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Episode 50 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast

Episode 50 Show Notes: Serial Queens, Kovacs Music Videos, and the Charming Raymond Griffith

Live shows continue

Women And The Silent Screen Conference XI at MOMA and at Columbia University June 2022

  • Few complete pre-1917 serials survive with all chapters
  • Analogous to today’s serialized stories in streaming television
  • Accompaniment focuses on tension and release – how to maintain variety?
  • Piano vs. Theater organ – depends on the date of the film’s release

Excerpt #1: The President’s Special  (MoMA June 2022)

Excerpt #2″ Filibus: The Mysterious Air Pirate (Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, NY June 2022)

Milestone Films/Eye Filmmuseum home video release

Technique Tips:

  • “YOU CAN ALWAYS PLAY LESS!”
  • More chamber orchestra, less percussion!

Progress on Ben’s book: The Silent Film Universe

Ernie Kovacs: Grandfather of the Music Video?

  • “Sound Into Sight” – Video sketches rooted in music selections
  • Ernie in Kovacsland, to be published by Fantagraphics – November 2022
  • Ernie Kovacs Collection by Shout! Factory
  • Surgeons / Firebird Suite (Stravinsky)
  • Poker / Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)
  • Street Scene / Concerto for Orchestra (Bartok)
  • Eating / Seven Beauties (Karayev)
  • Bachianas Brasilieras (Villa-Lobos)
  • Musical Office / Jalousie-Sentimental Journey (arranged by Esquivel)
  • Story of a Drop of Water / Lt. Kije Suite (Prokofiev)
  • Preparing for a Date / Concerto in F (Gershwin)

The action in these vignettes is not rooted in narrative, but are visualizations of the sound of the music itself.
Ernie as television director, calling the camera shots to the music

Cross-promotion for Nitrateville Radio Podcast Episode 88:

  • Jon Mirsalis tells about finding and restoring the films found on Lon Chaney: Before the Thousand Faces
  • Richard Simonton talks about preserving the Edward Everett Horton short comedies and many other Paramount films

Scoring Paths to Paradise and You’d Be Surprised starring Raymond Griffith

Who was Raymond Griffith?

Rediscovering and restoring Tom Mix

Back Pay and The Valley of Silent Men directed by Frank Borzage, restored and scored by Andrew Simpson

Ben’s upcoming shows are listed here

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