UnSilent Cinema

UnSilent Cinema

Since 2004 David Spelman has commissioned outstanding musicians to compose and perform scores to accompany classic and underappreciated silent films. Early cinema has influenced generations of filmmakers and continues to inspire audiences today. Spelman’s belief is that it is impossible to appreciate silent film’s power and charm without recognizing the contribution of musical accompaniment.

UnSilent Cinema provides a bridge from the early 20th century to today, making connections between film masterpieces of the past century with a broad spectrum of contemporary musical culture.

Musicians featured include the Grammy Award-winning jazz guitarist and composer Bill Frisell, children's music superstar Dan Zanes, Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden, Marc Ribot, Kaki King, Califone, James Blackshaw, Gyan Riley, David Bromberg, Steve Kimock, Alex de Grassi, Chicha Libra, Buke & Gase, Redhooker, Brandon Ross, Leni Stern, Henry Kaiser, and Keller Williams.

Films scored include features and shorts by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Georges Melies, Yasujiro Ozu, Harry Everett Smith, Wu Yonggang, and Teinosuke Kinugasa.

The Financial Times wrote, "for the past four years, the New York Guitar Festival has given acclaimed guitarists the task of composing a live score to a series of silent films. It’s a trickier exercise than it sounds. The temptation, as guitarist Marc Ribot observed last week, is to create a literal soundtrack – a twang for a punch, a cascading scale for a tumble down the stairs. But this method has a tendency to kill the joke. Better, Ribot said, to take the long view and create a mood." And in describing Justin Vernon and Chris Rosenau's music for Charlie Chaplin's 1917 Easy Street, it wrote, "their nostalgic, legato accompaniment allowed the serious commentary of the film to emerge."

Acoustic Guitar observed, "the concept of pairing silent films with live guitar accompaniment might seem incongruous—after all, most original scores for silent films were written for the piano or for orchestras. But during the Silent Films/Live Guitars events at this year’s New York Guitar Festival, the two mediums interacted brilliantly."

Flavorpill called the series "unique," while the Village Voice described Spelman's pairing of folk legend David Bromberg with Charlie Chaplin' as an "inspired choice.

A partial list of film titles includes the following:

Charlie Chaplin: "Easy Street" (1917)
Charlie Chaplin: "The Immigrant" 1917
Charlie Chaplin: "The Kid" 1921
Charlie Chaplin: "One A.M." (1916)
Charlie Chaplin: "The Pilgrim" (1923)
Charlie Chaplin: "Shoulder Arms" (1918)
Buster Keaton: "Balloonatic" (1923)
Buster Keaton: "Cops" (1922)
Buster Keaton: "The Frozen North" (1922)
Buster Keaton: "The Goat" (1921)
Buster Keaton: "Go West" (1925)
Buster Keaton: "The Neighbors" (1920)
Buster Keaton: One Week (1920)
Buster Keaton: "The Scarecrow" (1920)
Buster Keaton: "Steamboat Bill, Jr." (1928)
Teinosuke Kinugasa "A Page of Madness" (1926)
Georges Méliès: "The Impossible Voyage" (1904)
Georges Méliès: "A Trip to the Moon" (1902)
Yasujiro Ozu: "I Was Born, But…" (1932)
Keisuke Sasaki: "Dkudan Hanayome" (1935)
Harry Everett Smith "Early Abstractions" (1939 - 1956)
Wu Yonggang: The Goddess (1934)