On this episode Ben talks about meeting an audience’s expectations of a score when a certain piece of music or style is indicated onscreen, and in a rare case of a non-narrative film made after the silent era. Also covered… Read More »ep. 38: scoring for scenes that suggest or specify a piece of music, and scoring a film from 1948
On Wednesday, Nov 20 at 7pm, there will be a presentation at MoMA about Arthur Kleiner, silent film accompanist. It’s a name classic film fans aren’t familiar with, but he was “the sound of the silents” at the museum for… Read More »Arthur Kleiner – Mid-Century Silent Film Pianist
When I was in college, I played for a silent film course taught by MoMA’s Charles Silver. Charles loaned me a few LPs to listen to, since I was new to this. One of the records was Musical Moods from… Read More »MoMA’s Arthur Kleiner – Moods on Vinyl
On this episode of the podcast — I use a song-title-pun during Mostly Lost, play for the same Chaplin shorts three days in a row to work on an orchestral score, play a Möller in Rome like it’s an orchestra,… Read More »ep. 33: two takes on The Rink, organ as orchestra for a horse, melodies underscore Marion Davies
On this episode of the podcast, I discuss meeting an audience’s expectations while staying true to the film’s original culture, choosing a comedy short to show newbies, and playing for a show where someone else’s music credit is onscreen; also,… Read More »ep. 32: meeting audience expectations, tips on choosing a comedy short, and a trip to Nebraska
About eleven years ago I was hired to compile a book of vintage silent film mood music. To make my selections, I went through inventories of a handful of collections of music published and used during the silent film era… Read More »Silent Era Movie Theater Music Libraries Covered All the Bases…Except One