SHERLOCK HOLMES ON THE ODESSA STEPS
Two years ago, the silent film SHERLOCK HOLMES (1916), the first Holmes film ever made, was rediscovered at the Cinématheque Française after nearly 100 years. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival restored the film and commissioned me to create a score for the American repremiere. The Castro Theatre was sold out and the audience cheered and applauded both the film and the music.
Now I have been commissioned by the Odessa International Film Festival to expand that 4-musician score for a 45-piece orchestra. The premiere is July 16, 2016 on the famous Potemkin Stairs in Odessa, the "Black Sea Pearl," in Ukraine. I need your help to get this done. It's the opportunity of a lifetime and there is not much time to make it happen. To orchestrate two hours of music in the next two months, I have asked my dear friend, composer Peter Breiner. With 180 Naxos CDs under his belt, he'll do a fantastic job. The festival's fee only covers my part of the project, not his. Your contributions will fund his work, in addition to forging a connection between Odessa, Peter and me for future collaborations.
FROM BROADWAY TO FILM: WILLIAM GILLETTE, THE FIRST SHERLOCK
The film was written by and stars William Gillette, American actor and inventor, whose Broadway play, based on Conan Doyle's stories, and with his permission, was a huge hit in 1899, toured across the US and to Great Britain, South Africa, Australia. Gillette was the first to don the deerstalker hat, smoke the curved pipe, and utter the immortal word, "Elementary!" He mesmerized his audiences and was a huge star. On the big screen he is a formidable presence and audiences in the US and Europe cheered for him at screenings with live music. But there has never been an orchestral performance in our lifetime. Here's another clip from the film. Imagine it with an orchestra on the soundtrack...
THE ODESSA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Last year was the 6th edition of this enormous festival, which screened 400 films and had 120,000 attendees, up 10,000 from 2014. There is a free silent film with live orchestra each year. At previous screenings up to 15,000 people sat on the steps to see Eisenstein's POTEMKIN, Murnau's SUNRISE, and Hitchcock's BLACKMAIL, accompanied by the superb Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra. The
city has a rich cultural legacy: some of the world's greatest musicians—David and Igor Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, and Sviatoslav Richter—were trained there. And my grandparents came from a little village near Kiev. I'm amazed and thrilled to be able to have my music played in Ukraine.
I have been writing silent film music since before there were personal computers. I perform at major film festivals around the world (New York, Telluride, San Francisco, Seattle, Bologna, Pordenone), at New York's MoMA and many other venues. My music is frequently heard on Turner Classic Movies, and on over 50 DVDs. Click on these titles to hear music from
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, NOSFERATU, A STORY OF FLOATING WEEDS, KING OF KINGS. I've scored over a hundred shorts by Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle, Lloyd and Sennett. And I've written a number of orchestral scores, including the first American avant-garde film
MANHATTA (1920), commissioned by MoMA, and most recently, Charlie Chaplin's
THE PAWNSHOP (1916), commissioned by Brown University.
SHERLOCK HOLMES will be the first
feature film score I've scored for a full orchestra.
Funding
The festival has commissioned only the actual writing of the music, and not the orchestration, so I am working in the weeks ahead to make a "short score" for piano with instrumental indications. As I complete each cue I am sending it to my dear friend, Peter Breiner, one of the finest orchestrators in the world.
Peter and I met in Slovakia in 1983 on a recording project, and quickly became best friends. He is an all-around musician—composer, pianist, conductor, arranger, as well as an accomplished writer. I helped him get settled in New York City after he left Bratislava and lived for a while in Canada. You heard his orchestrations for all the national anthems played at the Athens Olympics, and you may have heard his sensational
Baroque Beatles album of concertos in the style of Bach, Handel and Vivaldi. He has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Mozart Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, to mention just a few. He scored the two Chaplin shorts mentioned above just as a favor to me. I would like to return his generosity with a fee that is worthy of his work.
Please pledge what ever you can!
Any amount is welcome.
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And since you were kind enough to read all the way to the end, here's some music to choose perks by: my score (and orchestration) to Manhatta (1920), by Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand, performed live in Manhattan in October 2016 by the Empire Chamber Orchestra, David Bousso, conductor.
Donald and Joanna performing on the Piazza Maggiore at Bologna's Cinema Ritrovato. Oscar-winning author and film preservationist Kevin Brownlow speaking.
More news and previews of the music and film to come! Please pledge now to keep informed!
Thanks so much for your help!