Carmen (Bizet)
(1915, score 2013)
The celebrated story of Carmen, as told by two of the greatest film-makers of all time, Cecil B. DeMille and Charles Chaplin, each with their own unique take on the classic story. This very popular program shows both films together, serving as a counterpoint in great silent-film craftsmanship in both dramatic storytelling and comedy in the inimitable Chaplin style.
Carmen
(1915, Hugo Riesenfeld’s original compilation score restored in 1995)
Directed by: Cecil B. DeMille
Writing credits: Prosper Mérimée (novel), William C. deMille
Starring: Geraldine Farrar, Wallace Reid, Pedro de Cordoba, Horace B. Carpenter
Genre: drama
Country: U.S.
Running Time: 60 mins
Famous for his grand-scale and epic films, Cecil B. DeMille (Cleopatra, Greatest Story Ever Told, The Ten Commandments) directs this early feature starring the Metropolitan Opera star Geraldine Farrar, in her 1915 film debut. Carmen, inspired by the Bizet opera, tells the story of the Gypsy girl who, with her great seductive powers, manipulates border officer Don José into facilitating her people's smuggling efforts, and who himself turns to violence in order to keep her affections. The film is a newly restored color-tinted print, and the original Bizet-based score by Hugo Riesenfeld was restored by Timothy Brock in 1995.
Hugo Riesenfeld, conductor of Roxy Theatre Orchestra, was commissioned by American impresario Samuel 'Roxy' Rothapfel to adapt the Bizet for all screenings of Carmen nationally. This is a tremendous task as each theatre, large and small, has vastly varying degrees of sizes and utterly different instrumentation.
Being the talented arranger that he was, however, he made it in such a way that an ensemble of any size or combination could perform it without the loss of a single voice or line, so long as you had a pianist. Which is why one could hear the same exact score in New York, orchestrally, as they could in Omaha, Nebraska, with a piano, trumpet and a triangle. It was after Carmen that this technique became common practice among all silent film composers, and beyond. The score literally traveled with the film reels to each theater that exhibited it, and any combination of players could perform it. It is about this time that film music in America was starting to be recognized for it's potential value as an artistic component of film.
I restored this score in 1995, incorporating the period-performance practices of the 1910's and 20's, most of which has died out with the players who performed them originally. These techniques can include audible string shifting and burnished vibrato, hopped-up tempi, acorn mutes for the brass, etc. All of which is absolutely necessary to provide an emotionally accurate rendition of this score. This holds true for all period music, from the middle ages onwards.
Instrumentation List
Flute
2 Clarinets (B-flat, A)
2 Cornets
Trombone
2 percussion (incl. Timp)
Piano
Strings: max: 8, 6, 4, 3, 2
Burlesque on Carmen
(1915, score 2013)
Directed by: Charles Chaplin
Starring: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, John Rand, Leo White, Jack Henderson
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
Running time: 33 mins
Following the great success of the DeMille Carmen, Chaplin produced a brilliant parody of the film, creating almost identical sets and props, to hilarious effect. This classic comedy stars Chaplin himself as the border officer Darn Hosiery, Edna Purviance as Carmen, with John Rand as the plump Escamillo. The score, commissioned by the Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid from Mr. Brock, is also based on the same DeMille formula, and is a true Chaplinesque parody of the original Bizet. The Burlesque on Carmen becomes one of Chaplin's funniest comedy shorts.
In 2012, I was commissioned by the venerable and storied Spanish institution, Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid, to compose a new score to a film that was, in essence, lost. Having restored the original Hugo Riesenfeld compilation in 1995, I was happy to finally get the chance to compose my own “send up” of the original, just as Chaplin did to DeMille in 1915. And to premiere it in this famous theater, all the better.
My view was to put Bizet through the Chaplin grinder and see what came out. Every composer who adapts overtly famous music for comic purposes, runs the very real danger of sounding like Spike Jones. This had to be avoided at all costs. As genius as the City Slickers were, it goes against all Chaplin musical philosophy: Comedy is killed by comic music. Therefore it was my intention that the music had to be treated somewhat seriously, without indignation, but letting the color of the “period” orchestration do the comic work for me. In other words, I did not want to write a “Carmen foxtrot”, but rather something what City Lights could have sounded like if Chaplin had used Bizet's La Habanera, instead of Padilla's La Violetera.
My orchestrational model being, in fact, City Lights, my efforts were focused towards hearing the Bizet through 1920's ears, somewhat like a hotel-orchestra arrangement. Granted, there is something unsettling about “modernizing” Carmen and utilizing instruments like a sousaphone or banjo, but it does seem to underline the fact that Bizet's music can live, and survive (I hope), through all forms of loving mistreatment.
The orchestration for the Burlesque on Carmen is: piccolo, flute, clarinet, bass-clarinet, 2 alto saxophones, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, 2 cornets, trombone, sousaphone, piano, celesta, percussion, banjo, 4 violins, 2 violas, 2 violoncellos, and contrabass.
Instrumentation List
1 Flute (dbl. picc.)
1 Clarinet (dbl. b-clt.)
Alto Saxophone I (dbl. Baritone sax)
Alto Saxophone II
Tenor Saxophone
2 Cornets
Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion (2 players)
Piano (dbl. celesta)
Banjo (4-string Tenor, required)
Strings: 2, 2, 2, 2, 1
