And the star of the show is...the piano!
Well, not entirely. Each year, the Kansas Silent Film Festival is worth experiencing for the films, and also the fine people who organize it and attend it, and the community that hosts it.
And this year was no exception.
The 29th annual edition of the event featured a wide-ranging program of great movies accompanied by live music, strong audience response, plus special guest Melissa Talmadge Cox, granddaughter of Buster Keaton.
(29 years! The Kansas festival has now been running longer than the silent film era it celebrates.)
But then there's that piano.
The films may change from year to year, but one thing remains constant: the enormous Model D Steinway grand piano that lives on the stage of White Concert Hall at Topeka's Washburn University, where the festival takes place.
How else can I put it? It's the best piano I play all year.
As you may know, not all pianos are the same—each carries its own special blend of sound, action, touch, and many other variables. Even with identical models from the same manufacturer, each will have a different personality.
For me, the D Model Steinway I've been privileged to play at Washburn University for nearly 20 years now is a dream to work with. It has weight and power, but also lightness of touch. It responds well to my at-times percussive style of playing, but can also make lyrical passages sound like a human voice.
It feels exactly right under my fingers. I can do things on it that I can't do on other pianos.
I remember once the festival brought in a well-known guest accompanist who had heard me play years before, when I was just starting out. In Kansas, he heard me play again, and afterwards congratulated me on doing a good job—wondering aloud if it was the instrument that made the difference.
Frankly, it probably was!
So why not get one for myself? The Steinway D is the firm's top-of-the-line concert grand piano, and currently retails for between $200,000 and $250,000. Should I start a crowd-funding campaign?
Outside of Kansas, most of my film accompaniment work is done using a Korg digital keyboard, which has 88 keys but is small enough to be portable (just barely!), and enables me to score films with the texture of a full orchestra. The Korg boasts a weighted-action keyboard that has a nice feel to it, and is useful in calling up different settings just based on how "hard" I play.
But it's totally unlike performing on a mighty all-acoustic Steinway, with the tangible physical connection between your fingers and the keys and the hammers and the strings. Nothing to plug in except the built-in humidity control system and the piano light.
There's talk of the Kansas Silent Film Festival at long last taking place in the Jayhawk Theatre in downtown Topeka. If that ever happens, I sure hope they'll haul the Steinway over as a crucial part of the festival.
Of the films I accompanied, 'The Toll Gate' (1920), a dark Western starring William S. Hart, was the most satisfying and came off the best, I thought. It's a strong film for music, with moments of intense emotion that music can augment very effectively, and action sequences that pair well with busy minor-key passages.
There's also something unusual in the film's structure. The first two-thirds of the movie is filled with men and guns and horses and everything else you'd associated with an outlaw in the Old West. But then, for the final third, we meet a woman and her young boy living alone in a remote cabin.
It's through them that the hard heart of William S. Hart begins to soften. And with that, a whole new type of music seemed called for: something more gentle and tender than anything that had come before.
What I came up with was a simple diatonic phrase built of six notes. With light accompaniment underneath, it sounded like the beginning of a Chopin Etude. Quite a contrast with all the musical drama that preceded it—but which made it stand out all the more.
As I worked through the last two reels, it became one of those times I savor as an accompanist: when you have good material to work with, and you're "ahead of the film" (meaning you have a strong sense of what's coming and what you want to do with it), and the right pieces are falling into place for it to all come together.
Those in attendance seemed to enjoy the results. "Jeff Rapsis provided a hauntingly beautiful score," commented Bruce Calvert in his annual write-up of the festival's program, found online at the Nitrateville silent film site. Thanks, Bruce!
Next year will mark a significant milestone for the little Kansas festival that could: its 30th year!
I hope you'll join me in marking your calendar for Feb. 26 & 27, 2027—and joining me in Topeka when those dates roll around!
For now, thanks and congratulations to all the people who work all year around to make the Kansas Silent Film Festival a success. I remain grateful to all that this event has given me in the 27 years I've been attending—and not just the chance to play that piano!
