Silence is Golden: Celebrating the History of Silent Films

Matt Marshall is a film lecturer, screenwriter, composer, and accompanist. He teaches Cinema as Art and Screenwriting at the University of Virginia and Film Appreciation for Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Prison Education Program. He has been composing and performing live music to classic silent films for over 20 years with the Virginia Film Festival and other venues throughout the Commonwealth. Marshall has recorded commercial soundtracks for the DVD releases of the British Edition of Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921) and George Méliès' Conquest of the Pole (1912). In 2024, he was named the first Artist in Residence for the Violet Crown Theater in Charlottesville, VA. He hosts and performs live music for silent film programming there monthly.

Imagine what it would be like to walk into a movie theater 100 years ago. You would see a movie screen with a musician or musicians just below it. Sometimes an organist, a pianist, or a chamber orchestra. They would be performing live music to accompany the film because, for roughly the first 30 years (1894-1927), movies had no sound. The images danced on the screen, while live music filled the room. You can compare it to watching a feature-length music video, except the musicians aren’t on screen; they're in the theater with you.

Today, in Charlottesville, we are keeping this 100-year-old tradition alive with a monthly program called Silents Scored Live, at Violet Crown Cinema, located on the downtown mall. It features classic silent films, curated and performed by artist-in-residence and UVA film lecturer Matt Marshall on piano/keyboard, and sometimes his group, the Reel Music Trio.

It took nearly 30 years for film to learn how to talk, but movies were never silent. Live music was first added to cover the noise of boisterous patrons and the click-clack sound of the movie projector. But motion picture exhibitors quickly realized that mood music was appropriate and could enhance the emotional impact of the on-screen action. After all, musical accompaniment for theatrical presentations has a long history, dating back to Ancient Greek theatre in the 6th century B.C.E. and to musical theater traditions worldwide.

At first, movie theaters hired pianists and organists who compiled collections of classical pieces, anthems, marches, waltzes, hymns, folk, and popular songs. They were organized into basic categories, such as Fast, Slow, Upbeat, and Sad. They would do their best to match the music to the scene's actions and atmosphere. Then composers began writing original pieces to cover a variety of moods and situations. These film music pieces have descriptive titles like- Hurry, Chase, Plaintive, Pastoral, Dramatic Tension, Romance, Comique, and Misterioso. Compilation books, such as the Sam Fox Folio was published in 1912. An instructional book “How and What to Play for Pictures,” by Eugene Ahern was published in 1913. This started the Photoplay era.  

Large budget films like Intolerance (1916), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), and Metropolis (1927) had official scores and could be heard at premieres in major cities, but for most of the silent era, compilation books and cue sheets (a list of pieces to play and when, created by the studio and sent out with the film) served your local movie theater musicians. 

With developments in digital archiving, over 3000 pieces of music, cue sheets, and scores from the silent era are now available for viewing and printing online. This means we can see and perform what was played. It is an enormous body of repertoire that has not been heard in over 100 years, but has influenced everything that came after.

Movie theaters have been showing films through digital streaming since 2013. Perhaps audiences are looking for events they can’t get at home. The past can help the present. American composer Aaron Copland said that film music is like “a small flame put under the screen to help warm it (Modern Music, April 1940).” It is my hope that audiences will return to the theater and, once again, experience the warmth of live music at the movies.

The Silents Scored Live Winter Film schedule features several 100th anniversary screenings, including the Soviet Russian montage masterpiece The Battleship Potemkin (1925) on SuperBowl Sunday, 2 pm, Feb 8.https://charlottesville.violetcrown.com/movie/live-musical-score---battleship-potemkin/

For Black History Month, The Flying Ace (1926) was filmed with an all-African-American cast by Richard Norman and the Norman Film Company of Jacksonville, Florida. Sunday, 2 pm, Feb 15. https://charlottesville.violetcrown.com/movie/live-musical-score---the-flying-ace/

For Women’s History Month, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) by female director, Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film. It is made entirely of paper and fabric silhouettes and filmed in stop-motion. The story features the Aladdin character.  Sunday, 2 pm, March 15. https://charlottesville.violetcrown.com/movie/live-musical-score---the-adventures-of-prince-achmed/