...
Mashpee
Commons P.O. Box 1997 Mashpee, MA 02649-1997 (508) 477-2580
Contact:
T.K. Thompson
Phone:
(508) 477-2580
Boch
Center & Woods Hole Film Festival Join Forces
Alloy
Orchestra The best in the world at accompanying silent films.
MASHPEE
-- WHANG, WHIZ, BANG!! SQUEAK, CLANG, RINNGGG!!
Boch
Center for the Performing Arts and Woods Hole Film Festival join forces
to present the
ALLOY
ORCHESTRA in concert on June 8 at 8 p.m. at the Mashpee High School Auditorium.
The
sounds of the Alloy Orchestra are anything but traditional, but while the
three-man ensemble is admittedly "wild and wacky," they also make beautiful
music together, breathing quirky life into the classic genre of the silent
film.
Alloy
will perform its original music to "Masters of Slapstick," a trilogy of
silent classics ("Easy Street" by Charlie Chaplin (1916); "One Week" by
Buster Keaton (1920) and "Big Business" by Laurel & Hardy (1929). The
orchestra will also perform its original score for a contemporary silent
movie by award-winning filmmaker Jane Gillooly, "Dragonflies, the Baby
Cries (2000), which Alloy debuted with the filmmaker at Lincoln Center.
This 20-minute short was filmed live with a cast of children.
The
Alloy Orchestra's approach to an old musical genre-accompaniment to silent
films-has been credited with revitalizing the dusty era of silent movies,
long replaced by the "talkies." The ensemble doesn't provide solely background
music; rather it adds a compelling blend of music, theatrics and sound
effects to the films that result in an entertaining multimedia show. The
use of synthesizers and common objects enables the orchestra to produce
almost any sound imaginable, from an entire orchestra to radio signals
from Mars.
The
percussion "instruments" -labeled "junk percussion" --include an array
of found objects, such as truck springs, horseshoes and even a bed pan,
as well as bells and whistles. "We'll use anything in our setup, if it
makes a noise," says Winoker.
Alloy
got its start 12 years ago when they were asked to create a score for "Metropolis,"
a silent film showing at the Coolidge Corner theatre in Brookline, Mass.
Content for years as obscure musicians, the orchestra found itself in demand
after appearing at the Telluride Film Festival in 1991 and being the recipient
of a rave review by film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times who
called the group "the best in the world at accompanying silent films."
Since then, Telluride has become an annual tour stop for the orchestra,
which has emerged as the best-known silent film accompanist in the world.
The orchestra works closely with archives and collectors such as the George
Eastman House to present extraordinarily beautiful prints of some of century's
greatest films.
The
group has composed scores for 13 feature-length silent films and numerous
contemporary shorts that they perform in repertory at museums, festivals
and movie theaters. In addition to work with silents, the orchestra has
contributed soundtracks to commercial videos for IBM, UPS, The Museum of
Fine Arts in Boston, the National Park Service and other projects.
BIG
BUSINESS
ONE
WEEK
The
Alloy Orchestra's Boston-area-based musicians include Roger C. Miller on
synthesizer; Ken Winoker on clarinet and percussion; and Terry Donahue,
percussion, saw, and banjo.
EASY
STREET
Dragonflies,
The Baby Cries