One of my favorite trends to emerge over the past year was the scoring of silent films from the early 20th century by modern artists — often performed at screenings for a live audience. Most notably, guitarist Marc Ribot dove headfirst into the genre, interpreting Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, an 8mm version of Dracula, and releasing an album of film-inspired compositions, among other projects. More new silent film scores arrived in the form of Black Francis’ score for The Golem, Stephin Merritt’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Chris Rosenau and Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver)’s live take on Chaplin’s Easy Street, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc by Portishead’s Adrian Utley and Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory, and — just a few weeks ago — the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle performing new versions of songs from the Sweden album over Sir Arne’s Treasure in San Francisco.
Enjoy a taste of these scores (sans the Merritt one) via the collection of videos below:
Clip of Marc Ribot scoring Dracula on acoustic guitar:
The Mountain Goats (w/ John Vanderslice, Jamie Riotto, Jason Slota) Sir Arne’s Treasure (1919):
Part 2
Part 3
(via Village Voice)
Black Francis’ Full Score for The Golem (1920):
Documentary on Adrian Utley and Will Gregory scoring The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928):
Clip of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Chris Rosenau live-scoring Chaplin’s Easy Street (1917):