orchestras had ator in a factory.All this is set against the superim- largely vanished by 1931; (c) if the live accom- posed image of a clock markingthe passage of panimentoption had stillexisted, the filmitself may time, and the increase of activityfrom the com- have been rethought- the soundtrackparody has mencementof the day to when the noon whistle little point, other than funny noises, when done blows and the activity ceases. The cumulative live. soundof workingprovided by the AlloyOrchestra Carl Davis's reconstructionof LouisF. Gotts- empatheticallyand idealisticallyevoked the preci- chalk'sscore for BrokenBlossoms was undertaken sion and tumultuouseffect of the images, to such because KevinBrownlow and his associates David effectthat the sequence provokedspontaneous ap- Gill and PatrickStanbury were convinced of the plause at itsend. score's considerable quality. This project could However, this well-thought sequence was have benefitedthe studyof silentfilm music and the marredby what followed, which can be summed silent filmexperience immeasurablyby reproduc- up in two points:misunderstanding and overdoing ing a score that had considerableimpact upon its of the film'scultural milieu, and melodic poverty. originalaudiences. Gottschalkwas botha trained, Since the storywas set in 1920s New YorkCity, successful New York theatrical musician and a the Alloy saw fit to provide several themes sup- manwith strongproduction ties to the filmindustry posed to evoke the 1920s, and theirpoor quality (much like Victor Schertzinger). Unfortunately, and egregious technical errors,especially in the Carl Davis's reorchestrationof the work is, to my harmony,were pointedup by the film'sdemanded mind,very much opposed to commercialAmerican use of IrvingBerlin's 'Always' (called for by shotsof orchestrationpractice in the 191 Os. Littleof Gotts- a phonographrecord of the song, as well as the chalk'smusic remains in orchestralparts to provide musicand lyricsappearing across the image), a a model, but there are a few sources. Victorre- muchbetter tune than anything they came up with. corded some of his music,especially a duet from Nothingin the vast emotionaland technicalrange The Tik-TokMan of Oz (which does not seem to of the filmwas echoed by a comparableemotional have been tamperedwith or reorchestratedfor the and technicalrange in the music.Part of the prob- acoustic recordingprocess) that shows an orches- lem is that the Alloy (and other similargroups) Musicology and the presentation of silent film 317

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Fig. 8. Lonesome(1928). BarburaKent and GlennTryon. evince a greater sense of securitywhen dealing nese-romanticscore alone39? Most people (par- with the surface of a situationthan when evoking ticularlyincluding trained musicians,I would ven- the emotionsthat dictate how that surface should ture to say) would find it ludicrous,and it would appear. vastlyirritate me. I realize thatcultural solecisms are an integral However, if an ersatz film with a 'genuine' part of American motion picture aesthetics. No score is inappropriate,so is a genuine filmwith an one, for instance, would suggest that the motiva- ersatz score, as is Lonesomein its currenttouring tions, acting or set design of Michael Curtiz'sThe guise. Again, it is a matterof what elementsone Sea Hawk (1940) are an accurate reflectionof seizes upon. The film is a genuinely emotional Elizabethanwarships or the actual obliterationof studyof love and joy in the face of alienationand the SpanishArmada. I remembermy father and I- loneliness,and as such it has a timelessquality; but we are both over six feet tall - chucklingover the the settingsare veryNew York,and a New Yorkso cavernous captain's cabin in ErrolFlynn's ship farvanished that it has prompteda majorarchitec- when we saw the film.These elements become sec- tural study and photographic recounting40.The ondary behind the sheer panache and com- score's lack of empathywith the cultureI can only petence in everyelement of the production,and the sum up by the idea of a man in the streetthinking fact that the productionitself belongs to a com- the 1920s was ALLbathtub gin, flappersand straw pletelydifferent genre and interpretationof history. hats, so thatseeing an actor in a polyestersuit and What would be yourfeelings if someone recastthe a styrofoamstraw hat is enough of the 1920s to score of that filminto compositionsof genuine Eli- satisfy him. The falsityof his image would be ac- zabethan composers, such as Weelkes or Byrd, centuatedby placingthis polyester actor next to an ratherthan leaving Korngold'ssweepingly Vien- immaculately-restored 1920s automobile; the 318 Philip C. Car/iCarli actor is justplaying at being a partof the cultureto and the 'savage Japanese' character of Sessue which the automobileactually once belonged. I Hayakawa with spare but violently struck per- would muchprefer an avant-gardescore thatwas cussion simply reinforcesand elucidates the dra- not culturallyrelated to the filmto the Let'sPretend matic importof the film - which is what good score presentedat Tellurideand Pordenone. accompanimentsdo, in 1915 and today41. Against this is the fact that the film has gone Othermusicians afford novel approaches and frombeing a museum-pieceknown to only a few experiments,but on the whole the mostsuccessful specialists in the field to a recognized cinematic depend heavilyupon the tone of the filmto provide commodity,shown all over the globe. What is the the basis for musicalexpression. Gabriel Thibau- ultimategoal? To get the film better known? No deau, the noted Canadian composer, has written filmhistorian I know has a kindword for Giorgio scores in a varietyof media to suitvarious films: a Moroder'sversion of Metropolis,yet the film is hallucinatory,lavishly scored piano concerto for muchbetter known among the general public be- Jean Epstein'sChute de la maisonUsher (1928), a cause of the rockscore thatMoroder attached to it. stronglyrhythmic brass quintetwith percussionfor This is a question that becomes increasinglyun- John Ford's StraightShooting (1917), a brittle answerable in an age of ever-rapidlychanging (and, from some accounts, technicallychalleng- aestheticcriteria. (Look at recentissues of Variety- ing) string quartetfor ArthurRobison's Schatten it refersto 'the early 1890s' as a historicalepoch.) (1922). The kaleidoscopic texturesof Epstein's TheAlloy Orchestrahas made a great impression film,the open grittinessand modestscale of Ford's with theirscore, and has been successfulin many five-reel novella, and the sinuous bleakness of venues throughoutthe UnitedStates, thoughtheir Lang'searly masterpieceprovide a stylisticbasis work does the film an artisticdisservice (which, and impetusto aural imagination. fortunately,it can withstandon itsown ideological, Theimpact of musicalaccompaniment upon a pictorialand narrativemerits). film'sreception has been recognized by the com- The increase in the numbersof newly com- mercialend of filmmakingfrom an early point in posed silent film scores is anologous to the hun- film history. Clarence Sinn's 'Music For the Pic- dreds of composerswho turnedto the librettosof tures'column began appearing in the MovingPic- Metastasio for over two centuries;the base ma- ture World in 1909, and he repeatedlystressed terialwas so good that it invitedreinterpretation. the importanceof appropriate, sensitive accom- Many of the new scores are not only as thrillingin panimentto filmas a meansof helpingthe pictures their overall effect as those originallypresented, 'come across'. Sinnwas only the firstof manycom- some are even better.Experimentation abounds in mentatorsduring the silent period, in such trade thisfield, and thereare strikingexamples of brand and professionalmusic and film journalsas The new scores and instrumentationsthat make a solid Metronome,Jacobs' OrchestraMonthly, and The musicalimpression while enhancingthe emotional American Organist to stress the necessity of in- and culturalcontent of the film.Adrian Johnston's formedaccompaniments for the motionpicture. work in Britishfilms has received considerable Withthe degenerate state of historicaleduca- positive notice, and his score for Cecil DeMille's tion in the arts, most modern musicianshave to The Cheat (1915), commissionedby Pordenone approach silentfilm accompanying by the seat of and subsequentlyperformed throughout Europe, is the pants.To those who are unacquaintedwith the an excellent example of contemporarytraining proceduresinvolved in becoming a professional and instrumentation(he and two colleagues per- musician,gigging in clubs and recordingstudios formupon a varietyof wind instruments,electronic or going to conservatoriesand ending up on the and acoustic keyboards, and tuned percussion) operatic stage or in a symphonyorchestra may coupled with a strong sense of the period dis- seem the ultimateartistic and aestheticfulfilment. In played in the film. His is not an avant-gardeap- reality,training to be a professionalmusician is a proach, as the filmis hardlyrevolutionary in style; combinationof high-schoolfootball practiceand depictinggarden-party scenes withwaltzes (lightly going to a welding academy. Musicianson the scored for violin, clarinet,and acoustic keyboard) whole are less culturallyrounded than business ma- Musicologyand the presentationof silentfilm 319

- jors, and this tends to limittheir cultural and aes- the presentessay JohnCale, and collaborators AntoineDuhamel and Pierre Jansen. thetic sensibilitiesin any field outside of the tone they producefrom their instruments. 2. Forseveral years, Thomas Murray, a San Franci- When tryingto interpretsilent film, a medium sco-basedsilent film enthusiast, has been publishing thatis based uponvanished and sometimesnearly '"Live"Cinema Calendar', a newslettergiving the dateand location of all silentfilm unrecognizable social and aesthetic criteria, re- upcoming perfor- manceswith live musicalaccompaniments that liance on standardprofessional training and 'in- come to his attention.His November-December spiration'is not enough. Motion picturesand in 1994 issue(vol. 3/11-12) list 124 suchevents particularAmerican silent film built their success occurringbetween November 1994 and September - upon their direct emotional appeals to the audi- 1995 withinthe U.S., Canada and Europe and his is not exhaustive. ence; like nineteenth-centuryRomanticism, they listing completely wear theirhearts upon their sleeves. Itis impossible 3. As of 1994, professionalsymphony orchestras in to fully enter the mindsetof a culturethat found Albany(New York), Albuquerque, Cedar Rapids certainmodes of expressionpassionate, poignant, (Iowa),Columbus, Erie (Pennsylvania), Fort Wayne NewOr- or otherwise compelling, and that we find over- (Indiana),Honolulu, Indianapolis, Miami, leans, Omaha, Portland stated, saccharineor cliched; but if we cannot do Pittsburgh, (Oregon), Providence,Richmond (Virginia), Rochester (New with a mode of this, we need to come up interpre- York),St Louis, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Wichita tationthat makesthese distantemotional appeals (Kansas),and Youngstown(Ohio) inhabit former relevantto modernaudiences. cinemasbuilt between 1916 and 1931. Todo historicismmust be in this, applied vary- 4. Pordenoneis a festivalfor film scholars if to ensurethat film primarily ing degrees, only musicians, andarchivists, and manyof thosewho attend the scholars,and musicscholars get at the heartof the festivalcould not care less aboutmusical accom- film. I have decried scores that I do not care for, paniment- they are there strictly for films. Thus, the which manypeople seem to enjoy. My questionis, audiencesometimes completely ignores the pianists what if the films had been with scores forthe festival, with the result that certain scholars presented confessto the as inferiorto the more in tune with the the classifying pianists message conveyed by composersand featuredperformers who appear. images? I would hope for a rounded success, Atthe same time, the Pordenone committe (and the wherethe musicsubconsciously helps the audience bulkof thefestival audience) exhibits considerable to knowmore about why theyenjoyed a particular appreciationof thepianists' work, and the festival an fora of film silentfilm. Thatis the way to build our audience, presents uniqueopportunity variety accompaniststo meet,exchange ideas, and hear and our knowledgeas well. eachother.

5. VachelLindsay, The Art of theMoving Picture (New Notes York:Macmillan, 1915, revised1992). have asso- 1. BothCin6memoire and Pordenone been 6. Jane TheNation's FrenchGrand with with silent Fulcher, Image: ciated recentpublications dealing as Politicsand PoliticizedArt filmmusic and the of film Opera (Cambridge, practices accompaniment: New York: Press,1987). Filmscholar David Robinson'sMusic in the Sha- CambridgeUniversity dows Cineteca del Friuli/Griffi- (Gemona, Italy: 7. RalphP. Lockeand CyrillaBarr, eds., Cultivating thiana, 1990) is an informativecatalogue of Music in America:Women Patronsand Activists exhibition Robinson for the pictorial developed since 1860 (Berkeleyand LostAngeles: 1990 Pordenonefestival. Emma- University Musiqued'ecran, of CaliforniaPress, forthcoming). nuelleToulet and ChristianBelaygue, eds. (Paris: editions de la r6uniondes Musees Nationaux, 8. CharlesMerrell Berg's An Examinationof the Mo- 1994), devotes considerable space to the new tives used to AccompanyAmerican Silent Films, scoresperformed at Cinem6moireand Strasbourg; 1896-1927 (New York:Arno Press, 1976; Ph.D. the book is a compendiumof essays by European thesis, Universityof Iowa, 1973) was a landmark film historiansand interviewswith of composers workin thisregard. The next book-length scholarly new scores for silent films, including Adrian textto deal withany partof the subjectwas Gillian Johnston- whose workwill be mentionedlater in Anderson's Music for Silent Films 1894-1929 (Washington,D.C.: Library of Congress/U.S.Gov- ernmentPrinting Office, 1988). 320 PhilipC. Carli

9. Thishas been reprintedas TheGolden Age of the 18. A recordingof the opera withthe originalHouston MoviePalace: The Best Remaining Seats (New York: GrandOpera castwas producedin 1976 by Deut- C.N. Potter,distributed by CrownPublishers [1975] sche Grammophon,2707 083. c. 1961). 19. Schullerincluded a briefessay entitled'The Orches- 10. MartinMiller Marks, Film Music of theSilent Period trator'sChallenge' as partof the linernotes for his 1895-1924, (OxfordUniversity Press, 1994). Treemonisharecording. He, in fact,does justifyhis approachby referringto the pre-warBroadway pit 11. A cue sheet is a set of instructionsfrom a musician ochestras I refer to in my text, as well as 'the hired the film to the musi- by productioncompany excellentclues' furnishedby the Red Back Book cian hired each local theater.It consists of a list by arrangements;however the only show he refersto of musical cued to suggested themes, particular directlyis EubieBlake's Shuffle Along (1921), a sectionsof the filmfor which the cue sheet is pre- post-war revuerather than an operettaor opera, Themusical themes be pared. may popularsongs and Schullerignores the hundredsof orchestrated or sectionsof 'classical'works. Information on pub- rags and genre pieces coming fromEastern pub- lishersis often so that musicthat is not included, lishers,which show an infinitelymore sensitive and on file in the local theater'smusic already library colorfulapproach than the starklyutilitarian Red forthe of scores (keptprecisely purpose constructing BackBook arrangements - some of which border based on the cue sheets' can be or- suggestions) on incompetence.When Schuller mentions resisting dered the cue sheet also notes which works in; 'thetemptation to letthe 'modern'twentieth-century the of to required payment performanceroyalties orchestraof Raveland Stravinsky,and even latter- the ASCAP of (American Society Composers, day Broadway,creep intothe work',he standson and a score Authors, Publishers).Reconstructing solidground; however he lets incompletehistorical froma cue sheet is on the other relativelysimple; knowledgedictate an oppositeapproach. Rick Ben- hand scores in score format a compiled (usually jamin,director of the ParagonRagtime Orchestra score used the cinema's fre- piano by conductor), of New York,is undertakinga new orchestrationof do not the musicused thus quently identify by title, the work that is based upon the few published the modemscholar with the of presenting challenge orchestrationsdirectly ascribed to Joplinand an a welterof musical identifying snippets. intimateknowledge of the orchestrationpractices evidentin theworks of thecomposers who wrote for 12. RobertHamilton Ball, Shakespeare on SilentFilm: the pre-WorldWar One Broadway stage. Of A EventfulHistory (New York: Theater Arts Strange course,this stillcannot be labelled'authentic', but Books,1968). it is a highlyeducated and empatheticguess based 13. WilliamUricchio and RobertaE. Pearson,Refram- uponcircumstantial evidence from several sources. TheCase of the Films ing Culture; VitagraphQuality 20. The scoreand thecue sheetshow identical New Princeton compiled (Princeton, Jersey: UniversityPress, musicselections for fourshort from 1993), 197. except excerpts pieces by the Americancomposer Ethelbert Nevin which in thecue sheet 14. MargaretHindle Hazen, TheMusic Men: An Illus- (1862-1901 ), appear alone, because restrictions tratedHistory of BrassBands in America 1800- probably copyright prevented their outsideof their format. 1920 (Washington,D.C.: SmithsonianInstitution publication original (I Press,1987), 12. have been unable to identifythe corresponding musicin the compiledscore). 15. AlexanderWalker, The Shattered Silents: How the 21. One that occurs to me is TalkiesCame to Stay(New York:William Morrow, question why Chaplin 1979), 26. selected ArthurLange as his collaboratoron the score?My gues is thatthis is a furtherillustration of 16. Collier'scase is covered in RichardAltick's The Chaplin'sinterest in dance and movementto music, ScholarAdventurers(New York: Macmillan, 1950), for Lange'sprincipal line of workwas composing, 142-175. arranging,and conductngpopular dance music;in fact, he was the mostsophisticated arranger of the 17. Georges Bizet, Carmen,in fullorchestral score, 2 late 1920s, and wentfar beyondthe usualpractice vols, 847 p. (Kassel:Alkor-Edition, 1964). Oeser of simplyorchestrating popular songs in dance- has also preparedan editionof CharlesGounod's band formatand actuallyprovided elaborate ver- Faustthat is equallyconfused, jumping between the sionsof popularsongs thatwere as much(or more) original 1859 versionwith spoken dialogue, the his workthan the originalcomposers'. 1863 versionwith recitatives for London'sHer Ma- jesty'sTheatre, and the 1869 ParisOpera version 22. Anderson'sarticle, '"No Music Until Cue": The withfurther alterations and a balletin the thirdact. Reconstructionof D.W. Griffith'sIntolerance', Grif- (Kassel:Alkor-Edition, 1974). fithiana38/39 (1990), 158-172, is the mostmu- Musicologyand the presentationof silentfilm 321

sicallytechnical article to appear in a filmjournal; recordedquality. Among the majorproductions the it is also the clearestdemonstration, to those who magazine adverselyreviewed in this regardwere are literatein bothmusic and film,of the precision Masks of the Devil, Outcast(both 28 November which can be attemptedusing musicalsources as 1928), SyntheticSin, ScarletSeas (both9 January tools in filmrestoration. 1929), and WolfSong (2 February1929).

23. Anderson,op. cit., 162. 34. Reviewof TheSpieler, 'Land', Variety, 27 February 1929. 24. Griffith'sscore for Birthof a Nationis discussedat in SilentFilm. length Marks,Music for 35. RussellMerritt goes into the circumstancessur- roundingthe scorefor Nevsky in 'RechargingAlex- 25. ThomasSchatz, TheGenius of the System:Holly- ander Nevsky- Trackingthe Eisenstein-Prokofiev wood in the Studio Era (New York: Filmmaking War Horse',Film Quarterly 48/2 (Winter1995). Pantheon,1988), 20-22. 36. No-one, to has Carl 26. Schatz,op.cit., 25-28. my knowledge, investigated Laemmle'sactivities as a musicpublisher during the 27. Gerald Bordman,American Operetta (New York early 'teens;operating out of Chicago, his output and Oxford:Oxford UniversityPress, 1981), 97, was sufficientlyimportant that he tookout prominent AmericanMusical Theatre:A Chronicle(second advertisementsin Jacobs' OrchestraMonthly, a edition,Oxford University Press, 1992), 289. leadingAmerican musical trade paper, from 1911 to 1914. Hasanyone researchedthis? 28. Walker,op.cit., 6 and 10-11, and RichardKoszar- ski, 'On the Record:Seeing and Hearingthe Vita- 37. RichardKoszarski, op.cit., The Dawn of Sound,26. phone', essay in TheDawn of Sound, Mary Lea Bandy,editor (Museum of ModernArt, 1989), 16. 38. The recording,issued in 1913 as Victor17393, displaysa considerableuse of woodwindand harp, mixed 29. Walker, op.cit., 97-98, notes the public's and a lightuse of wood-blocks,that place it rather feelingsabout synchronizedscores as opposed to out of the average runof acousticrecording reor- the pit orchestras. chestrations,but well withinthe standardproce- duresemployed. 30. Theterm 'canned music' was coined by JohnPhilip Sousa in his article 'The Menace of Mechanical 39. Frise in the section of The Music' Sally 'Photoplaying' (Appleton'sMagazine, September1906), American 1927, 177, the of recorded Organist,July p. complains decrying increasingprevalence abouta theatremanager who 'afterwe have sear- musicand itssubsequent degradation of bothhome chedthe archives for early French and Englishmusic and publicmusic-making. for "MonsieurBeaucaire", comes down to the pit 31. The rise of as the mediumfor and asks what is the idea of all the Jewishmusic?' recordings primary - no doubt to the modalcharacter of the the diffusionof musicis largelyresponsible for this referring music Still,the remainsthat change of musicaltaste, muchas Sousa predicted. provided. point 'early Precisionsurvives the removalof the orchestra's Frenchand Englishmusic' performed in itsoriginal from the venue eighteenthcentury state (ratherthan, perhaps, a physical presence 'performance' later a nineteenth-or twen- betterthan does vivacityor emotionalintensity, and arrangementby early the of executed tieth-centurycomposer) does notcomplement nine- possibility re-recordingpoorly pas- teenth-and narrative sages naturallyleads to everhigher standards in the twentieth-century techniques. recordedproduct. The decrease in economicfeasi- 40. New YorkNineteen Architectureand Urban- bilityof live performanceas comparedto recor- Thirty: ismBetween the TwoWorld edited Robert dings notonly leads to theadoption of precisionas Wars, by A. Stern studiesthe a primarycriterion of quality,it also undercutsthe (RizzoliInternational, 1987), down the of con- morecharismatic criteria suited to liveperformance. city by breaking types building structedin New Yorkduring that period by their 32. I have always found it wonderfullyabsurd that in function(theatre, single-unit dwelling, apartment this filmthe Swedish-bornOland plays a Chinese house, restaurant,transit building) and thenexam- businessman trying to pass himselfoff as a Cauca- iningurban life in the contextof thesefunctions. sian - in musicalterms, somethingof an A-B-A form! 41. In certain contexts,where an ironic situationis impliedin the plot, an accompanimentthat rein- 33. Varietybegan payingcloser attention to the quality forcesa filmmay stillappear to divergewildly form of synchronizedscores towardthe end of 1928, the screenimage; however,this if thistechnique is and frequentlycomplained about their musical and used indiscriminately,it quickly loses its force.