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Posted: |
Sep 19, 2014 - 7:58 PM
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By: |
sherrill50
(Member)
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Amazing article here on Charlie Chaplin - as a film score composer. I had no idea... http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/arts/music/philharmonic-paying-tribute-to-charlie-chaplin-composer.html?_r=0 By MICHAEL COOPER SEPTEMBER 18, 2014 A CENTURY after his Little Tramp character first appeared on screen, Charlie Chaplin is remembered for many things: as the derby-hatted, mustachioed comic symbol of the silent screen; as one of the first true international superstars; as an actor, writer and director who helped elevate film to a respected art form even as he enjoyed enormous popular success. But it is another, often overlooked aspect of Chaplin’s creative output that will be explored this weekend in New York: his work as a composer. Chaplin, who was reared in English music halls and played several instruments by ear but could not read music, composed the music for his films, beginning with “City Lights” (1931), relying on musical assistants to help him translate his ideas into scores and then soundtracks. Music played an especially outsize role in his first sound features, which were essentially silent films set to music, and he and his collaborators later won an Oscar for the score of “Limelight.” The New York Philharmonic will play Chaplin’s score for “Modern Times,” his 1936 satire on mass production, on Friday and Saturday while the film is screened in Avery Fisher Hall, the ensemble’s latest foray into the kind of cinema karaoke that many orchestras have embraced in recent years to try to draw new, more visually oriented audiences to concerts. And Chaplin, who conceived “Modern Times” in part as a comic commentary on the dehumanizing aspects of the mechanized, industrial world, might have appreciated the path his film music took to 21st-century live performances. Timothy Brock, who will conduct the Philharmonic’s performances, restored the score in 2000, doing painstaking research to transform a recording into something real people could play on real instruments. Mr. Brock, a composer and specialist in silent-film music, was asked by Chaplin’s heirs to reconstruct the score of “Modern Times,” which contains some of the most familiar music that Chaplin ever wrote. Its love theme was later given lyrics and became the popular song “Smile,” which has been performed by singers including Nat King Cole and Michael Jackson. “They invited me to come out to Paris to look at these boxes which had not been opened since 1935,” Mr. Brock recalled. “And I pulled them out and found a score that was about a half a yard thick, and four other boxes of nothing but parts, all in pieces — just a madhouse of bits and pieces of ‘Modern Times,’ which I spent the next year and a half putting together.” Chaplin, who viewed the end of the silent era warily, wrote in his autobiography that “one happy thing about sound was that I could control the music, so I composed my own.” He explained that he wanted “elegant and romantic music” to contrast to his Tramp character, which sometimes led him to spar with his musical assistants and arrangers. “They wanted the music to be funny,” Chaplin wrote. “But I would explain that I wanted no competition, I wanted the music to be a counterpoint of grace and charm, to express sentiment, without which, as Hazlitt says, a work of art is incomplete.” How much of the music is Chaplin, and how much his collaborators — who included some of Hollywood’s greatest film composers — has been a matter of some debate. After the premiere of “City Lights,” Chaplin played down his own contributions, saying that he had “la-la’d,” while his arranger had written the music down and deserved credit. But Mr. Brock said that he thinks Chaplin “sells himself incredibly short” when he says that, and notes that a distinctive style can be heard throughout his films. Some of his collaborators have said that much of the music was substantially Chaplin’s, and tales abound of the demanding way he drove his musical assistants, sometimes for months on end. When his son, Charles Chaplin Jr., wrote about his father’s collaboration with some of the industry’s top talents, he wrote, “Dad wore them all out.” David Raksin, one the arrangers who worked with Chaplin on “Modern Times,” and who later composed the music for hundreds of films and television shows — and was perhaps best known for the theme he wrote for the 1944 movie “Laura” — wrote that Chaplin was integrally involved, contributing much more than tune fragments to be developed and orchestrated. “On the contrary; we spent hours, days, months in that projection room, running scenes and bits of action over and over, and we had a marvelous time shaping the music until it was exactly the way we wanted it,” Mr. Raksin wrote in 1983 in The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress. He recalled how Chaplin would describe the mood and feel of what he wanted, suggesting “one of those Puccini melodies” for the love theme that later became “Smile.” Chaplin, who knew many leading musical figures of his day — his autobiography is peppered with accounts of his meetings with Stravinsky, Caruso, Casals and others — made no grand claims for his music. He wrote of meeting the composer Arnold Schoenberg, whose work he admired. “After seeing my film ‘Modern Times,’ he told me that he enjoyed the comedy but my music was very bad — and I had to partly agree with him,” Chaplin wrote. But the music is now getting a second listen, thanks in part to the live orchestral accompaniments all over the world like the one the Philharmonic will play. “Modern Times” — which, like “City Lights,” was largely conceived as a silent film with music, and has occasional sound effects — was notable for the moment when the Tramp’s voice was finally heard on screen. As a waiter, he sings a gibberish version of the Léo Daniderff song “Je Cherche Après Titine.” For that number, the Philharmonic will defer to the original recording. “The live players will drop out for that part,” Mr. Brock said. “It gives you a chance to hear what the original orchestra sounded like, which I think is terrific.”
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Posted: |
Sep 19, 2014 - 11:56 PM
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By: |
Ludwig van
(Member)
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Wonderful. Thanks for sharing. It is interesting to ask how much Chaplin wrote himself. Did he play an instrument at all? That's key if you ask me. My own feeling is that, even if he had no formal training in music, he probably could hear quite a bit in his head, probably the melodies in a fully developed style. But even so, there's a whole lot more to completing a piece than writing the melody. Harmony is a big question - even within a certain style, there are myriad ways of harmonizing a given melody. Then there's orchestration, which is no small part of the sound either. Without playing an instrument or being able to write anything down, it's hard to believe he would have been able to dictate these other aspects as well. After all, he needed help with some aspects of the music. Not to diminish his musical achievements - to write fully formed melodies in a certain style requires a heap of talent, and (obvious statement of the day) there was no shortage of that with him.
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Did he play an instrument at all? According to the article in the post to which you were replying: "Chaplin, who was reared in English music halls and played several instruments by ear but could not read music..."
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FSM's very own Jim Lochner is currently writing a book about Chaplin's film music, which will be published by McFarland & Company. Currently being researched, Jim's book promises to be a fascinating read. He also reports that the NY Phil concert was wonderful - and greeted by an immediate standing ovation!
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A-M-A-Z-I-NG T-A-L-E-N-T
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