Sounds like an old movie
Musicians add their 2 cents to silent films

April 4, 2004

BY JOHN MONAGHAN
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

When the Devil Music Ensemble sets up its instruments beneath the screen at the Madstone Theaters in Ann Arbor today, the group will be kicking off a film festival of sorts without even meaning to.

Their performance of live music with the 1920 silent movie "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is the first of five area screenings this week -- in three different locations and with no connection between them -- attempting to put a fresh twist on silent movie classics.

In an area where silent films are projected maybe once or twice a year, vintage film fans face a tough decision Saturday between the French thriller "Dans La Nuit" with the Alloy Orchestra at the Detroit Film Theatre and the Redford Theatre's presentation of the 1925 "Ben-Hur" with organist Scott Smith.

Add last month's Blue Dahlia performance with Buster Keaton's "The General" at the East Lansing Film Festival and you've got the makings of a movement.

"There are a million musicians out there providing an aural experience," says Devil Music Ensemble violinist Jonah Rapino. "We, and a lot of other bands, have figured out that there's this tradition that links audio and visual in such an easy, pleasing way . . . The studios made these films, but they always needed sound."

Silent movies were never really silent. Even the earliest screenings had some kind of music accompanying them. But the image of a piano player or organist continually bobbing his head to follow the action on screen has been replaced by synthesizers and unconventional instruments like junk metal and musical saws that some purists say distracts from what's occurring on screen.

Royal Oak musician and visual artist Chris Gerard has been accompanying silent films for the past 15 years, focusing on European sci-fi and fantasy films like "Metropolis," "A Trip to the Moon" and "The Golem." Playing to small but appreciative audiences in art spaces like Hamtramck's Urban Break Coffee House, he will tackle "The Student of Prague" at a yet undertermined venue this summer.

"These early films were inventing the medium, using the form in an experimental way," he says. "You can feel the passion in them. When we were doing 'The Golem,' it's almost as if (director) Paul Wegener knew we would invoke something like this in the future. To me it almost feels like communication with the past or someone who has passed on." Alloy Orchestra's percussion-heavy scores have been an annual attraction at the DFT for the past decade. Originally playing to sellout audiences with their brilliant backup to "Metropolis," they have since expanded their repertoire, this year heavy on slapstick with performances of "The General" and Harold Lloyd's "Speedy."

"Comedies are a lot of fun because you get so much feedback from an audience, you can hear them laugh," says Alloy leader and clarinet player Ken Winokur. " 'The General' is also an epic Civil War story, so the score is much more dramatic . . . Besides, Keaton is so deadpan it's easy to go along with his expression and let the comedy ride on top of it."

Winokur says he and the other Alloy members (Roger Miller and Terry Donahue) spend two or three months working on a score before premiering it live, usually at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado.

The Devil Music Ensemble, which like the Alloy is from Boston, has been around since 2001, using a rotating group of musicians from varied backgrounds. While the Alloy appears with trunks full of metal objects along with synthesizer, banjo, accordion and clarinet, the DME incorporates everything from vibraphone and synthesizer to electric and lap steel guitar, depending on who is in the lineup.

The DME, performing 45 times in the next 10 weeks, say they are filling the gap for venues big and small that can't afford the more-established Alloy. The DME also provides a grass-roots experience, projecting the movies through their own portable video projector rather than using the 35 mm archival prints that the Alloy tours with.

The musicians say opportunities to provide live music with silent films have increased, especially with the advent of DVDs. Appropriate music is needed to back up restored prints being released through companies such as Milestone and on cable channel Turner Classic Movies.

TCM even has a contest where young composers record with professional studio musicians. The contest gives composers a foot in the door and helps correct a major video distributor sin: tacking any available piece of music onto a silent film.

With audiences clamoring for more modern music with their silent films, you might think a traditional organist like Smith would be out of a job. No chance, says the Lansing native. "The organ will always be a part of accompaniment. With the modern music, the film seems almost extraneous. If I'm doing my job right, by the time 10 or 15 minutes pass, you won't even know I'm there."

The Alloy's Winokur understands this concern. "There is a tradition that thinks you should play within the style of music of the time," he says. "We use whatever we think fits the film and makes the show exciting; yet not so weird and avant-garde that we take people out of the reverie they are in."

Mostly, Winokur is proud of the part he's played in the current interest in silent film. "It's such a powerful combination of mediums," he says. "When bombarded with beautiful music and this exciting screen image, an audience can't help but get really involved in it."

Contact freelance writer JOHN MONAGHAN at madjohn@earthlink.net.