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  • Music for a silent movie with Yamaha CFX

    Hi guys,

    last 4 weeks I prepered myself for a life performance to the silent movie "The General" with Buster Keaton. I worked out a full pianoscore with the Syncron Yamaha CFX. It is so wunderfull to play with :-)

    Here is my composition: 


    Greetings,

     

    Markus


  • That is fantastic - a huge job doing an entire silent movie. I love Buster Keaton and the music sounds really good for the film.  This will be done live?  That should be a fun event! 


  • Thank you William,

    yes it will be  played live, of course on a grandpiano. Something will be improvised, but I needed to knew the movie very well, so I thought it would be the best thing to write music for every scene. Now I am a really big fan of Buster :-)


  • This is just fantastic. I haven't listened to the entire score, but watched some random fragments and noticed how detailed the scoring is to the events and images. 

    Bravissimo!

    Jos


  • Thank you Jos,

    I tried to wrote the music a little bit with the slapstick in the movie :-) and there is a lot!


  • Doing a silent movie is harder than a sound film not just because the music is always there and so there is a lot, but also because it has to have a constant presence without being annoying.  It is narrating the events along with the scenes, and sound film music doesn't do that at all but rather highlights emotions or images and scenes.  I have wondered if I could do one but have not tried.   Many old silent film scores were just compendiums of tunes in various moods, but to actually compose and/or improvise one is an extreme skill. 

    By the way my favorite silent films are Buster Keaton - Sherlock Jr. and The Cameraman are fantastically good and still hilarious.  


  • last edited
    last edited

    You are right, but maybe I think more old fashion. I did one year ago one small music for a competition.


    For me its easyer to write in this way. 😊

    I didn´t know the Sherlock Jr movie. I am looking for it. Thanks


  • Hi Markus,

    This is quite impressive! I saw the movie before, so it was easy for me to follow the music, you paid attention to so much detail, and it's always to the point, and never intrusive. Thank you for sharing this.

    Cheers,

    Crusoe.


  • Thank you Crusoe,

    nice to see after all this work, that somebody enjoyed it. Thanks a lot for your nice words.


  • Very well done. Fits the film perfectly.


  • PaulP Paul moved this topic from Orchestration & Composition on