State Theatre Collection During COVID part 5. Hackneyed?

 All of the music below is still recognized as a link to an image or emotion today. The two clips above are spoofs using that music, true. The first one, Hearts and Flowers was so recognized as a sad theme that by 1920 it was relegated to just being used for melodrama. Still is today. I love people ripping out their iPhones to play this theme if someone is overly sentimental,  One of the biggest names in the composition of music for the silent film was the composer Moses Tobani who wrote it. This piece then owes its whole existence to the silents. So much thinking went into training the audience to recognize emotion from what became a well-known theme and then let it be carried on by it from what was on the screen. Thank you  Rapee and the other people of the era who set this image. Hackneyed now? it just shows its success and should still be used ( maybe a little judiciously with some) today. Even I, as somewhat of a purist, bow to modern taste by increasing the bass of the orchestra of our shows. The modern audience wants a strong bass but 1920s orchestras did not wish to overdo it. Their theatre orchestras should not sound like a jazz band. Tastes change but still the “hackneyed music “must have a place. All of the next examples are in The State Theatre Collection.

Hackneyed?

Rachmaninov Prelude  William Tell Overture  Morning Funeral March Chopin Hearts and Flowers William Tell Overture Finale Mysterioso Spring Song Mendelssohn Light Cavalry Overture Flower Song Spoof of The Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah. Yes, it is part of the State Theatre Collection but you can’t say it has been made hackneyed because of its link with the silent film. I could never expect people like Paul Dyer from The Brandenburg Orchestra to argue that The Messiah is just too well known, we have to spice it up as people are constantly doing with the silent films. Musicians go to extraordinary lengths to make a performance authentic, lowering the pitch of early pieces, using original instruments getting it back to the way it was originally performed.  To spend a fortune to remaster a film to its pristine original 1920 state and then pay a composer to write a brand new composition to accompany it as was done with Metropolis plus many of our wonderful Australian Films is just wrong. It is not respecting the history of film or the era it was shown.