IV Auteurship
1) Can you choose one or two scenes from a silent film that you’ve scored in which you engage with the film in an unexpected or unconventional way, and talk a little bit about it/them?
As mentioned earlier, my take on NOSFERATU put the vampire on center stage, his motivations, his desires. A typical movie treatment would heighten the audience identification with the victim.
Harker first meets NOSFERATU at his Transylvania castle, deep into the night. In this scene, the orchestra first centers on Harker. As they sit for dinner and Harker becomes increasingly distracted by his host's unearthly appearance, the marimba and violin pizz play an eighth-note octave pattern, suggesting an anxious passing of time. Dissonant chords recalling haunted distant train whistles emanate from the trumpet, trombone and tenor sax. Tremolo spy-guitar plays a countermelody. As Harker's terror increases, the horns drop out and a sick bass clarinet multiphonic dominates the sound. The marimba drops out and the violin switches to long tremolo glissandos.
The clock strikes midnight, as the drums move into a 12/8 shuffle. Harker accidently cuts himself and blood drips from his finger. Seeing the blood, Nosferatu exclaims "Your precious blood" and suddenly springs like a predatory insect from his chair, confronting Harker in a menacing fashion. The full band launches into a dissonant burlesque mirroring the power and swagger of Nosferatu and is consistent with the Bram Stoker novel which emphasizes the sexual nature of the vampire's lust for blood.
2) Do you think you have a recognizable style in silent film scoring, or that your work is chameleon-°©‐like (like some composers for contemporary film)? If so, how would you characterize that style?
Listeners say that they can hear me in my scores, it might be note selections, phrase shapes, chord progressions, rhythmic treatments. I do not try to maintain a certain "Marriott" style, I compose to the scene and to what needs to be expressed.
3) Do you make an attempt to see/hear the work of other contemporary composers for silent film? If so, can you mention a couple that you admire, and why?
I attend silent film performances whenever I can. I'm often amazed by the treatments! Everything from random electronic knob twisting to sheets of sound saxophone to carefully reconstructed period music to episodic melodies surrounded by free improv.
A small sample of some composers I admire:
Alloy Orchestra - Innovative use of found percussion. Best weather effects
Sheldon Brown - virtuosic, Can mimic anything, yet with his own touch.
Guenter Buchwald - Development of themes over the course of a movie. His singing during "Die Weber"
Matte Bye - Provides an excellent backdrop to witness the emotion on the screen
Beth Custer - Textures during "The Grandmother". Use of improvisation
Philip Glass - His operatic scores which accompany the Cocteau films are an important development of "Cinema Opera"
Phillip Johnston - very wide pallet of sounds, very original treatments of visuals
Flying Lotus - surrealist assemblage - see "Heaven and Earth Magic" on YouTube
Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra - Meticulous reconstruction of the Jazz Age movie experience.
Nik Phelps - Memorable melodies and excellent organic development of musical thought.
4 Do you identify yourself as a practitioner of this particular art form -°©‐ ie do you consider yourself, not necessarily primarily, but importantly, as a ‘composer of original scores for silent film’?
Composing contemporary scores for silent films IS an important part of my expressive "voice". But increasingly I'm interested in projects that include silent film as part of a larger theater presence.
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