By KRISTIN PROULX
Monitor staff
Jonah Rapino is a soundtrack critic. So when he and
his Boston-based band, the Devil Music Ensemble, got together to create a
musical backdrop for the classic 1919 silent film The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari, they ignored the movie's existing sounds, a sequence of abstract
string quartet pieces Rapino proclaimed colorless. Instead, the three musicians
matched the film with a combination of folksy melodies, haunting violin and
electronic creepiness.
During Rapino's favorite musical moment, the movie's
sleepwalking murderer is making his way to the home of the fair damsel Jane. As
he sneaks and stalks, the Devil Music Ensemble raises the fear quotient.
"We came up with something very scary and
intriguing and rhythmically moving," said Rapino. "It does raise the
hairs on the back of your neck, but there's an underlying song
underneath."
Dr. Caligari, a German film boasting a dreamlike set and a
mysterious plot, is the latest silent movie to receive an original Devil Music
Ensemble soundtrack. The band is in the midst of a two-month East Coast tour of
their live accompaniment to the movie. Usually, they play at small movie
theaters, but when a fan suggested they try the Annicchiarico Theatre in
Concord, Rapino and his band-mates jumped at the chance to set up their own
film projection equipment and perform in a "real" theater. The Devil
Music Ensemble will make its Concord debut next Thursday night.
The ensemble - Rapino on electric violin, vibraphone
and bass; Brendon Wood on guitar, lap steel, synthesizer, banjo and accordion;
and Tim Nylander on percussion - came together three years ago after meeting at
a Boston record store. Together, they share a love for a wide range of music,
including eastern European folk tunes, classi-
cal compositions, country music and sound design.
In the past two years, the band has composed several
original soundtracks to silent films, including the surrealist movie The Blood
of a Poet, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and The First Films of
the Lumiere Bros. Soundtracks tie together the musicians' love of old
films, their interest in multiple musical genres and their passion for writing
music.
When the musicians wanted to try a spookier movie
score, friends recommended Dr. Caligari, the story of a carnival showman
(Dr. Caligari) who exhibits Cesare, a fortune-telling somnambulist who sleeps
by day in a coffin and walks by night. But when people around Dr. Caligari's
small German town begin disappearing, a young man named Francis begins to
suspect Cesare of more evil deeds.
To compose the soundtrack, Rapino, Wood and Nylander
set up a film projector in their practice space, turned on Dr. Caligari
and started playing. Along the way, they recorded their improvisational
efforts, then reviewed the tapes to see which melodies, rhythms and themes
worked best with the film. Sometimes, the character of their music was inspired
by the images on the screen. At other points, the music became its own
creature, said Rapino.
"There are cues in the movie as to what you can
do. If you have a scene where they're at a funeral, you're going to play
funeral music," he said. "For a lot of scenes, there aren't cues for
what you should play. You just kind of fill in the gaps."
The trio's goal, said Rapino, was to create a
soundtrack that was both unique and tied to the film's visual style, not
"haphazard" like some movie scores.
A good soundtrack should not overpower the film
itself, but should influence how the audience reacts to different scenes and
characters. That manipulation is Rapino's favorite part of performing live.
"After a while, the audience totally forgets
about us," he said. "We absolutely become this emotional trigger.
That's one thing I love, making those decisions that definitely affect the
audience's response."
When Rapino watches movies for fun, it's often the
music he remembers most. Though he dismisses a lot of soundtrack efforts as
ineffective or too random, Rapino does have some favorites. The music in films
like Amelie and Delicatessen is "amazing," he says, and
Eraserhead wouldn't be nearly as scary if its eerie soundtrack were any
different.
The group's next project will be a score for the
Western movie Big Stakes. Rapino has already snubbed the existing
soundtrack, which includes a lot of full string orchestration and player piano.
The Devil Music Ensemble will substitute some banjo and old fashioned country
songs, the kind of music the movie's characters themselves might like to hear
during a game of poker.
The Devil Music Ensemble will play its Dr. Caligari soundtrack next Thursday night at 7:30 at the Annicchiarico Theatre in Concord. Admission is $7.