Students in the University of Maryland’s music school have been working on setting old silent films to new music for two years. Soon, their work will be accessible around the world.
Thanks to a partnership with the Library of Congress, the results of the Music and Film program are now becoming available to anyone.
“They have a ton of films that have been preserved. … They wanted to get these films online and get some music with them,” said Pat Doyen, film coordinator for the Music and Film program. “We found they were very interested in doing a collaboration where they would send us their films, and students would write the scores.”
Doyen and Robert DiLutis, a university clarinet professor, are married. As a film archivist and musician, respectively, it only made sense for them to work on a project that brings the two concepts together, Doyen said.
“It’s a really exciting and creative program, and I think it fits right into the School of Music’s mission to create entrepreneurial programs,” DiLutis said.
The volunteer student musicians are given a film and asked to score it using arranged or original music. Then, over a six-to-eight week period, they work with the film and DiLutis meets with them to check on their progress. Once scored, the films are screened live for audiences at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center — the first Library of Congress films premiered last month.
The program has featured about 25 students, who have helped to score about 15 silent films so far, he said.
“It’s a totally different experience,” DiLutis said. “Number one, because most of the music is original, and number two, what they forget is that the music becomes part of the film for the audience, and the audience reacts to the film as well as the music.”
The films will be added to the Library of Congress website and will be viewable internationally. DiLutis said some of the recorded performances at The Clarice hopefully will be available online within the year.
So far, Doyen said, library representatives have been impressed with what students have come up with. She said the collaboration is mutually beneficial.
“It’s a valuable experience for the students,” she said. “But also, the students are making a valuable contribution as well, in helping to preserve and revive these old, silent films.”
Music and Film is still a new and developing program, Doyen said, and as of now, students do not receive credit to participate in these projects. But she said she hopes that will change soon.
“There have been more people interested in doing it than we have had room in the program,” she said.
Joseph Beverly, a clarinet performance graduate student in the music school, has been involved with three Music and Film projects at this university and feels it has been rewarding for him and his work.
“This project is an excellent experience for students,” Beverly said. “It bridges the gap between two very popular art forms and helps you to see exactly how difficult it is to merge them.”
Doyen said it is exciting to see how students can make the films “come alive,” and this program helps make films accessible to people who probably would never have seen them otherwise.
These films “are parts of our history. … Of all the silent films that were made, a very small percentage still exist today,” she said. “The Library of Congress spends a lot of time and money preserving these, and I think it’s important that they get seen.”
