In 1922 a beady-eyed vampire named Count Orlok shuffled in broken film projections to the horror of German audiences watching the debut of
Nosferatu. Nearly 100 years later, with a revolving cast of blood-suckers come and gone, Orlok still finds space on a screen somewhere for his bald head and pointy ears every Halloween.
Next Friday, October 28 at 8 p.m., at the Center for the Arts at the Armory, multi-instrumentalist Brendan Cooney and four other musicians will inject new life into the classic creeper when they perform their score over the silent film.
Count Orlok, played by Max Schreck, “is such a fantastic character,” Cooney said. “Compared to modern film production, it’s nothing, just a little make-up, but it comes across really creepy.”
The first time Cooney saw
Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau, it was fittingly projected onto the walls of a church in Germantown, Philadelphia. He was asked to play piano for the score at a showing and practiced only once. From then on he knew it would be a project worth delving into. “[The film] has many contrasting moods and overly emotive body language,” he said. “It lets the imagination run wild.”
Debra McLaughlin, Executive Director for The Armory, called the minimal effects of the film “haunting and mesmerizing,” especially when combined with live music.
Cooney, who comes from Philadelphia but very recently moved to the Boston area, has taken his score on the road for a short jaunt through New England this month.
“It’s funny,” Cooney reflected, “Audiences crack up at the things I thought were spooky. Some things were spooky because they come across very campy [even] humorous. The score I wrote brings those things out,” he said.
Cooney took his musical direction from the movie’s spooky setting. Set deep in an ancient castle in the Carpathian Mountains the film has “an old-world Eastern European vibe,” he said. He incorporated klezmer ideas, Yiddish traditions, Hungary folk melodies and gypsy grooves from that round-about area to build an atmosphere that hinges on the kooky, but also the shuddering freak-nature that is prevalent in the film.
On top of that Cooney throws in clarinet, violin, accordion and bass. “I’ve also used a lot of modern improvisatory effects [like] screeching violins and things you might associate with old horror movies like
Psycho” or other Hitchcock scores, he said.
Cooney is a major player in the Philadelphia music scene. For the West Philadelphia Orchestra he plays baritone, in the City Wide Specials, a weekly country/bluegrass concert, he plays banjo and is also a member of Noggin Hill and Rhinoceri Trio. He’s also worked with acts like Dr. Dog, Buried Beds and Rick Berlin as a horn and string arranger.
“The fun thing about this project is the musicians are from very diverse musical backgrounds,” Cooney recognized. “It allowed me to write a lot of different types of music for the score and rely on the players.”
Perfecting the score was very natural thanks to “some killer musicians” backing him up.
Shinjoo Cho, who lives in Somerville, plays accordion, Carlos Santiago is on violin, Chris Coyle is on bass and Larry Goldfinger on clarinet. They are all loosely connected. Goldfinger works with Cooney in the West Philadelphia Orchestra and Coyle is in Rhinoceri Trio with him. Santiago creates avant-garde music, hitting on prog-rock and experimental jazz and Choo plays with the Oscuro Quintet.
Over the last year or so the team rehearsed under ten times, according to Cooney. “[The film] is time-coded with a clock,” he explained. “The more we [play], the less we have to rely on the clock,” and it becomes more about remembering the pacing of the scenes.
Joining live music with film is nothing new for the Armory having hosted versions of
Phantom of the Opera and
Nosferatu before, as well as a festival centered on pairing documentaries with live musicians. “We feel it enriches the viewing [and] listening experience for all parties,” McLaughlin said.
Friday marks a return to the Armory for Cooney who played a few years back. For Somervillians this will be an appropriate start to the Halloween weekend. Tickets are $10 and doors open at 7:30p.m.
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