What is it like to hear and see a live musician accompany a silent film? Luke Heying, Abbie McLaren, Will Sinak, and Nathan Platte tackle that question in this episode by exploring guitarist Marc Ribot’s live musical accompaniment to Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) at FilmScene in Iowa City. We talk about the experience of drinking in Ribot’s brilliantly eclectic soundscape for a silent-era science fiction odyssey.  

More about the team:

Luke Heying is a University of Iowa senior majoring in Economics with a minor in Music.

Abbie McLaren is a University of Iowa senior double majoring in Cinema and Journalism.

Will Sinak is a University of Iowa senior majoring in Cinema.

Resources

For more on Ribot’s music for silent films, check out ShoeString Symphonettes (1997), which features an earlier accompaniment for Aelita composed for small ensemble. Listen too to his album, Silent Movies (2010), which features more of his work for the medium. Brief excerpts from both albums are heard in this episode.

For more on the expanding practice of musicians writing newmusic for silent films, see Today’s Sounds for Yesterday’s Films: Making Music for Silent Cinema, edited by K.J. Donnelly and Ann-Kristin Wallengren (Palgrave, 2016).

Special thanks to FilmScene for hosting Marc Ribot's performance and helping us get tickets to his sold-out show. Thanks also to Jean-François Charles for providing recording space for our conversation.