Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:40:55.114Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Visualizing Music in the Silent Era: The Collaborative Experiments of Visual Symphony Productions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2018

MARY SIMONSON
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In July 1922, the New York Times reported that the “encouraging little film” Danse Macabre was screening at the Rialto Theater in New York City. Directed by filmmaker Dudley Murphy, it starred dancers Adolph Bolm and Ruth Page in a visual interpretation of Saint-Saëns's Danse Macabre that synchronized perfectly with live performances of the composition. While film scholars have occasionally cited Danse Macabre and Murphy's other shorts from this period as examples of early avant-garde filmmaking in the United States, discussions of the films are mired in misunderstanding. In this article, I use advertisements, reviews, and other archival materials to trace the production, exhibition, and reception of Murphy's Visual Symphony project. These films, I argue, were not Murphy's alone: rather, they were a collaborative endeavor guided as heavily by musician and film exhibitor Hugo Riesenfeld as by Murphy himself. Recast in this way, the Visual Symphony project highlights evolving approaches to sound–image synchronization in the 1920s, the centrality of theater conductors and musicians to filmmaking in this period, and the various ways in which filmmakers, performers, and exhibitors conceptualized the relationship between music and film, and the live and the mediated, in the final decade of the silent era.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 2 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Ballets Russes (Diaghilev) Clippings. Jerome Robbins Dance Division. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Adolph Bolm Collection. Jerome Robbins Dance Division. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Adolph Bolm Papers. Special Collections Research Center. Syracuse University. Syracuse, NY.Google Scholar
Adeline Genée Clippings. Robinson Locke Collection. Billy Rose Theatre Division. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Edward L. Hyman Collection. Brooklyn Historical Society. Brooklyn, NY.Google Scholar
Dudley Murphy Files. William Moritz Collection. Center for Visual Music. Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Ruth Page Collection. Jerome Robbins Dance Division. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Hugo Riesenfeld Clippings. Music Division. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Boston Evening Transcript Google Scholar
Boston Post Google Scholar
Brooklyn Daily Eagle Google Scholar
The Evening World Google Scholar
Exhibitors Herald Google Scholar
Exhibitors Herald and Motography Google Scholar
Exhibitors Trade Review Google Scholar
The Film Daily Google Scholar
Motion Picture News Google Scholar
Moving Picture World Google Scholar
Musical America Google Scholar
New York Clipper Google Scholar
New York Dramatic Mirror Google Scholar
New York Globe Google Scholar
New York Times Google Scholar
New York Tribune Google Scholar
Ogden Standard-Examiner Google Scholar
Visual Education Google Scholar
Wid's Daily Google Scholar
Abel, Richard. French Film Theory and Criticism: A History/Anthology, 1907–1939. Vol. 1. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Allen, Robert C. Vaudeville and Film, 1895–1915: A Study of Media Interaction. New York: Arno Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Altman, Rick. Silent Film Sound. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Altman, Rick, and Abel, Richard, eds. The Sounds of Early Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Bottomore, Stephen. “Selsior Dancing Films, 1912–1917.” In The Sounds of the Silents in Britain, edited by Brown, Julie and Davison, Annette, 163–82. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Brown, Julie and Davison, Annette, eds. The Sounds of the Silents in Britain. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Burkholder, J. Peter. “Museum Pieces: The Historicist Mainstream in Music of the Last Hundred Years.” Journal of Musicology 2, no. 2 (Spring 1983): 115– 35.Google Scholar
Burnham, Scott. Beethoven Hero. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Chion, Michel. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Cripps, Thomas. Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film, 1900–1942. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Delson, Susan. Dudley Murphy: Hollywood Wild Card. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.Google Scholar
DeNora, Tia. Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna, 1792–1803. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Donald, James. “Jazz Modernism and Film Art: Dudley Murphy and Ballet mécanique .” Modernism/Modernity 17, no. 1 (2009): 25–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dulac, Germaine. “The Essence of the Cinema: The Visual Idea.” In The Avant-Garde Film: A Reader of Theory and Criticism, edited by Adams Sitney, P., 36–42. Translated by Robert Lamberton. New York: New York University Press, 1978. First published as “L'Essence du cinéma. L'idée visuelle.” Cahiers du mois 16/17 (1925): 64–65.Google Scholar
Friedman, Ryan Jay. Hollywood's African American Films: The Transition to Sound. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Gabbard, Krin. Jammin’ at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Gaines, Jane. “Of Cabbages and Authors.” In A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema, edited by Bean, Jennifer and Negra, Diane, 88–118. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Heath, Stephen. “Comments on the ‘Idea of Authorship.’” Screen 14, no. 3 (Autumn 1972): 86–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, David. The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Koszarski, Richard. An Evening's Entertainment: The Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915– 1928. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1990.Google Scholar
Levy, Suzanne Carbonneau. “The Russians are Coming: Russian Dancers in the United States, 1910–1933.” PhD diss., New York University, 1990.Google Scholar
Metzer, David. “Shadow Play: The Spiritual in Duke Ellington's ‘Black and Tan Fantasy.’” Black Music Research Journal 17, no. 2 (Autumn 1997): 137– 58.Google Scholar
Moritz, William. “Americans in Paris: Man Ray and Dudley Murphy.” In Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde, 1919–1945, edited by Horak, Jan-Christopher, 118–36. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Murphy, Dudley. “Murphy by Murphy.” Unpublished Memoir, 1966. Courtesy of the Center for Visual Music.Google Scholar
O'Grady, Gerald and Posner, Bruce, eds. Articulated Light: The Emergence of Abstract Film in America. New York: Anthology Film Archives/Harvard Film Archive, 1995.Google Scholar
Peterson, Jennifer. “Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film: Education in the School of Dreams.” In American Cinema's Transitional Era: Audiences, Institutions, Practices, edited by Keil, Charlie and Stamp, Shelley, 191–213. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Prevots, Naima. Dancing in the Sun: Hollywood Choreographers, 1915–1937. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Saxena, Jennie, Weissman, Ken, and Cozart, James. “Preserving African-American Cinema: The Case of The Emperor Jones (1933).” The Moving Image 3, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 42–58.Google Scholar
Singer, Ben. Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Snyder, Robert. The Voice of the City: Vaudeville and Popular Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Williams, Tami. Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Ardolino, Amile and Kinberg, Judy, dir. Nureyev and the Joffrey Ballet in Tribute to Nijinsky. New York: Thirteen/WNET, 1981, VHS.Google Scholar
Murphy, Dudley, dir. Danse Macabre. 1922. Disc 7. Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Cinema, 1893–1941. New York: Image Entertainment in cooperation with Anthology Film Archive, 2005, DVD.Google Scholar
Murphy, Dudley, dir. Soul of the Cypress. 1920. Disc 7. Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Cinema, 1893–1941. New York: Image Entertainment in cooperation with Anthology Film Archive, 2005, DVD.Google Scholar
Ballets Russes (Diaghilev) Clippings. Jerome Robbins Dance Division. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Adolph Bolm Collection. Jerome Robbins Dance Division. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Adolph Bolm Papers. Special Collections Research Center. Syracuse University. Syracuse, NY.Google Scholar
Adeline Genée Clippings. Robinson Locke Collection. Billy Rose Theatre Division. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Edward L. Hyman Collection. Brooklyn Historical Society. Brooklyn, NY.Google Scholar
Dudley Murphy Files. William Moritz Collection. Center for Visual Music. Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Ruth Page Collection. Jerome Robbins Dance Division. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Hugo Riesenfeld Clippings. Music Division. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. New York, NY.Google Scholar
Boston Evening Transcript Google Scholar
Boston Post Google Scholar
Brooklyn Daily Eagle Google Scholar
The Evening World Google Scholar
Exhibitors Herald Google Scholar
Exhibitors Herald and Motography Google Scholar
Exhibitors Trade Review Google Scholar
The Film Daily Google Scholar
Motion Picture News Google Scholar
Moving Picture World Google Scholar
Musical America Google Scholar
New York Clipper Google Scholar
New York Dramatic Mirror Google Scholar
New York Globe Google Scholar
New York Times Google Scholar
New York Tribune Google Scholar
Ogden Standard-Examiner Google Scholar
Visual Education Google Scholar
Wid's Daily Google Scholar
Abel, Richard. French Film Theory and Criticism: A History/Anthology, 1907–1939. Vol. 1. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Allen, Robert C. Vaudeville and Film, 1895–1915: A Study of Media Interaction. New York: Arno Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Altman, Rick. Silent Film Sound. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Altman, Rick, and Abel, Richard, eds. The Sounds of Early Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Bottomore, Stephen. “Selsior Dancing Films, 1912–1917.” In The Sounds of the Silents in Britain, edited by Brown, Julie and Davison, Annette, 163–82. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Brown, Julie and Davison, Annette, eds. The Sounds of the Silents in Britain. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Burkholder, J. Peter. “Museum Pieces: The Historicist Mainstream in Music of the Last Hundred Years.” Journal of Musicology 2, no. 2 (Spring 1983): 115– 35.Google Scholar
Burnham, Scott. Beethoven Hero. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Chion, Michel. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Cripps, Thomas. Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film, 1900–1942. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Delson, Susan. Dudley Murphy: Hollywood Wild Card. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.Google Scholar
DeNora, Tia. Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna, 1792–1803. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Donald, James. “Jazz Modernism and Film Art: Dudley Murphy and Ballet mécanique .” Modernism/Modernity 17, no. 1 (2009): 25–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dulac, Germaine. “The Essence of the Cinema: The Visual Idea.” In The Avant-Garde Film: A Reader of Theory and Criticism, edited by Adams Sitney, P., 36–42. Translated by Robert Lamberton. New York: New York University Press, 1978. First published as “L'Essence du cinéma. L'idée visuelle.” Cahiers du mois 16/17 (1925): 64–65.Google Scholar
Friedman, Ryan Jay. Hollywood's African American Films: The Transition to Sound. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Gabbard, Krin. Jammin’ at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Gaines, Jane. “Of Cabbages and Authors.” In A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema, edited by Bean, Jennifer and Negra, Diane, 88–118. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Heath, Stephen. “Comments on the ‘Idea of Authorship.’” Screen 14, no. 3 (Autumn 1972): 86–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, David. The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Koszarski, Richard. An Evening's Entertainment: The Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915– 1928. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1990.Google Scholar
Levy, Suzanne Carbonneau. “The Russians are Coming: Russian Dancers in the United States, 1910–1933.” PhD diss., New York University, 1990.Google Scholar
Metzer, David. “Shadow Play: The Spiritual in Duke Ellington's ‘Black and Tan Fantasy.’” Black Music Research Journal 17, no. 2 (Autumn 1997): 137– 58.Google Scholar
Moritz, William. “Americans in Paris: Man Ray and Dudley Murphy.” In Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde, 1919–1945, edited by Horak, Jan-Christopher, 118–36. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Murphy, Dudley. “Murphy by Murphy.” Unpublished Memoir, 1966. Courtesy of the Center for Visual Music.Google Scholar
O'Grady, Gerald and Posner, Bruce, eds. Articulated Light: The Emergence of Abstract Film in America. New York: Anthology Film Archives/Harvard Film Archive, 1995.Google Scholar
Peterson, Jennifer. “Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film: Education in the School of Dreams.” In American Cinema's Transitional Era: Audiences, Institutions, Practices, edited by Keil, Charlie and Stamp, Shelley, 191–213. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Prevots, Naima. Dancing in the Sun: Hollywood Choreographers, 1915–1937. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Saxena, Jennie, Weissman, Ken, and Cozart, James. “Preserving African-American Cinema: The Case of The Emperor Jones (1933).” The Moving Image 3, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 42–58.Google Scholar
Singer, Ben. Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Snyder, Robert. The Voice of the City: Vaudeville and Popular Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Williams, Tami. Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Ardolino, Amile and Kinberg, Judy, dir. Nureyev and the Joffrey Ballet in Tribute to Nijinsky. New York: Thirteen/WNET, 1981, VHS.Google Scholar
Murphy, Dudley, dir. Danse Macabre. 1922. Disc 7. Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Cinema, 1893–1941. New York: Image Entertainment in cooperation with Anthology Film Archive, 2005, DVD.Google Scholar
Murphy, Dudley, dir. Soul of the Cypress. 1920. Disc 7. Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Cinema, 1893–1941. New York: Image Entertainment in cooperation with Anthology Film Archive, 2005, DVD.Google Scholar