Episode 73 Show Notes: Go Into Your Trance
…in which Ben observes both characters in silent films and accompanists entering mental states in which judgment is suspended…
It’s been a long time since Episode 72!
The number of Ben’s personal appearances have recovered to pre-lockdown levels, and there have been many home video projects.
The Cardboard Lover – Ben discusses the extensive digital restoration that was required in working with the 35mm preservation of Miss Davies’ own nitrate print, and the inadvertent advantage of promising it to MoMA for a live show before all home video project was completed. Ben got to play for the film with a live audience before he had recorded the score permanently for the Blu-ray. Ben observed during the show that the character portrayed by Jetta Goudal casts a spell over the Nils Asther character, which makes him suspend judgment, and Ben developed a way to depict that “trance” musically.
Ben accompanied the Marion Davies vehicle The Patsy at the TCM Classic Film Festival this past spring. We hear an excerpt, complete with audience laughter.
Ben discusses his practice of preparing a transition from the pre-credit materials (often restoration information) through the first shot of the film, and played an excerpt of him doing so at the TCM Classic Film Festival, beginning with the festival trailer. (The “Gazinta”)
Ben cites his use of William Perry’s theme for The Gold Rush (1925) for pre-credit music on screenings of that film.
Ben talks about accompanying The Gold Rush at The Strand at Schroon Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, playing on a 1903 Hallett & Davis upright piano, and we hear an excerpt. He talks about the alternation between physical action and tenderness which is unique to Chaplin among the great slapstick comedians.
Kerr asks Ben about the difference between accompanying The Gold Rush on piano and on organ, as he did at the Library of Congress. He noted how familiar he was with the film on a scene-by-scene basis. Ben and Kerr also talked about Ben’s accompanying a program of newly restored Chaplin shorts from the First National period at MoMA. For decades, these films were only available in edited and stretch-printed versions created for The Chaplin Revue, and they have now been restored by MoMA to their original cuts.
Ben announces the creation of The Silent Film Music Podcast Index which will allow listeners to go directly to discussions of particular topics in the podcast episodes. Since this podcast constitutes Ben’s “book on silent film accompaniment”, allowing interested parties to use the podcast as a resource and explore Ben’s ideas and observations on specified subjects. Asking listeners to check it out and share their comments.
Kerr mentions the issue of a new Blu-ray upgrade of the Undercrank Prods. edition of the Edward Everett Horton comedy shorts, following its 2021 release on DVD, and Ben says he would like to do similar upgrades for other Undercrank Prods. catalog titles.
Ben swears he will soon complete the scores for Rediscovering Roscoe, a 2-disc package of newly restored Roscoe Arbuckle comedies, coming soon as a Kickstarter reward, and thereafter to be available through conventional sales channels.
Ben tells of being contacted by Dennis Bartok of Deaf Crocodile to record a score for a home video issue of silent films directed by Czech director Jan Kolár, including St. Wenceslas (1930) and six short films. Ben was interviewed for Episode 38 of the Deaf Crocodile Podcast and described his process for those films there.
We hear an excerpt from the St. Wenceslas score and Ben describes the process of recording the scores for the Kolar package as if he was playing for a show and captured the music in a limited number of takes, as contrasted with the stop-and-go technique common to recorded scores of silent films. Doing so, Ben found himself imagining an audience and experiencing a flow and a mental state analogous to the trance Nils Asther experiences in The Cardboard Lover. Ben talks about using Ivory software for more varied and complex piano samples.
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