Rick Benjamin's Paragon Ragtime Orchestra
Program Information Roster Biographies Rick Benjamin Notes
RICK BENJAMIN, DIRECTOR
THE CLOWN PRINCES: THE SILENT FILM COMEDY OF KEATON, LLOYD & CHAPLIN
- PRELUDE TO MOTION PICTURE COMEDY (1918)..........George L. Cobb.
- Motion Picture - COPS (1922).
- Orchestral Interlude:
- Motion Picture – NEVER WEAKEN (1921).
- V. A Selection of American Theatre Orchestra Favorites:
- VI. Motion Picture - THE ADVENTURER (1917).
- VII. Exit Music - THE OFFICIAL B.P.O. ELKS CLUB MARCH (1920)..........Harry L. Alford.
starring Buster Keaton, with Virginia Fox as the girl, and Joe Roberts as the detective. Original 1922 orchestral score compiled by James C. Bradford (b. circa 1885, d.?).
YOU’RE HERE AND I'M HERE (1915)..........Jerome Kern.
starring Harold Lloyd, with Mildred Davis as his girl, Charles Stevenson as her brother, Mark Jones as a circus acrobat and Roy Brooks as the doctor. Original 1921 musical score compiled by Samuel M. Berg (b. circa 1870, d.?).
Intermission
a. SWANEE ROSE (one step, 1921)..........George Gershwin.
b. THE J.J.J. RAG (1905)..........Joe Jordan.
c. THE MEMPHIS BLUES (1912)..........W.C. Handy.
starring Charles Chaplin, with Edna Purviance as the girl, Henry Bergman as her father, Eric Campbell as the jealous boyfriend, and Charles Rand as the warden. Original 1917 musical score compiled by Bailey F. Alart (b.? – d.1939).
(The audience is kindly invited to perambulate to the Egress)
Videos & recordings by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra are available for sale in the Lobby. Visit the Orchestra’s website at www.paragonragtime.com
FOR THE PARAGON RAGTIME ORCHESTRA
Technical Director: James Wolfe.
Production associate: Leslie Cullen.
Orchestra management: Kerby Lovallo, New World Classics (860) 870-1583.
Vanguard, New World, Dorian, Rialto, and Newport Classic Ltd. Compact Disc recordings.
1st violin—WALTER CHOI
2nd violin—DIANE COHEN
viola – BILL MULLER
cello— JANE O'HARA
bass— DEB SPOHNHEIMER
flute & piccolo— Leslie Cullen
clarinet— CAROL McGONNELL
cornet— JASON COVEY
cornet— KYLE RESNICK
trombone— TIM ALBRIGHT
drums & percussion— JIMMY MUSTO
Based in New York City, THE PARAGON RAGTIME ORCHESTRA is the world’s only year-round, professional ensemble specializing in the authentic recreation of “America’s Original Music” – the sounds of vaudeville, early cinema, and vintage ballroom dancing. PRO came into being as the result of Rick Benjamin's 1985 discovery of thousands of early 1900s orchestra scores of the Victor recording star Arthur Pryor. In 1988 the Orchestra made its formal debut at Alice Tully Hall - the first concert ever presented at Lincoln Center by such an ensemble. Since then PRO has appeared at hundreds of leading arts venues, including the Ravinia Festival, the Smithsonian Institution, the Chautauqua Festival, the Brucknerhaus (Austria), he New York 92nd Street Y, and the American Dance Festival. In 1999, PRO's music inspired master choreographer Paul Taylor's new dance, Oh, You Kid!, which was premiered at The Kennedy Center jointly by the Paul Taylor Dance Company and the Paragon and has since toured the world. In late 2003 the Orchestra premiered Rick Benjamin’s reconstruction of Scott Joplin’s 1911 opera Treemonisha at the Stern Grove Festival in a performance described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “vigorous and utterly charming.” More recently, PRO had the honor had the honor of appearing as special guests of the Minnesota Orchestra in Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis.
In addition to its world-wide concert hall, university, and festival appearances, PRO has acquired a considerable following both here and abroad through its radio programs on the New York Times' WQXR, National Public Radio, the British Broadcasting Corp., and the Voice of America networks. Since 1989 the Walt Disney Company has relied on the Orchestra for the recorded theme music at its Main Street, U.S.A. attractions, and in 1992 PRO proudly served as "Ambassador of Goodwill" for the United States at the World's Fair in Seville, Spain. Over the years the Orchestra has been heard on the soundtracks of several films and television programs, including Bill Moyer's America's First River on PBS and The Rounders on Turner Classic Movies. The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra's new recording …(finally) PLAYS 'THE ENTERTAINER' (Rialto Records 6005) joins PRO's widely praised discography of historic American theater, cinema, and dance orchestra music.
Conductor Rick Benjamin has built a career upon the discovery and performance of American music from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. He is the founder and director of the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, which uses his extraordinary 9,000-title collection of antique theatre and dance orchestra music (c.1870-1925) as the basis of its repertoire. In addition to his work with Paragon, Mr. Benjamin maintains active careers as a pianist, arranger, and tubist. As a guest conductor he has led many symphonic ensembles, including the National Orchestra of Ireland in Dublin, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Aalborg and Aarhus Symfoniorkesters in Denmark, the Olympia Symphony (Washington State), and the National Orchestra of Iceland. Mr. Benjamin is an energetic researcher of music for silent films; he has unearthed the original orchestral accompaniments to many great motion pictures of the 1910s and ‘20s, which he conducts at film festivals around the world. His articles on popular music appear in several international publications, and lecture tours have taken him to over a hundred colleges and universities throughout North America. Mr. Benjamin's multi-year reconstruction of the Scott Joplin opera =Treemonisha was recently premiered to great acclaim at San Francisco’s Stern Grove Festival, and is he continuing work on his books The American Theater Orchestra and Encyclopedia of Arrangers & Orchestrators: 1875-1925.
Mr. Benjamin is currently at work on a recording and book documenting the music of Afro-American pianist, composer, and songwriter Joe Jordan (1880-1971). The disc is scheduled for release in November 2006 on the New World Records label.
It seems difficult to believe that motion pictures have been with us now for more than a century. Since their development by Thomas A. Edison and others in the 1890s, the "movies" have evolved from humble beginnings into perhaps the most influential art form in human history. And despite the appeal of today's high-tech films, many still find great enjoyment and meaning in the works of Hollywood's pioneers - legends like D.W Griffith, Lillian Gish, and the “Clown Princes” - Keaton, Lloyd, and Chaplin.
The first movie audiences in the 1890s were enchanted simply by the movement of the silvery, ghostly pictures. The early "flickers" were a brief minute or so in duration, and anything that moved was mesmerizing (Fred Ott's Sneeze, depicting one of Edison's hay-feverish technicians, was a blockbuster). But gradually the novelty of pure motion began to wear off, and it was realized that to hold the interest of an audience the pictures should not only move, but also tell a story. The first generally acknowledged film to do this, The Great Train Robbery, was produced in 1903 by Thomas Edison's company. By then Edison - although sole owner of the patents for movie making and exhibiting - had some unwelcome competition. It was obvious that huge fortunes were waiting to be made with movies, and a swarm of rivals appeared, all flagrantly violating Edison's patents. As the Great Inventor's lawyers battled, hundreds of small movie-making outfits sprang up in New York City and Fort Lee, New Jersey. The picture business was on its way to becoming a giant and ever-controversial American industry.
The first motion pictures were introduced to the public on programs of live vaudeville entertainment. They were generally placed last on the bill as "chasers," since audiences tended to exit a theatre more quickly after a movie than after a live performance. Though enthralled by the new technology, many patrons found cinema exhibitions to be nerve-wracking, not just because of the films themselves (which often seemed "eerie" or "otherworldly"), but because the auditorium had to be completely darkened to show them. Theatrical performances had always been done with the audience almost as brightly lit as the performers on stage. Now, plunged into darkness, some patrons felt vulnerable to attack by pickpockets, "mashers," and other unsavory characters. Also, many found the incessant clatter of the movie projector itself to be a source of irritation. Clearly, exhibitors needed to find a way around these problems, and they did - with orchestra music. It seemed logical that the same orchestra that played for the live acts could now accompany the movies. At first, movie music was very haphazard – little thought went into matching appropriate music to the action on the screen (Sousa marches blaring through funeral scenes were commonplace); most conductors had neither the inclination nor the opportunity to preview and plan for coming screen attractions. And while live performers could complain if the music didn't fit their act, the films couldn't - and they suffered for it. But after 1899, when the first specially composed motion picture music appeared, things began to improve, and soon the orchestra's goal was not just to pacify jittery patrons and mask projector noise, but also to reinforce the emotional content of the film. The art of "underscoring" was born.
During the 1910's over ten thousand newly built cinemas appeared across the America. In the smallest of these, called "Nickelodeons," music was usually provided by a solitary piano, tickled by the neighborhood "Professor." But in theatres of any size or pretense, orchestral music was the norm. For the ten-cent admission charge, customers expected to hear violin, clarinet, drums, etc. with their Douglas Fairbanks or Keystone Kops, and as the films grew in sophistication, so did the musical accompaniments. Paragon Ragtime Orchestra recreates the standard American theatre orchestra popular from the 1880s through the 1920s. This versatile instrumental combination was widely employed in a variety of settings; before the advent of pre-recorded music, every prominent hotel, restaurant, cabaret, or dance hall maintained an orchestra of this size. In the theatre, these ensembles provided the vital accompaniment for vaudeville, operetta, musical comedy, and motion pictures. By the 1910s there were thousands of these orchestras at work around the country. They were extraordinarily important disseminators of both popular and classical music, and their influence on audiences of the day can hardly be over-estimated. However, by the late 1920s the Wurlitzer organ and then the "talkies" finally caused the downfall of the regulation theatre orchestra.
Tonight, you’ll have the rare opportunity to experience some of the funniest films by the best of the silent cinema comedians: Buster Keaton (1895-1966), Harold Lloyd (1893-1971), and Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977). As you savor them, you’ll quickly notice the trademark styles that made each of these men world famous. In COPS, as in most of his movies, stoical Keaton finds everyone (and everything) against him, and for reasons he cannot comprehend or control. Yet as his world crumbles, Buster’s beautiful “deadpan” is never compromised. Harold Lloyd was the most popular film comedy star of the 1920s, probably because his “Glasses” character was slightly more realistic and mirrored the social ideals of his audiences. He epitomizes the hustling, plucky young businessman out to succeed through hard work and ingenuity. NEVER WEAKEN unfolds along these winning lines. Finally, what more really can be said about Charlie Chaplin? Transcending fad and fashion, his strange “Little Tramp” surely speaks to the downtrodden part of each of us. In THE ADVENTURER Charlie treats us to acrobatics, melodrama, stylized violence, and chaotic slapstick – in short, a “crash course” in the English music hall traditions of his boyhood.
By reuniting these three wonderful pictures with the authentic orchestral music that went with them, we hope to give you a glimpse of the simple magic and wonderment that was a moviegoer's experience eighty years ago. To paraphrase Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, “These guys are still big…only the pictures got smaller.”
-Rick Benjamin