Cinema celebrates the silent pianist

Silent films often had a piano accompaniment

Many may think silent film pianists are a thing of the past, but some musicians still make a healthy living playing along to old movies at festivals around the world.

The National Film Theatre in London regularly shows silent films and as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, it is holding an evening marking the pianists' contribution.

Speaking to BBC World Service's Newshour, one pianist explained why he believed it important for the music of the silent movies to be remembered.

"It is opera, it's also cinema but it is also theatre and music," he enthused. "It is important that it survives."

Cheesy

Neil Brand is a doyen of silent film pianists, playing at film festivals all over the world.

A regular performer at London's Film Festival, he claimed the original film music is much better than it is given credit for, with some cinemas running to 30 piece orchestras.

The NFT is one of a few UK cinemas licensed to screen original nitrate film

"Music for silent movies has got a terribly bad press. Everybody assumes that it was a terrible upright piano and that the music was cheesy.

"I don't believe that was the case because people wouldn't have gone to cinemas where that happened. There were a lot of cinemas where good strong, professional music was playing."

Improvisation

Brand explained how often he did not see a film until it was put on the projector.

He confessed that sometimes he did not even know the plot, but using the onscreen subtitles he was able to conjure up the mood of a film.

Improvisation, he maintained, remains the key to a good cinema pianist's success.

Charlie Chaplin made his reputation playing the silent tramp

With the advent of talkies in the late 1920s the popularity of such performances was however doomed.

"The audiences, when they heard artists like Al Jolson, were absolutely gob smacked," Brand explained.

"It was like listening in to a private conversation and from then on everybody was wondering what their favourite film star sounded like."

Overnight an industry and an art form disappeared and thousands of highly talented musicians were fired.

Lamenting the loss, Brand commented: "In America alone 55,000 musicians were made redundant over a period of about six months."

"These musicians understood a great deal about improvisation and musical narration, but there was nowhere else for them to go."

Appreciation

The NFT show four silent films per month using five pianists who have been auditioned and specially trained at the theatre.

According to Brand, there are 50 such pianists performing in the world and, he says, their appreciation is growing as a younger generation recognise the quality of their music.

"There is nothing better than playing at a cinema absolutely full of students," he said.

"The buzz in the auditorium and the response that you get back is just tremendous."

The National Film Theatre is screening an evening of silent films, accompanied by the composer Michael Nyman, on Saturday 12 October.