On Feb. 23, the John Brown University Music and Theatre Department hosted its Silent Film Project. The Project was a collaboration of piano students from JBU and Ouachita Baptist University to bring Buster Keaton’s silent film, "One Week," to life with music. For a period of 20-30 seconds, students would play their own excerpts of music that accompanied scenes throughout the entirety of the film.
The event was held in the Berry Performing Arts Center with two grand pianos set up on each side of the stage, allowing students to create seamless transitions with their score from scene to scene. Before the movie began, JBU’s Piano instructor, Lisa Auten, encouraged the packed audience to enjoy the film rather than think of the event as a performance. Though she encouraged people to watch the pianists as well, Auten stated that the goal of the project was to entertain the audience through their musical interpretations of the film and through the picture itself. Auten even highly encouraged the audience to laugh out loud, make comments and have fun.
As Auten desired, the audience enjoyed themselves, laughing and gasping while Keaton’s hilarious comedy about a newlywed couple unfolded on screen. Because the movie was silent, it made up for its lack of words using spectacle and slapstick comedy, which were accompanied by the students’ lively music and their musical interpretations of each scene.
Noelle Hogue, a junior performing arts major participating on piano, shared that silent films have nearly always been accompanied by music.
“Music tells you what to feel,” Hogue said. “It brings out different emotions in you that are universal for almost all people. It’s been that way forever.”
As Hogue explained, music has been a part of silent film for ages, dating back to the mid 1890’s. Movie theaters would play live music to add emotion and more depth to the films. Music could be played by a single pianist or a full-sized orchestra, either distinctly planned out or completely improvised.
Ouachita Baptist University’s piano instructor, Dr. Mary Chung, has participated in the silent film project before and led both her own and JBU students through the rehearsal process.
Both John Brown University and Ouachita Baptist University students enjoyed the project.
“Piano is a solo sport. You sit alone by yourself in a practice room, a lot. When you perform it’s by yourself, and no one is there. The silent film is so different. It is entirely collaborative. And while we all have our own pieces, we are all telling one story. We were all waiting in the wings together. And it was good to have something fun to look forward to,” Hogue said.
This was JBU’s first time participating in the silent film project, but there is potential for more collaborations like this in the future for the music department.
Photo provided by Dolo Iglesias via Unsplash