After Modern times in 2015 and The gold Rush in 2020, the OSM once again turned to Timothy Brock, “curator of Charlie Chaplin’s scores” for the filmmaker’s family since 1998. Wednesday evening was a reminder of the terrible news of Dictatora masterpiece filmed in 1940 by Chaplin.
A few years ago, the OSM’s slogan was “You can never be too classical”. The slogan was both fair and courageous, since the word “classic” has a pejorative connotation for some, associated with “outdated” or old-fashioned. Fair and courageous, however, because the greatness of the status of “classic” is to belong to the past while speaking to us today. The Marriage of Figaro of Mozart do this, the 9th of Beethoven does this, the 5th Symphony by Shostakovich too.
This report is in no way intended to revisit the absolute genius of Dictator by Charlie Chaplin. But if there is one thing we remember from Wednesday’s experience it is that in October 2023 the film is even stronger than when we discovered it, on the cusp of adolescence, in the ‘Alsace devastated by the Second World War, 30 years after the end of the latter. A “classic” that’s it, whether in cinema or in music. And we don’t need to print it on some fashion effect to adapt it to current tastes. Its strength is intrinsic and universal.
Instinct
The subject that concerns us here will be Chaplin and music and it is fascinating in itself. Timothy Brock’s score allowing a projection with live orchestra of the Dictator was premiered in July 2023. So we are among the first to hear it.
As “curator of Charlie Chaplin’s scores” Timothy Brock has produced “13 critical editions of his film scores, including Modern times, City lights, Gold rush And The Kid “, his biography tells us. Chaplin composed many of the scores for his films even though he did not have the basis for it. The pattern is that he hummed or strummed themes that more seasoned musicians transformed into scores.
But his impact was greater, as the great film composer Carl Davis summed up very well: “Chaplin possessed a melodic talent and above all an extraordinary sense of accuracy in the association of film and music. He knew when to fit the music to the action, when to let the melodies flow freely, he knew what to emphasize and what to ignore. »
It was the importance that Chaplin gave to this instinct which scuppered the sulfurous idea of entrusting the music of The Dictator to Hanns Eisler. Sulfurous since the advent of Hitler was at the origin of Eisler’s exile. But as actor Robert Lewis reports in his Memoirs : “After a brief exchange at the piano where Chaplin repeatedly played an original, simple tune in exactly the same way, and Eisler responded with other melodies or variations, the two artists were on such different wavelengths that “it was clear that even Bach, Beethoven or Mozart could not shake Charlie from what he was hearing in his head.”
Chaplin, who needed a “real composer” at his side, therefore collaborated with the American Meredith Willson, then aged 38 and who worked at NBC. The work The Music of Charlie Chaplin by Jim Lochner, indicates that “Chaplin contacted Willson after hearing the creation of his 2nd Symphony, “Mission of California”, in April 1940 by Albert Coates and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. »
Perilous moments
Wilson summarized thus, in the New York Herald Tribunethe work with Chaplin on the music of Dictator : “We divided the film into 70 musical sequences and spent weeks adapting the original music to these sequences. Every musical note in the film, with the exception of one excerpt from the Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Brahms and a piece of the prelude to Lohengrin by Wagner, is original.
As Chaplin knew when to inject music and when to be silent, there are long passages of dialogue or monologue without music in The dictator. This does not prevent the orchestra from having a real impact when it intervenes, for example on military marches or to establish a climate of tender hope.
Wilson’s own remarks echo those of Carl Davis over time: “I have never met a man who devoted himself so completely to the ideal of perfection as Charlie Chaplin […] I was constantly amazed by his attention to detail, his sense of the exact musical phrase or tempo to express the mood he wanted […] »
The challenge of the score with orchestra performed under the projection of the film is therefore there. There is no guesswork in the orchestral accompaniment which must be perfectly precise. Chaplin’s son also testifies, in comments reported on the official website dedicated to the filmmaker, to many of his father’s requirements during recording and relating to “tempo, rhythm, style”.
In her autobiography, Meredith Willson wrote of Chaplin: “I saw him take a soundtrack, cut it up, put it back together, and create some of the most perilous effects you’ve ever heard—effects that a composer would never have thought of.” never thought of it. Don’t have any illusions about this. I was credited on screen for the music of the Dictatorbut the best parts were all Charlie’s ideas, like using the Prelude from Lohengrin in the famous balloon dance scene. » Willson also relates that Chaplin shot the scene where the barber shaves a customer to the sound of the Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Brahms. Willson and the orchestra had to record the piece in perfect synchronization with the stage set up.
The most “tricky” moment of the live accompaniment is there, in this scene, because the slightest sound corresponds to a precise movement of the barber. There is no miracle: Brock and the OSM did very well but were a little off track at the start, found themselves perfectly on the shave itself and were a little out of phase at the end. We’re talking about a few tenths of a second, but it’s almost impossible tightrope walking to achieve.
The evening was obviously overwhelming and the orchestra responded with great responsiveness to this exercise which can be thankless. One of the great merits of this meeting was also to attract an impressive number of young people who were thus able to discover a heritage of humanity.