Part 2 of my interview. Phillip Johnston, leader of the Microscopic Septet and a prolific composer for silent film, emailed me a set of questions in February 2012. This is second installment
II Methodology
1) Are you the sole composer, or do you work in a collaborative fashion with co-composers and/or members of your ensemble? If the second, can you talk a little bit about how this process works?
I was the sole composer for Caligari. I wrote almost all of Nosferatu, but asked Gino Robair, our percussionist to write some cues. I wrote approximately 50% of Metropolis (Moroder version) and other CFO members Steve Kirk, Sheldon Brown, Nik Phelps, Myles Boisen and Beth Custer wrote the rest. I wrote about 25% of Sherlock Jr with the same crew of CFO composers writing the rest. I wrote about 25% of Pandora's Box with an expanded crew of CFO composers writing the rest: Steve Kirk, Sheldon Brown, Nik Phelps, Myles Boisen, Beth Custer, Matt Brubeck, and Elliot Kavee. I wrote about 70% of Hands of Orlac with Sheldon Brown and Gino Robair writing the rest.
With Legong Dance of the Virgins I shared writing with Balinese composer Made Subandi. I was the sole composer for Potemkin, Phantom of the Opera, Indian Tomb, Love Suicides, Metropolis Revised Score, Steamboat Bill, and Godless Girl.
Sheldon Brown wrote about 60% of Golem, with Alisa Rose and myself contributing the rest.
Of the collaboratively composed scores Metropolis, Sherlock Jr and Hands of Orlac, I assumed a music director role, dividing up the film into cues and assigning cues to composers. Sometimes cues were specifically given to the composer who had a natural affinity for a the content: Sheldon's virtuosic writing for the Motorcycle Chase in Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr encouraged me to assign the frantic stage show to him for Pandora. But Pandora was such an long and overwhelming film that composers began to volunteer their repurposed tunes from other contexts for areas in the film that didn't have music yet. What emerged was an elaborate patchwork of compositions from 8 composers. And it worked!
Sheldon assumed the music director role for Golem.
2) Can you give a rough breakdown of your own work process on the film, from first draft to final version?
I usually watch a film numerous times before I "start". I let my ideas and emotions flow over me, and I'll get some creative ideas on how to approach a particular sequence. Sometimes I'll get an inspiration for the dramatic arc of the film, maybe a concept for orchestration. It might be a small thing, like a particular clarinet flourish to match a gesture. Sometimes I hear a fully orchestrated cue and I write it down.
Next I may divide up the movie into cues. I believe this is almost intuitive, humans have a innate respect for narrative and group together events in a way to engage the listener. When the subject character falls asleep is almost always a division point - unless he has a dream or a nightmare that has been elicited from a recent waking action. Change of character, environment, time, action or mood are often the dividing points.
If this is to be a collaborative score I may assign sections to composers at this point. As was said before, I'm likely to assign a section to a composer who will relish it. (a pitch down the middle, in baseball terms).
Often the film will have sequences that represent an evolution of a theme. I would be likely to establish a identifiable theme, tempo, or timbre to these sequences and show a musical development which corresponded with the thematic development. I'm also likely to score scenes that share a location in a identifiably similar way. This is a common technique, a kind of leitmotiv, used by countless composers in opera and sound films.
Rehearsals may start before all the cues are finished, sometimes even before all the cues have been assigned. Frequently composers will do a rewrite after they hear their work in rehearsal.
3) If you haven’t already discussed this, do you begin with a complete structural analysis of the film and proceed with composition with that in mind, or do you just begin at the beginning of the film and start writing?
Mostly described in in the discussion above.
4) Do you consider the issue of whether the score will be faithful to the director’s original intention (either for the entire film, or for individual scenes)? Do think it is acceptable to directly contradict the clear narrative intent of the film?
I believe that a composer is telling a narrative when he scores a silent film. Generally, it is a stronger position if he reinforces the narrative that the movie director is telling, if only for the intelligibility of the film for the audience. But just like many narratives, there may be places where the story is unclear, maybe a "Rashomon effect" where different characters each have their own version of the narrative. Perhaps the composer doesn't like the conclusion that the director comes up with, with reasons that may be artistic, political, or emotional.
Then again, how do we really know what the director's intentions were?
I have seemingly taken liberties with the director's intentions in many films, here's two instances:
NOSFERATU: A typical reading of the film would require the viewer's sympathy lie with the headstrong naive Harker and be at one with his horror as the vampire strikes. I decided to instead follow the vampire and the compulsions which drives this amazing 400 year old creature, a juxtaposition of sex and repulsion as described in the Bram Stoker novel.
METROPOLIS: When Frederson and the Foreman shake hands at the conclusion, is it really a mediation, an agreement? The music tells us that the situation will soon return to business as usual, that things do not really change, if this case the capitalist will continue to exploit and the worker will continue his toil.
Yes it is acceptable to contradict the director - think of a newly composed score for BIRTH OF A NATION - but it's a "thin ice" position which could easily be overdone. And again, has the composer really understood the director's intent?
5) Do you ever intentionally attempt to change the meaning of scenes, characters, plot, or any other aspects of the film with your musical underscore?
Yes, as mentioned above. More instances will come to mind.
6) Do you ever intentionally reference what is conventionally thought of as ‘silent film music’ in your scores? If so, how much? Is this an issue that is much on your mind as you compose?
We've all seen silent films and heard music from silent films. I have never used it intentionally in a silent soundtrack, however I do recognize that it has become part of my palette of sounds. I have used some typical "Short Heroic Brass Phrase repeated up a half step 4x" in my composition "Kong" for choreographer Yoshiko Chuma.
Then again, silent films borrowed from opera and symphonic poems and we all drink from those sources.
This is not an issue when I write.
7) Does knowledge of the history of film music (both silent and sound) inform your scores for silent film, or do you proceed intuitively as a composer?
I proceed intuitively, like a jazz musician who might use a quotation if it suites the mood and heightens communication with the audience.
I have used a retrograde of Grieg's "Morning" for a morning scene in LEGONG. I quoted TOREADOR'S SONG from CARMEN when Dr Schoen suddenly makes the decision to break off his affair with LuLu. I accidently quoted the theme from THE HONEYMOONERS, but I thought it was something else. I took the TRISTAN theme juxtaposed with CAMPTOWN RACES when Buster was thrown into a busy street in SHERLOCK JR. I used AFTERNOON OF A FAUNE as a countermelody to Lulu's theme in PANDORA'S BOX.
Some of the CFO have been more liberal with their quotes as will be mentioned later.
We as consumers of media have collected a repertoire of "interpretive sound motifs". The age-old martial call of the trumpet becomes a heroic fanfare in the hands of Wagner, Strauss, Prokofiev; then became a sword-fighting theme in THE SEAHAWK and a light saber fighting theme in STAR WARS.
But what is important is that the composer transforms the material, makes it speak with his voice, expresses his ideas.
If I ever do a scary shower scene I might just need to mention PSYCHO.
8) Do you consider the issue of musical anachronism at all? By ‘musical anachronism’ I mean the use of musical instruments, styles, or historical references that are from a time period later than that of the film.
Some of the biggest criticisms of CFO's score for SHERLOCK JR have concerned the use of musical techniques which were not used in the 1920's. Most of the score is totally within the possible styles of the 1920's, maybe with a few little passages of free jazz fluttering causing a little consternation. But towards the end when the car chase is accompanied by a James Bond big band with surf guitar, our music purists let loose. This is also where the audience tend to go wild, especially kids.
I believe that the intentional holding back of modern material in the score makes the appearance of the car chase music all the funnier and infuriates our critics all the more.
This hasn't been an issue in other films, not even in METROPOLIS where we used electronic sounds to accompany the first appearance of the robot in Rotwang's lab. so I guess it's mainly a question of the movie's intention - science fiction OK, comedy no way.
9) Do you ever use techniques that are associated particularly with the silent film era, such as using the presumed audience knowledge of songs (and in particular their titles) to express something very specific (as in, for example, Joseph Breil’s use of “Old Folks at Home” in his score for Birth of a Nation, or Carl Stalling’s use of “The Lady In Red” in Bugs Bunny cartoons), or using musical ‘sound effects’? If so, do you use them because they are traditional silent film techniques, or just because they work (or for some other reason)?
I've very seldom gone in for musical quotes of songs for their specific topical value - CFO used LITTLE GRASS SHACK when Buster was on a rock in the ocean in the snippet section of SHERLOCK JR, also used ALOHA as Felix was leaving the party in FELIX THE CAT WOOS WHOOPEE (6 minute short we did in 1992).
Except for an opening "storm and thunder" section for the titles and a couple of SING SING SING choruses, FELIX THE CAT WOOS WHOOPEE score was mostly sound effects, tightly scored, each effect often played by only one performer on their instruments or a small percussion, toy, whistle, bike horn, bottle, mouth etc. The audience loved this score.
METROPOLIS, SHERLOCK JR & STEAMBOAT BILL all have some sequences that use sfx. IMHO sfx are best used in small doses and as a counterpoint to the longer streches of music.
10) Do you make a conscious attempt to make your scores for individual films different from one another, or do you work intuitively in this respect (ie do you approach each score from the same starting point)?
Often I've tried for for a uniform sound world for each film: NOSFERATU with Balkan influences (the fear of the other: the Orient, the plague), muezzin calls to prayer, (also electric slide guitar), METROPOLIS with Futurism (little rapid phrases working together as one machine), PANDORA with Weimar Republic music. SHERLOCK with 20's Americana, ORLAC with diminished scales and Bartok etc. LEGONG with Balinese gamelan of course, but also with a romantic Hollywood longing for lushness.
11) Do you ever begin a score with an overarching concept in mind, specific to that film? If so, can you give an example?
Answered above
12) In what way do you think that the unique aspects of the silent film art form (the acting style, the lack of audible dialogue, the use of title cards, the narrative structure, etc.) affect the way you write music for it?
IMHO silent film is an art of the suspension of belief, not an attempted portrayal of reality as is sound film. Like opera it is wall-to-wall music, but unlike opera, INSTRUMENTAL music becomes the primary way that emotion is transmitted. No dialogue or sfx to get in the way, which means that the composer is free to use textures and instrumentation that would be difficult in a sound film.
Also because it is a FANTASY art form, the composer has additional incentive to go for the fantastic in his music.
13) Do you have a particular way of interacting with title cards and/or dialogue?
Usually I don't do anything special to the title cards - however in PANDORA, I sometimes amped up the intensity during the cards (no reason, just for fun), and in ORLAC I tried to mellow the music during the title cards as we had Pamela Z narrating the English translations of the German text.
14) Do you think it is ever acceptable to intentionally mock or make fun of the film, or elements of it?
Is it "acceptable" to draw a moustache on the Mona Lisa? Is the artist making fun of the the painting? If he is, what is being expressed? I would maintain that the moustachioed Mona Lisa is a new artwork, with the authorship shared between Leonardo and Duchamp. Same with movies with new scores. some might say that it detracts from the movie, but it's certainly "acceptable"
15) Do you attempt to draw attention to or divert attention from the musicians who are playing the live score, or neither? Why or why not?
Do we attempt to draw attention from the film to the musicians? Sometimes. Certainly in FELIX THE CAT WOOS WHOOPEE, having an orchestra of ten musicians playing sfx generates audience interest.
Sometimes a featured soloist will stand, as often would happen in the big band period. I do that for the trombone solo during Buster's entrance in SHERLOCK JR. The movie scene has to be just right.
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