CLOSEUP: Keyboardist accompanies silent films

Posted 10/4/13

by Brian Rudnick

Moviegoers attending the Chestnut Hill Film Group's inaugural screening of the season this Tuesday evening were delighted by the artful musical accompaniment of veteran …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

CLOSEUP: Keyboardist accompanies silent films

Posted

by Brian Rudnick

Moviegoers attending the Chestnut Hill Film Group's inaugural screening of the season this Tuesday evening were delighted by the artful musical accompaniment of veteran keyboardist Don Kinnear. Kinnear improvised as he watched, for the first time, two silent short films chosen by Jay Schwartz (founder of the Secret Cinema) and employed the operatic style of playing and interweaving themes assigned to different characters for the silent main feature he had seen before, W.C. Fields' 1926 "It's the Old Army Game." With his electronic keyboard and a laptop loaded with a digital version of the Wurlitzer organ of the Virginia Theater in Champaign, Illinois he reproduced the music, sounds and special effects ("toy counter") the original audiences in the 1920s may have experienced.

news