By
WAYNE BLEDSOE, bledsoe@knews.com Some music performances definitely fall under the
category of "events." When Devil Music
Ensemble performs Saturday at the Pilot Light, the music will be an
accompaniment to the little-known 1922 silent film "Big Stakes." "We've done this
sort of thing for three years," says Devil Music drummer-percussionist
Tim Nylander. "We originally
started improvising to silent films, and then we decided to write our own
score," he says. The band, which formed
in 1999 and took its name from a work by modern classical composer George
Crumb, features Nylander, Brendon Wood on guitars, lap steel and synthesizer,
and Jonah Rapino on electric violin, vibraphone and synthesizer. The group
expands on occasion for other events, and plays modern classical music
(sometimes with a 25-member community orchestra), rock and even a regular
country music gig. "It keeps it
interesting for us," says Nylander. Live music accompanying
silent films is a tradition. In the 1920s, orchestras were employed at larger
theaters, and smaller venues (such as the Tennessee Theatre) would have an
organist or a pianist to accompany films. Classic-film revival houses will
sometimes turn silent films into events with orchestral accompaniments of
original scores or new scores. And a few smaller acts, including jazz
guitarist Bill Frisell, have scored classic silents. "Big Stakes"
is the second silent film Devil Music has toured with. The group wrote a
score for the 1919 German classic "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and
toured with the film. While "Caligari" is the sort of movie that
every student of film should be familiar with, "Big Stakes" has
spent the last 82 years in obscurity. "Nobody knows it,
which is really cool about it," says Nylander. "But everybody who
sees it thinks it's great." He says that the band
ordered several silent films from a distributor to preview, but "Big
Stakes" stood out, and the group really wanted to play for a Western. "Big Stakes"
must have been an oddity on its release. Directed by Clifford S.
Elfelt, the movie tells the story of a Texas gentleman who falls in love with
a Mexican woman who is smitten with a Mexican general. In the film's climax,
the hero (and the Mexican army) must help save a blond hometown girl from the
Ku Klux Klan, which has questioned the girl's "racial purity." The film's perspective
is unusual considering that director D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a
Nation" had lionized the Klan and contributed to the swelling of the
racist group's ranks. Nylander says that Devil
Music Ensemble watched the film without music and then watched it again with
instruments at the ready. "It took about two
weeks to get the character themes, and then another two weeks to really nail
it down," he says. Much as an organist or
pianist employed by a theater in the 1920s would've done, the Devil Music
trio incorporated Mexican folk tunes and even the Mexican national anthem
into the score. Knoxville will get to
experience two sides of Devil Music. The group will hold a rock performance
without the film at the Pilot Light tonight. While the band keeps its hooves
in several different genres, Nylander doesn't think that "Big
Stakes" will be the group's last association with the silents. "We'd definitely
like to find new films or score some modern silents," he says. "It
would be cool to see what somebody would come up with today as a silent
film."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
