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MUSICAL ORPHANAGEMuti musicali / Musical Silents

Programma a cura di / Programme curated by Bryony Dixon e Tony Fletcher

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The Musical Orphanage è il risultato di varie esibizioni di John Sweeney e Tony Fletcher nell’ambito del British Silent Film Festival in occasione della conferenza The Sounds of Early Cinema in Britain svoltasi nel 2009 e nel 2011. I film sono tutti inestricabilmente legati alla musica, in un modo o nell’altro – vuoi come esempi delle connessioni tra suono e immagini nel cinema delle origini, vuoi perché la musica e le canzoni assumevano un ruolo centrale nel film. L’idea era dunque quella di ricreare, ove possibile, la musica originale usata per accompagnare i film, o almeno di offrire un’idea di quelle prime proiezioni.I quattro programmi propongono un assortimento di ge-neri: film-canzone, film su celebri musicisti o compositori, film incentrati sulla danza, la musica dei luoghi, canzoni comiche, estratti da operette e altre famose produzioni, po-esie in musica, un classico dell’orrore ispirato a un famoso Preludio, vivaci canzonette da music-hall e un film d’anima-zione d’avanguardia la cui colonna sonora è andata perduta.L’accompagnamento per questi film ricorrerà a partiture o a dischi riscoperti, verranno ricreate alcune delle musiche più note e verrà dato spazio all’improvvisazione. Saranno ben rappresentate sia la musica classica, sia la musica popolare. Sul versante classico abbiamo tre episodi della serie Famous Music Masters di James FitzPatrick dedicati rispettivamente a Chopin, Bizet e Haydn e Mozart. Nell’episodio su Bizet figura Wheeler Dryden, fratellastro di Charles Chaplin. Dryden appare anche in Indian Love Lyrics, che consiste in quattro poesie di tema indiano tratte da The Garden of Karma di Laurence Hope (presudonimo di Adela Floren-ce Cory) con musica di Amy Woodforde-Finden. Ci sono inoltre tre film in cui figurano varie forme di danza con-temporanea rappresentate da Mary Wigman, Rudolf von Laban e Margaret Morris, che elaborò la tecnica di Isadora Duncan, nonché un cinegiornale su una nuova produzione dell’operetta The Mikado di Gilbert e Sullivan nella Lon-dra del 1926. Il perturbante Preludio in Do diesis minore di Rachmaninoff ispira il film di Castleton Knight Prelude, tratto dal racconto dell’orrore di Edgar Allan Poe La sepol-tura prematura. La musica popolare è rappresentata da interpreti come Jo-sephine Baker, da riviste come The Serpent and the Serpenti-ne prodotta da Jack Hulbert al Metropole Midnight Follies e da canzoni quali la parodia di Adrian Brunel dell’onni-presente Yes We Have No Bananas, datata 1924. La rassegna conta infine il film di Maurice Neumont, in cui figurano persone e luoghi della ‘sua Parigi’ nello stile di Crainquebil-le di Feyder, e (in occasione del centenario del 1914) God Defend the Right, un film di propaganda risalente all’inizio della guerra che doveva essere accompagnato dal canto pa-triottico Rule, Britannia!

Bryony Dixon e Tony Fletcher

The Musical Orphanage results from several performances given by John Sweeney and Tony Fletcher as part of the British Silent Film Festival in conjunction with The Sounds of Early Cinema in Britain conference 2009 and 2011. The films are all inextricably linked to music in some way – whether as early film/sound systems or because they incorporate music and song as a central theme. The idea was to try to re-create, where pos-sible, the original music used to accompany the films, or at least attempt to give a flavour of what they may have been like on release.The four programmes are mixed selections of different genres – some song films, films dealing with famous composers or musi-cians, films focusing on dance, the music of place, comic songs, excerpts from famous musical productions such as operettas, po-ems set to music, a horror classic inspired by a famous Prelude, vibrant music hall songs and an avant-garde animation whose essential score has been lost to us.The accompaniment for these films will use some rediscovered discs or written scores and some of the well-known music will be recreated with other accompaniments being improvised. Both classical and popular music are well represented. On the classical music side we have three episodes of James FitzPatrick’s Famous Music Master Series featuring compos-ers Chopin, Bizet and Haydn and Mozart. The Bizet episode features Wheeler Dryden – Charles Chaplin’s half brother – he also appears in Indian Love Lyrics which consist of four India themed poems taken from The Garden of Karma by Laurence Hope (Adela Florence Cory) with music by Amy Woodforde-Finden. There are also three films featuring various forms of contemporary dance by Mary Wigman, Rudolf von Laban and Margaret Morris, an exponent of Isadora Duncan, and a cin-emagazine of a new production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Mikado in London in 1926. An individual piece of music, Rachmaninoff’s unsettling Prelude in C minor, is the inspiration for Castleton Knight’s Prelude based on Edgar Al-lan Poe’s short horror story The Premature Burial. Popular music is represented by performers such as Josephine Baker, revues such as The Serpent and the Serpentine pro-duced by Jack Hulbert at the Metropole Midnight Follies night-club and songs such as a parody of the ubiquitous Yes We Have No Bananas made in 1924 by Adrian Brunel; Maurice Neu-mont’s film showing people and places of ‘his Paris’ à la Cran-quebille and (for the1914 centenary) God Defend the Right, a propaganda film from the beginning of the war intended to be sung with Rule, Britannia!

Bryony Dixon and Tony Fletcher

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THE NIGHTINGALE’S COURTSHIPGB, 1926-27 Regia: Robert J. Cullen

█ Int .: The Plattier Bros . Prod .: De Forest Phonofilm █ 35mm . L .: 146 m . D .: 5’ a 22 f/s . Bn

AM MEERGermania, 1908

█ Prod .: Deutsche Bioskop █ 35mm . L .: 61 m . D .: 2’ a 16 f/s . Bn

YES WE HAVE NO…GB, 1924 Regia: (attribuito a) Adrian Brunel

█ Prod .: Atlas Living Silhoutte █ 35mm . L .: 131 m . D .: 5’ . a 22 f/s . Bn

DANCE OF THE MOODSGB, 1923

█ Int .: Margaret Morris . Prod .: Spectrum films █ 35mm . L .: 9 m . D .: 19’’ a 22 f/s . Col

THE MIKADOGB, 1926 Regia: (attribuito a) Fred Watts

█ Int .: Darrell Fancourt, Charles Goulding, Henry A . Lytton, Leo Sheffield, John Huntington, Elsie Griffin, Aileen Davis, Beatrice Elboro, Charles Ricketts . Prod .:

Gaumont █ 35mm . L .: 100 m . D .: 4’ a 22 f/s . Col

FREDERIC CHOPINUSA-GB, 1927 Regia: James A. FitzPatrick

█ Int .: Peggy Shaw . Prod .: Music Masters Series █ 35mm . L .: 313 m . D .: 11’ a 22 f/s . Bn .

PRELUDEGB, 1927 Regia: Castleton Knight

█ Int .: Castleton Knight . Prod .: Castleton Knight █ 35mm . L .: 183 m . D .: 7’ a 22 f/s . Bn

PROGRAMMA / PROGRAMME 1

PROGRAMMA / PROGRAMME 2

IT WAS A NICE QUIET MORNINGGB, 1906 Regia: (attribuito a) Alf Collins

█ Int .: Alf Collins . Prod .: Gaumont Chronophone █ 35mm . L .: 56 m . D .: 2’ a 16 f/s . Bn

ARE WE DOWNHEARTED?GB, 1912 Regia: (attribuito a) Frank Wilson

█ Int .: Hay Plumb, Frank Wilson, Madge Campbell, Jack Hulcup, Chrissie White, Alma Taylor . Prod .: Hepworth Vivaphone █ Digibeta . L .: 53 m . D .: 2’ a 16 f/s . Bn

HARP OVERTURE – MARCH TRIUMPHANTItalia, 1930

█ Prod .: Pittaluga-Cines █ 35mm . L .: 102 m . D .: 4’ a 24 f/s . Bn

ON WITH THE DANCEFrancia-Gran Bretagna, 1927

█ Int .: Josephine Baker █ 35mm . L .: 146 m . D .: 5’ a 22 f/s . Col

HAYDN AND MOZARTUSA-GB, 1927 Regia: James A. FitzPatrick

█ Prod .: Famous Music Masters Series █ 35mm . L .: 301 m . D .: 11’ a 22 f/s . Bn

MARY WIGMAN DANSERDanimarca, 1928

█ Int .: Mary Wigman . Prod .: Statens Film Central Viser █ 35mm . L .: 267 m . D .: 10’ a 22 f/s . Bn

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PROGRAMMA / PROGRAMME 3

PROGRAMMA / PROGRAMME 4

ALBERT SANDLER AND HIS VIOLIN – CZARDASGB-Germania, 1928

█ Int .: Albert Sandler . Prod .: British Phototone █ 35mm . L .: 95 m . D .: 3’ a 24 f/s . Bn

TOREADOR’S SONGGB, 1910

█ Int .: Alan Turner . Prod .: Ipsum █ 35mm . L .: 47 m . D .: 2’ a 16 f/s . Bn

GEORGES BIZETUSA-GB, 1927 Regia: James A. FitzPatrick

█ Int .: Peggy Shore, Wheeler Dryden . Prod .: Music Masters Series █ 35mm . L .: 327 m . D .: 12’ a 22 f/s . Bn

SISTER MARY JANE’S TOP NOTEGB, 1907 Regia: Lewin Fitzhamon

█ Prod .: Hepworth █ 35mm . L .: 28 m . D .: 1’ a 16 f/s . Bn

FREDERICK WHITE’S FAMOUS LONDON CABARETSGB, 1927 Regia: Harry Parkinson

█ Int .: Elsa McFarlane, Billy Shotter, Joan Carr, Eddie Childs, Bobby Howes, Hal Sherman, Henry Lytton Jr ., Pat Kendall . Prod .: H .B . Parkinson █ 35mm . L .: 320 m . D .: 11’ a 22 f/s . Bn

TUSALAVAGB, 1929 Regia: Len Lye

█ Prod .: The Film Society/Len Lye █ 35mm . L .: 179 m . D .: 6’ a 24 f/s . Bn

CELLES QUI S’EN FONTFrancia, 1930 Regia: Germaine Dulac

█ Int .: Lilian Constantiti, Georges Vallée; Incisioni originali / Original recordings: A la dérive (Germaine Lix), Toute seule (Fréhel) . Prod .: Isis Films Beta █ 35mm . L .: 130 m . D .: 6’ a 18 f/s . Da: Lobster Films per concessione di Angelo S . Draicchio

PARIS1922

█ Int .: Maurice Neumont █ 35mm . L .: 261 m . D .: 10’ a 22 f/s . Bn

IN A JAPANESE GARDENGB-Germania, 1928 Regia: Karl Freund

█ Int .: Desiree Ellinger, Thorpe Bates, Joseph Nussbaum . Prod .: British Phototone

█ 35mm . L .: 110 m . D .: 4’ a 24 f/s . Bn

FOUR INDIAN LOVE LYRICSUSA-GB, 1926 Regia: James A. FitzPatrick

█ Int .: Peggy Shore, Wheeler Dryden . Prod .: Famous Melody Series █ 35mm . L .: 274 m . D .: 10’ a 22 f/s . Bn

TANZBÜHNE LABANGermania, 1928

█ Int .: Rudolf von Laban . Prod .: Universum- Film-Akten-Gesellschaft . █ 35mm . L .: 214 m . D .: 8’ a 22 f/s . Bn

GOD DEFEND THE RIGHTGB, 1914

█ Prod .: Gaumont █ 35mm . L .: 20 m . D .: 43’’ a 22 f/s . Bn

SCENA MUSICALE A SOGGETTO Italia, 1914 Regia: Arnaldo Giacomelli

█ Sog .: dalla commedia Dal tecc alla cantina di Cletto Arrighi, ridotta da Edoardo Ferravilla . F .: Luca Comerio . Int .: Edoardo Ferravilla (Vecchio), Maria Ferravilla (Gigia) . Prod .: Luca Comerio, Milano (per la Musical Film) █ DCP . D .: 4’ . Bn e Col . Imbibito / Tinted █ Da: Cineteca Italiana, Milano

I film provengono da BFI – National Archive tranne dove diversamente indicato / All the films are from BFI – National Archive except where otherwise noted