The recent work on our church organ was shown off in an inaugural recital by David Briggs, who also performed on it after a major rebuild a few years ago.
The first part consisted of the well-known Toccata and fugue in D minor attributed to JS Bach, then Vierne’s Carillon de Westminster and a transcription of Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
After the interval we watched the 1920 silent film ‘Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde’ as it would originally have been screened, with organ accompaniment. The star John Barrymore was definitely more Hyde than Jekyll, to judge by accounts of his life. Known as ‘Mr Profile’, he was often shown in this way on screen.
The improvisation opened by quoting Mahler 6, and I heard quotations by Wagner, Grieg, Elgar, Mozart and others among the purely improvised material. By the end, the promise made to us in advance had been fulfilled – one was not conscious of the organ music as an addition to the original film. A bit like becoming less aware of the puppetry during a performance of War Horse.
If you ever have the chance to hear David Briggs improvise accompaniment to a silent film (and wherever you are in the world he is quite likely to perform near you soon), take it. It’s an art form in itself. Meanwhile, David Bednall will be doing something similar in Christ Church during the Bath Film Festival.