Personal Statement
Playing for silent film is a lot like playing for dance and composing for opera. There are moments of recitative (spoken dialogue), moments of aria (emotional expression) and moments of pure action. The most important thing a composer does for a film is to establish the overall mood. The music should become so much a part of the film that one cannot feel the separation between sound and image, but rather one achieves a synthesis of the two.
I learned many things from playing for modern dance classes that have aided me in playing for silent film. One of these things was to let a gesture speak in silence, having the music appear later, as if in conversation with the moving body. Another was to always support the action on the screen, never calling attention to the music at the expense of that action. A third lesson was to develop a sense of timing, which means sensing when a particular tempo had reached its natural conclusion and when a contrasting rate of speed needed to be introduced. The weaving together of different musical themes and the transformation and development of these themes are what unifies the score to a film. My process is what I refer to as structured improvisation. After previewing a film, I make decisions about musical themes, harmonic vocabulary and style. All this forms the basis for the improvisation. It is in this manner that my music for silent film takes shape.