BRATTLEBORO — Who says silent movies have to be silent? In fact, they never were.
Historically, the motion pictures of the silent era were backed by piano, organ, and sometimes a whole orchestra. In that way, they were closer to live stage performances than the movies we see today. Often the showing of silent films included acts by singers, dancers, and other vaudeville performers.
On Saturday, Nov. 16, The Commons brings some of that cinematic excitement to life in presenting “Nosferatu,” F. W. Murnau's 1922 German Expressionist horror film, with live accompaniment by The Andrew Alden Ensemble, at the Stone Church, 210 Main St.
The event is a fundraiser to benefit The Commons, which is aiming to raise $30,000 by the end of the year - about 6 percent of its budget.
The Andrew Alden Ensemble, a contemporary and electronic chamber music group from Boston, say they look forward to performing an original score - mixing the sensibilities of classical chamber music with the distinct edge of rock - written specifically to complement the film.
Carolyn Braunius, director of development for The Commons, says the contemporary score will let filmgoers experience this classic film in all its glory, as it was originally intended.
“Nosferatu,” originally “Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens” (translated as “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror;” or simply “Nosferatu”) starring Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok, is revered by film buffs as one of the scariest movies ever made. This unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's “Dracula” brims with images that have entered our folklore of cinematic horror.
Shot in the Carpathian Mountains during film's early days, “Nosferatu” tells the story of real estate agent Thomas Hutter, dispatched by his firm to Transylvania, where he sets out for Orlok's castle at his request to sell him a deserted house in the fictitious Wisbourg, Germany.
During Hutter's stay, strange events begin to occur, leading him to feel the continual presence of a dark shadow. He begins to suspect the Count is not entirely human - but by this time, the Count is en route to Wisbourg, trailing death.
It's worth noting for anyone concerned about bringing younger ones to the show that the late Roger Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote in 1997, “Is Murnau's 'Nosferatu' scary in the modern sense? Not for me. I admire it more for its artistry and ideas, its atmosphere and images, than for its ability to manipulate my emotions like a skillful modern horror film.”
Bringing Nosferatu to resounding un-life
The Andrew Alden Ensemble are Andrew Alden, who composes the group's music and plays keyboard; violinist and violist Beltran Del Campo, who hails from Santiago, Chile, and who is a performance major at Berklee College of Music in Boston; and Andrew's wife, percussionist Teresa Alden, who designs the ensemble's sound.
Together they'll bring power to match the screen action: Featuring piano, violin, and viola, synthesizers, percussion, and electric sound design, the group say they are dedicated to rejuvenating silent film classics such as the iconic, creepy, gothic “Nosferatu.”
They list as their influences composers and performers Steve Reich, Philip Glass, David Lang, Radiohead, the Velvet Underground, and Krzysvtof Penderecki.
Andrew Alden certainly knows what to put into “Nosferatu”: he studied film scoring and composition at Berklee, where he earned a bachelor's degree in composition. And he's scored 15 films and several spots on NBC.
And Alden notes he had time to absorb cinema, growing up in Vermont with its long winters:
“I spent a lot of my time watching movies. Movies had a big impact on me. When I began musical composition in school, I found that a lot of my ideas for chamber music came from images I had in the back of my mind from movies I had seen. You might say that my musical ideas were simultaneously cinematic ideas,” he says.
He describes as a “eureka moment” the realization that he would be an ideal person to provide scores to silent movies. That said, he knew he wanted to present film scores in a special way.
“I realize that I have an enormous impact on the way audiences will watch a film,” he says.
He doesn't envision his scores as merely underscoring what happens on the screen “in a subservient fashion.” This is the way people often see how a soundtrack to a movie works, he says.
Rather, Alden says, he envisions himself as an artistic collaborator of the filmmakers.
“'Nosferatu' is definitely a different experience when viewed with with my score,” he says. “I am able to make an audience look at Murnau's imagery in a distinctly new way with the manipulation of the soundscape. It is not the 'Nosferatu for all time,' but [rather] one particular take on the classic film.”
Alden says he believes that one of the startling things in his presentation of “Nosferatu” is the “disjunction” of music to the film.
“People usually expect romantic music to accompany silent films,” he says. “But what we play is definitely 21st century postmodern music. We intentionally emphasize a separation between the time period depicted on the screen and the music the audience is hearing. This creates a dynamism that can make the most war-horse of a movie suddenly seem fresh.”
And audiences are delighted with the effect: Although The Andrew Alden Ensemble was founded in 2012, the group has been in high demand, having performed live in more than 100 showings of silent films in 2013.
Alden says that his trio loves performing far and wide, but is aware playing so much leaves him precious little time to compose new film scores.
“It takes me a long time to write a score to a film” - at least five or six weeks, he says - “and then we have to set aside another two weeks to learn to play the score.”
So far Alden has written scores for six complete films. In addition to 'Nosferatu,' he has written scores for “The Lost World” (1925), “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925), “Battleship Potemkin” (1925), “Vampyr” (1932), and a special silenced (with subtitles) version of the original “Night of the Living Dead” (1968).
He has also written scores for a collections of short films including a Buster Keaton short and Georges Méliès fanciful “A Trip to the Moon” (1902).
Alden says he's proud to bring the ensemble to Brattleboro to support The Commons. This free weekly newspaper, as well as www.commonsnews.org and the Media Mentoring Project, are projects of Vermont Independent Media, southern Vermont's nonprofit, independent source of news and media education.