Beau Geste (1926 ) with original Hugo Riesenfeld score (HD)
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- Released in 1926, "Beau Geste" is based on the 1924 novel written by P. C. Wren. It starred English born actor Ronald Colman and Irish born actor Herbert Brenon (who also directed the film). The movie tells the story of three brothers who leave their life of wealth and join the French Foreign Legion after a family treasure mysteriously disappears.
Silent movies were never really silent, they were almost always shown with live music which helped set the mood for the various scenes. For the New York premier of "Beau Geste" at The Criterion Theatre composer/conductor Hugo Resienfeld prepared a music score that consisted mainly of previously published music with just 3 original compositions.
My recreation of this score is based on my original copy of the piano/conductor score. It consists of 109 individual cues with 63 different pieces of music used. To create the score as performed by a theatre orchestra I tracked down copies of each piece of music (or least as many as I could locate). This was made a little easier by the fact that the original score listed these by title and publisher on the last page (although there were many spelling and other errors in the listing!) Riesenfeld’s compositions were published by Robbins-Engel ("Selections from Beau Geste”) and provided the music for the “Boots” theme, the “Legion March” and two different versions of the very important “Brother Theme”. Robbins-Engel also published “The Crusaders” which is used as the “Lejaune Theme”. None of the composers were listed in the piano score which did make some challenges tracking some of the music down. Cues 28-32 were missing in every version of movie that I watched, they were possibly edited out of the film after the New York release. If you turn on the closed captioning you will see the name of each piece of music briefly at the start of each cue.
This score is typical of what a person might of heard in a very large theatre in 1926. Instrument parts include Flute, Oboe, 2 Clarinets, Bassoon, 2 French Horns, 2 Trumpets, 2 Trombones, Tympani & Percussion and a full string section. Smaller theatres probably would have arranged their own score based on the capabilities and size of their house orchestras. Other theatres might have presented the film with the accompaniment provided by a theatre organist, perhaps using the published piano/conductor score.
Public domain note: All motion pictures made and exhibited before 1928 are indisputably in the public domain in the United States. This public domain status also applies to the music used for this film. My performance of this music, however, is copyright and may not be used without my permission.
Nice job! One of Riesenfeld’s best scores, now out of obscurity.
Thanks.
best version in my opnion
Cues 28-32 were in the original 129 minute cut. There are several others in the score, but that would be the longest.
Thanks for the info...I think this happened a lot in films, either right after the initial release or later if they were reissued.
To answer your other question about the score...they are not recorded with a live orchestra (although I wish that could happen but the costs would be huge.) They are sequenced digitally using Sibelius notation software using several techniques...playing the parts live with a keyboard one part at a time per cue and then pasting into a master conductor score or scanning the parts and then cleaning up the result (again one part at a time) or cutting and pasting from one part to another if two parts play in unison. I use a plug in called Note Performer for the orchestra sounds which responds well to all of the needed voicing, expression and articulation requirements. The result is then exported into a wave file (usually in sections of the movie between fade ins) and then the master video is edited in Adobe Premiere where the music score and any sound effects are merged with the video. Once that exported into a MP4 file I create the subtitle file. The advantage of this technique is I can cut and paste into the score anywhere cues repeat (adjusting tempo and expression where required) which saves a lot of time. It is still a very long, time consuming process but it keeps me out of trouble. 🙂 One of the biggest issues I have with these original scores is how many errors they contain...they were obviously cranked out on short notice and the publisher never had a chance to issue corrections.
Yay! Another one!!!
Hello! I thought I commented here but I don’t see it here now, so maybe it didn’t take.
This is an incredible copy of the film and I love your score!
We’d like to review the film on Orphaned Entertainment as well as host the video on our own channel. It would be fantastic if we could use your score as well. Full credit would be given to you on our channel and in the review show.
Please comment here and get in touch with me and let me know.
Yes, I would be willing for that to happened...what's the best way to contact you?
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