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Opening the show, Sean Dowgray will join Marc-Frédéric Indorf to perform a piece for organ and percussion by the French organist, Thierry Escaich. Born in 1965 and recently named organist of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, Mr. Escaich is internationally recognised for his compositions and energetic improvisations. The selected piece, Ground II, is part of a series of pieces for various ensembles, all of which are based on the English musical tradition called a ground. A ground is a repeated motive that underlies the rest of the music, very much like the bass line in Pachelbel’s famous Canon in D. However, instead of emphatically repeating the motive, Escaich builds around it and hides it amongst various sounds, timbres and rythmes. Though very different in style and conception, the improvising nature of this piece segues smoothly into the musical improvisations prepared by Mr. Indorf to accompany the classic silent film from 1922: Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror, by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. Before the advent of films with sound tracks, musicians, most often pianists and organists, improvised directly during the showing of films. Hence, theatre organs were often build to put on a show with luxurious designs, colours and lights. Marc-Frédéric Indorf will allow the audience to experience what it was like to go to the movies in the 1920’s. However, instead of imitating the musical experience of the 1920’s, he has prepared his own musical conception by pulling together well known melodies from the piano repertoire as well as some of his own ideas created for the occasion, just as the musicians would have done in the 1920’s. Stemming from German Expressionism and just a few years after the Great War of 1914-1918, this film is the first cinematographic adaptation of the story of Dracula written by Bram Stoker in 1897. In doing so, Murnau created the horror genre, coined the idea that vampires cannot survive in broad daylight, and inspired film producers and aficionados over the past century.
The show with the organ and percussion duet followed by the silent movie will last an hour and a half.
FREE for UAF Students
FREE for children 12 & under
$5 non-UAF students, seniors, military $10 general admission
https://epay.alaska.edu/C21563_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=7287
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
UAF Charles W Davis Concert Hall, College, Alaska, Fairbanks, United States
