Creating a Score to a Classic Silent Comedy with the Wind Ensemble—WASBE 2022

Prof. Allen Feinstein

Composer, Director of Bands, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

[email protected], larkfieldmusic.com

One Week (Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline, directors, 1920)  Score by the Northeastern University Wind Ensemble, arranged and orchestrated by Allen Feinstein, Dio Kollia, and Jasmine Bryant:

Movies to consider scoring in addition to One Week*:

*I also encouraged students to watch silent movies that YouTube recommended when they reviewed the movies below.  

Note: any movie from 1926 or earlier is in the public domain.  That said, some restorations of silent films are under copyright. 

And remember—students should watch the movies without the sound!

A Trip To The Moon (Georges Méliès, director, 1902)

Suspense (Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley, directors, 1913)

The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, director, 1903)

The Cameraman’s Revenge (Wladyslaw Starewicz, director, 1912)

Link to google doc that includes sign-up sheet for composing themes and movie breakdown:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yVW603Rd3cTgtD3Md-6aFg-YEDEqyryxIPhyvBMY23E/edit?usp=sharing

Link to google doc that has final movie breakdown, ensemble assignments, and recording notes.  This shows how certain cues were combined, and how ensemble assignments were determined to create a varied texture in the score:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DZGjZCRNtUwbuEbLJN8fwsiTPJJm_ccBtfD5M-s_mDU/edit?usp=sharing