Timothy Brock (born 1963) is an American conductor and composer specializing in concert works of the early 20th century, orchestral performance practices of the 1920s and 1930s, and live performances to accompany silent film.
Brock has restored silent film scores for various films including Dmitri Shostakovich's only silent film score, The New Babylon (Новый Вавилон) (1929), [1] Manilo Mazza's Italian epic, Cabiria (1913), [2] Erik Satie's dadaist score, Entr'acte (1924) [3] and George Antheil's score to Ballet mécanique (1924). [3] Other film-score restorations include Max Butting's Opus I (1920), Camille Saint-Saëns' L'Assassinat du duc de Guise (1908) and Ildebrando Pizzetti's Sinfonia del fuoco (1914).
In 1998, the Charlie Chaplin estate commissioned Brock to restore the Chaplin-composed score to Modern Times . [4] Brock then restored 11 more Chaplin silent feature and short scores through 2012, including City Lights (1931), [5] The Gold Rush (1924), [6] and The Circus (1928). [7] In 2004, Brock transcribed some 13 hours of unheard Chaplin compositions from a newly discovered acetate recording of Chaplin composing on the piano. This resulted in the creation of a new score for Chaplin's feature drama A Woman of Paris (1923), [8] a work that Brock has conducted in concert a number of times, including at Cinema Ritrovato 2005 in Bologna, the Kino Babylon in Berlin in 2011, as well as a studio recording made with Orchestra Citta Aperta in Rome and London, with whom he has also conducted a complete recording of The Gold Rush in 2012.
Brock has written 27 original scores for silent film, including Miss Europe (Orchestre National de Lyon), [9] Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Berner Symphonie-Orchester), [10] Sunrise (20th Century Fox), The Cameraman (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra), [11] Burlesque on Carmen (Teatro Zarzuela, Madrid) [12] and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Brussels Philharmonic/BMG). [13] Brock's long-standing relationship with the world-leading film-preservation institution, the Cineteca di Bologna, has resulted in 7 scores. Among them are Nosferatu (1922), [14] Lady Windermere's Fan (1925), [15] 3 Bad Men (1926) [16] and Feu Mathias Pascal (1926). [17]
Brock's concert works include three symphonies, three concertos, a cantata, two operas, and a number of individual orchestral pieces. In 1995 he received a composer fellowship from the Artist Trust Foundation, during which he composed his first opera Billy (1995, libretto by Bryan Willis), the Divertimento: Five Picture-Postcards for Orchestra, and his second opera, Mudhoney (1998, adaptation of the original Friday Locke screenplay by the composer and Bryan Willis). In 1999, he was commissioned to compose an orchestral song cycle for soprano Cyndia Sieden: The Funeral of Youth, four orchestral settings to four poems of the English poet Rupert Brooke.
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is a 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on the wife of his estate agent and brings the plague to their town.
Joby Talbot is a British composer. He has written for a wide variety of purposes and an accordingly broad range of styles, including instrumental and vocal concert music, film and television scores, pop arrangements and works for dance. He is therefore known to sometimes disparate audiences for quite different works.
Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, such as documentary films, classic and rarely seen films from earlier periods in the history of cinema, and world cinema. In addition to theatrical distribution, Kino Lorber releases films in the home entertainment market and has its own streaming services for its digital library.
Carl Davis, is an American-born conductor and composer who has lived in the United Kingdom since 1961.
Kevin Brownlow is a British film historian, television documentary-maker, filmmaker, author, and film editor. He is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era, having become interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent documenting and restoring film. Brownlow has rescued many silent films and their history. His initiative in interviewing many largely forgotten, elderly film pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s preserved a legacy of early mass-entertainment cinema. He received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on 13 November 2010. This was the first occasion on which an Academy Honorary Award was given to a film preservationist.
Sydney Earl Chaplin was an American actor. He was the second son of Charlie Chaplin and Lita Grey. One of his major roles was in his father's film Limelight (1952). In theater, Chaplin won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his 1957 performance in Bells Are Ringing.
A Burlesque on Carmen is Charlie Chaplin's thirteenth film for Essanay Studios, originally released as Carmen on December 18, 1915. Chaplin played the leading man and Edna Purviance played Carmen. The film is a parody of Cecil B. DeMille's Carmen 1915, which was itself an interpretation of the popular novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée.
The Club Foot Orchestra is a musical ensemble known for their silent film scores. Their influences include Eastern European folk music, impressionism, and jazz fusion; The New Yorker described their style as "music that bubbles up from the intersection of aesthetics and the id."
Carmen is a 1915 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The film is based on the novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée. The existing versions of this film appear to be from the re-edited 1918 re-release.
Emilio Luigi Carlo Giuseppe Maria Ghione, known as Emilio Ghione, was an Italian silent film actor, director and screenwriter. Ghione was best known for writing, directing, and starring in the Za La Mort series of adventure films, in which Ghione played a likeable French Apache and 'honest outlaw'. Ghione directed, wrote, and acted in every genre of film, and directed some of the most famous stars of the time, including Francesca Bertini, Lina Cavalieri, Alberto Collo, and Hesperia. After his final film role in 1926, Ghione briefly performed on a theatrical tour of Italy. Ghione wrote three novels based around his Za La Mort character, an autobiography, and an essay on Italian Silent Cinema, before his death from tuberculosis in 1930.
Gerhard Gruber is an Austrian composer and piano player. As accompanist for silent films, he has become the leading authority in Austria since 1988.
The Misfortunes of an Explorer is a 1900 French short silent film by Georges Méliès.
Edison Studio is a collective of composers and an electroacoustic music ensemble. It was founded in Rome in 1993 by the composers Mauro Cardi, Luigi Ceccarelli, Fabio Cifariello Ciardi e Alessandro Cipriani.
Remo Anzovino is an Italian composer, musician and criminal lawyer.
Conjuring is a 1896 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès.
Mauro Cardi is an Italian composer.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is an Indian filmmaker, producer, film archivist and restorer. He is best known for his films Celluloid Man, The Immortals and CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel. He has also directed several award-winning commercials and public service campaigns under the banner of Dungarpur Films.
The Witch is a 1906 French short silent film by Georges Méliès. The film is named for a witch, Carabosse, who tells a poor troubadour that he is destined to rescue a damsel in distress, but demands a high price for a magic charm to help the troubadour in his quest. When the troubadour cheats the witch to obtain the magic charm, she sets out in pursuit of him, and puts various obstacles in his way before finally being vanquished by forces of good.
The Triple-Headed Lady is a 1901 French short silent film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 334 in its catalogues.
Les Miracles du Brahmine, sold in the United States as The Miracles of Brahmin and in Britain as The Miracles of the Brahmin, is a 1900 French short silent film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 237–240 in its catalogues.