Salomé (1923) 14 - Eyes of Amber (2)
Eyes of
Amber (2) - from
Charlie Barber's score for percussion and voices featuring the
1923 film starring
Alla Nazimova
Salomé (1923) is a rarely seen curiosity from the silent era of film.
Based on an idea of artist and
Hollywood 1920s bohemian
Natacha Rambova, the film was produced by and starred the flamboyant
Russian actress, Alla Nazimova and directed by
Charles Bryant.
Nazimova's intention was to produce a piece of work that would raise the artistic levels of
American film. Filmed in 1923, it might be considered one of the first 'arthouse' films to be made.
An
adaptation of
Oscar Wilde's play of the same name, it has, like the play, always been surrounded by controversy. Before it had even been completed rumours took hold that Nazimova had demanded an all gay and bi-sexual cast in homage to the playwright. Adding to its notoriety is the film's undoubted aura of loaded eroticism, heightened by the melodramatic, highly stylised performances of the cast. The film's visual imagery matched the illustrations made by
Aubrey Beardsley and was in black and white only, having just some metallic details as accents that would thus reflect the light. As one critic commented, it is "more like a bizarre
Art Nouveau-inspired erotic dream than a piece of cinema".
Latin text --
Psalm 2, v9:
reges eos in virga ferrea tamquam vas figuli confringes eos
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them to pieces in a potter's vessel
Hebrew text - Psalm 1, v1:
ashrei-ha'
ish asher lo halakh ba'atzat resha'im
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly
Inspired by early fragments of music from
Judea and
Syria, this version of Salomé features an array of percussion instruments and voices.
Dominated by an assortment of drums, tambourines, castanets and cymbals, the percussion battery also includes the Sistrum (a small instrument with bronze jingles used in dances and religious ceremonies in ancient
Egypt), Djembe (a traditional skin-covered
African drum) and
Tibetan Singing Bowls.
A large amount of the percussion writing is derived from 'wazn', the fixed rhythmic patterns that are the building blocks for
Arabic music from earliest times. Most wazn are in unusual time lengths such as
10, 13 or 19 - each constructed out of smaller units of long and short beats.
For the
Film
Director - Charles Bryant
Writers - Oscar Wilde (play),
Peter M
Winters (scenario)
Cinematography -
Charles Van Enger
Art Direction/
Costume - Natacha Rambova
Cast
Mitchell Lewis -
Herod, Tetrach of Judea
Alla Nazimova - Salomé, stepdaughter of Herod
Rose Dione -
Herodias, wife of Herod
Earl Schenk - Narraboth,
Captain of the Guard
Nigel De Brulier - Jokanaan, the
Prophet
Arthur Jasmine -
Page of Herodias
Frederick Peters -
Naaman, the
Executioner
Louis Dumar -
Tigellinus, a young
Roman
Musicians:
Nick Baron - percussion
James Hulme - percussion
Alun Hathaway - percussion
Dave Danford - percussion
Rhiannon Llewellyn - soprano
Gareth Treseder - tenor
Kelvin Thomas - bass
and
Sianed
Jones - vocal improvisations
www.soundaffairs.co.uk