Silent
Motion
"Silent
Motion is a lyrical, critical, and often amusing guide to society's
expectations as to the proper place of music in film. Focusing on the
silent film era as an historical juncture which all but sealed the fate
of film scoring, Iolini adjusts the lense and turns up the volume to
assert music's potential as more than just a supporting player. Iolini
creates strange, wonderful and at times touching music from sampled
projectors, pianos and a 1927 fotoplayer. Silent Motion lampoons those
who would set up hierarchies in art." Limelight Magazine
Composition,
sample edting and performance by Robert Iolini
With: Virginia Baxter - voice, Chris Abrahams - additional keyboards
Produced
at ABC studios Ultimo, Sydney,1998
Production for
the Listening Room Sherre DeLys Engineer - Stephen Tilley
Commisioned by the ABC audio arts program The Listening Room.
Avalaible
on Iolini's 2005 solo album - 'Songs from
Hurt' released
by ReR Megacorp .
Audio
& Transcripts
Episode
one
That music is an invaluable and necessary aid to the success and
enjoyment of moving pictures, is a fact which no one will deny. But the
accompanying, or illustrating, music must be of the right kind, or else
its very aim will be defeated. Unfortunately, the right kind of
"picture music" is something that is not universally understood, and
the musician, no matter how learned he may be in his trade, is beset by
a great many problems, when he attempts to follow and illustrate in
music the fast-moving film.
The prime function of the music that accompanies moving pictures is to
reflect the mood of the scene in the hearer's mind, and rouse more
readily and more intensely in the spectator the changing emotions of
the pictured story. One hears much music in the "movies" that is as
foreign to the action on the screen as anything could be, and
frequently actually kills the effect of the photographer's art.
Episode
Two
The player must be exceedingly careful not to "italicise" the situation
so that it becomes distorted or burlesqued. Therefore he should refrain
from all excesses.
As the musical interpreter of the emotions depicted on the screen, the
player himself must be emotional.
Episode Three
Never
lose sight of the fact that you are placed in a position of
extraordinary advantage to raise and to improve the musical taste of
your audience.
He is a lazy and sterile player who is satisfied that what he is giving
his audience is "good enough."
The player's attitude of mind should always be one of interest, never
betray tiredness or boredom.
Nothing is more quickly sensed by an audience than the inattentiveness
and indifference of the player.
One, allegretto 'til subtitle
Capulet and Montague
Two, heroic 'til combat
Three, agitato 'til end of combat
Four, gavotte 'til Romeo is persuaded
Five, allegretto, similar to number one, 'til Romeo and Juliet meet
Six, waltz lento 'til they form for dance
Seven, minuet, slow and well marked 'til dancers exit
Episode six
The player will characterize the chief actors by suitable motives.
There will be a main theme and the obligatory number of supplementary
selections….. There is no place for the leitmotif in the
motion picture, which seeks to depict reality.
As there is usually a love story interwoven, there will be need of some
sentimental strain besides pieces of a lighter
nature……….. Cinema music is so easily
understood that it has no need of leitmotifs to serve as signposts,
For flights, escaped and chases. The player should hold in readiness
various kinds of musical "hurries." ……..and its
limited dimension does not permit of adequate expansion of the
leitmotif.
The leitmotiv is not supposed to merely to characterise persons,
emotions, or things although this is the prevalent conception.
………………
Not only persons may be characterized by musical theme, but also
localities.
The villain will be characterized by a sinister or sombre theme, the
comedian by a light and frivolous one, and so
on………….Wagner conceived its
purpose as the endowment of the dramatic events with metaphysical
significance.
It is well to choose from among the contemporaneous popular music such
numbers as have become identified with certain emotions, patriotism,
joy, or sadness.……..Here the function of the
leitmotif has been reduced to the level of a musical lackey, who
announces his master with an important air even though the eminent
personage is clearly recognisable to everyone.
The audience will grasp quickest what it is fairly familiar with, and
sometimes a short strain from, or mere suggestion of, a popular number
will go a long way toward telling its
story………… The effective
technique of the past thus becomes a mere duplication, ineffective and
uneconomical. Its use leads to extreme poverty of
composition.
