The New Year in silent film accompaniment starts for me on Monday, Jan. 6, when I'll do music for Harry Langdon's great comedy 'The Strong Man' (1926) at the Garden Cinema in Greenfield, Mass.
Details and more info about the screening are in the press release pasted below.
But before we plunge headlong into 2025, I'd like to pause to round up a few thoughts about where I am and where I'm going.
First: I didn't realize it until just now, but 2025 will mark the 20th year that I've been regularly accompanying silent film screenings.
After all this time and effort, I feel like I'm finally beginning to really know how to do it consistently and effectively. No joke!
One reason for this is that I've been devoting time to improving my keyboard technique. I've done this by regularly running through the old Hanon piano exercises, and then seriously working on actual concert pieces.
Although some sections are still pretty rough and slow going, and I've memorized only about 60 percent of it, I hope to have the whole thing under my fingers in the near future.
This helps with silent film accompaniment by giving me a more robust technique to call on when needed. It trains the hands to do more during improvisation, which is how I do music for most silent films.
Also, after 20 years and more than 1,500 screenings, I feel I've developed a fluency in the art of silent film accompaniment---a sense of what works, when to hold back, when to come on strong, and so many other elements that go into effective scoring.
In addition, I've forged my own personal musical language. I feel this enables me to bring a vintage film to life for today's audiences with music that's respectful of the films and the period, but still feels fresh and reflects today's notions of effective film scoring.
It's also an exciting time in general. I feel my life has been divided into separate but overlapping phases, and I feel I'm on the cusp of entering a new period in which I'll finally be able to devote time and energy to several writing projects I've had in mind for many years now.
Yes, writing. I was trained as a journalist, and that's what I did for a time after graduating from Fordham University in 1986. I thought that writing for newspapers would be a great way for me to get started on my own long-term writing ambitions.
To write and get paid for it while learning about life---what could be better?
But after a few years of in-the-trenches reporting (which is very different from literary writing), I took an opportunity to jump into newspaper management, which eventually led to me getting an MBA and co-founding a publishing company.
So I was doing as much writing as ever, but it was nearly all business-related. My own personal writing projects went into hibernation due to day-to-day priorities that seemed more immediate, and also perhaps because felt I wasn't quite ready.
So nothing happened, and for a long time it seemed like life had other plans for me. Just as the publishing company was becoming established, I also became caregiver for my mother as her health declined. This turned into pretty much another full-time job for the 10 years prior to her death in 2018.
During this time, the only writing-related activity on my part was to threaten to publish a pamphlet intended for caregivers of elderly parents. I would joke about the title: "Don't Expect A Thank You!" (Sorry, Mom. Just going for the laugh again.)
Following her death, I took on a new challenge---the management of a non-profit aviation museum that over the past six years has been yet another all-consuming crusade, as it had to be.
Couldn't I do writing in my spare time? Not really, as that was filled with music.
All during this time, music was my off-the-clock release, therapy, salvation, and primal scream.
Going back to the beginning, I very serious about music at a young age. But I pretty much gave it up when I went into the word business, first as an English major at Fordham and then as a journalist.
But music didn't give up on me. Starting in 2000, I began singing in the chorus of a professional opera company based in New Hampshire, which was hugely rewarding and allowed me to get familiar with some of the classics of the genre.
I also began playing keyboard in pit orchestras for musicals such as 'Ragtime' and 'Titanic,' both performed at the time by a local community theater group.
And then, after working with local filmmaker Bill Millios to create music for 'Dangerous Crosswinds' (2005), a drama he made here in New Hampshire, I began the silent film accompaniment activities that continue to this day.
In the process of all this frenetic activity, I've recently blown past age 60. (I'll actually hit 61 the week after next!)
And guess what? In the past year or so, I've felt a growing sense of finally being ready to go back to the start and do what I originally hoped to do a long time ago now. Write!
And that's good, as over the years I've accumulated ideas or premises or outlines for at least a dozen books I hope to eventually tackle.
Really! So in 2025 I hope to begin pulling together material to shape into a book-length manuscript, and then do it again and again as I ransack the idea cupboard.
And I think all the experience in business and music has helped me get to this point. It's served to sharpen my sense of self and also how I view the world we inhabit. It's given me something to write about.
One reason for this transformation, I think, was a project I helped with this past year. Last summer, I had the privilege of reading a book-length manuscript about silent film by my accompanist colleague Ben Model.
It was a great read, by the way, and I encourage you to pick up the book when it's published, which I believe will happen later this year.
But it also opened my eyes to the idea of writing about silent film from my own perspective. There's so much that I want to say! It would be a way to answer the questions I often get asked at screenings. (And it would be totally different from what Ben did with his own book.)
Also in 2024, I worked on another manuscript for a local history book commissioned by the Aviation Museum of N.H., where I'm executive director. I collaborated with author Leah Dearborn on the book's overall organization as well as line-by-line editing as each section was drafted.
(The book, 'Grenier Air Base: A Beacon on the Home Front,' has since been published and has been very well received so far.)
So with all this book-related activity, it seemed like something was telling me that it was time to move ahead with my own writing.
And so I shall.
In the meantime, I invite you to join me on Monday, Jan. 6 at the Garden Cinemas in Greenfield, Mass. for Harry Langdon's 'The Strong Man' (1926)---the very first film directed by a very young Frank Capra.
Press release below. See you at the movies!
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MONDAY, DEC. 16. 2024 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Frank Capra's very first movie highlights Garden Cinema silent film program on Monday, Jan. 6
Screening
features Harry Langdon's classic comedy 'The Strong Man' shown with
live music; fun family activity suitable for all ages
GREENFIELD, Mass. — Silent film with live music returns to the Greenfield Garden Cinemas in January with the showing of an
uproarious comedy starring Harry Langdon.
Directing 'The Strong Man' was young first-timer Frank Capra, who would later go on to create such Hollywood classics as 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' (1939) and 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1946).
'The Strong Man' tells the story of a World War I soldier (Langdon) who, following his discharge, finds work as assistant to a circus strong man. As the act travels the country, Langdon continually searches for a girl he corresponded with while stationed overseas in the military.
The search leads to a town controlled by Prohibition-era gangsters, which forces Harry to test the limits of his own inner strength even as he looks for his dream girl. Can Harry triumph over the bad guys? And is love more powerful than brute strength?
The feature-length film showcases the unique child-like personality of Langdon, who is largely forgotten today. For a brief time in the 1920s, however, he rivaled Charlie Chaplin as Hollywood's top movie clown.
Langdon's popularity, which grew quickly in the last years of the silent era, fizzled as the movie business abruptly switched to talkies starting in 1929.
'The Strong Man' was selected in 2007 for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
In recent years, 'The Strong Man' has been recognized as a major achievement of the silent film era—a satisfying and timeless balance of emotion and comedy.
"A little tragedy and a lot of laughs can be seen in 1926's The Strong Man," wrote critic Richard von Busack in 2007. "Director Frank Capra's energy and sturdy plot sense counterpoint Langdon's wonderful strangeness."
'The Strong Man' will be accompanied by live music by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist who performs at venues across the region and beyond.
"These films were created to be shown on the big screen as a communal experience," Rapsis said. "With an audience and live music, they still come to life in the way their makers intended them to.
Admission is $10.50 adults, $8.50 for children, seniors, and students. Tickets available at the door; advance tickets are available at www.gardencinemas.net. For more information, call the box office at (413) 774-4881.
