Geoff Smith and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Cert. U)

Screening of the 1919 classic German silent film, featuring a live soundtrack for multi-dulcimers and voice composed and performed by G.M. Smith on prototype hammered dulcimers

Purcell Room, Friday 22 July 2005, 7pm & 9pm
Part of Rhythm Sticks 2005 - The Festival of Drumming and Percussion from around the World
South Bank Centre Sat 16 July - Sun 24 July 05

This year Rhythm Sticks features the hammered dulcimer as a main percussion instrument, as well as a full-length feature film with a live percussion-only soundtrack for the first time.

Geoff Smith’s new score for The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, a widely recognised classic of world cinema, is a revelation and breaks new ground in the composition and performance of live music for film. It is the first ever feature film soundtrack that has been composed and performed on specially designed hammered dulcimers. Smith's immensely dynamic score intimately relates to the emotional and psychological depth and intensity of the film’s narrative. The dulcimer is the perfect instrument to create extreme dynamics and Geoff Smith is able to expand and explore these possibilities even further because of his revolutionary approach to the design of the instrument (including the hammers) as well as composition and performance, e.g. the transferring of drum kit technique and rudiments on to the dulcimer.

Geoff Smith uses three different prototype dulcimers in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, two of which are historic innovations in instrument design: the first UK fixed position chromatic dulcimer, and the first microtonal dulcimer, fitted with Geoff's revolutionary invention, the microtonal fluid tuning mechanism, through which he can raise or lower the tone of each note by precise microtonal intervals. Without this mechanism this sound track would have been impossible.
Geoff Smith, a renowned composer, percussionist and player of the dulcimer has developed this special mechanism to expand the possibilities of his compositions. Fitted to a piano, for example, microtones, which are usually beyond the capability of this instrument and scales such as the Iranian dastgah-ha, could be accessible to pianists of the future.

The hammered dulcimer is an ancient percussion instrument struck by small wooden hammers, sticks or mallets. The largest dulcimers have well over 100 strings. Each country has its own indigenous dulcimer, which peculiarly reflects its respective culture. There is much debate as to the instrument's origins before it spread around the world (if it did). Dulcimers are referred to in the King James Version of the bible. According to information available in the 'west', the oldest known depiction of a dulcimer is from a 12th century ivory book cover made in Byzantium for the wife of the Count of Anjou (1139). Until today the dulcimer has been seen as a traditional instrument and has usually been used in folk and classical music in respective cultures.

The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari soundtrack was composed to the original tinted print with German expressionist captions. Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Fritz Lang (who was originally approached to direct Caligari) were greatly influenced by the film's combination of psychology, fairground, fantasy, expressionism, delusion, murder and somnambulism. This tale of hypnosis, powerlessness, murder and insanity can be seen as a metaphor for a new cinema itself: The spectator's helpless horror in the face of unfolding narrative and the revelation of their own deep buried desires. It is the first work of the Cinema of the Subconscious. Directed by Robert Wiene, this 1919 production of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Das Kabinett des Dr Caligari) is one of the most influential films of the silent film era and a famous example of German Expressionism and was a huge artistic success at the time.

Plot summary:
A young man named Francis recounts a fantastic story taking place in a North German town where a number of brutal murders have been occurring. Francis and his friend, Alan, visit a travelling fair where one of the acts is a certain Dr Caligari's presentation of a hypnotized sleepwalker named Cesare who can tell the future. Cesare predicts Alan will be dead by the next morning, and he is in fact murdered in the night. Francis becomes suspicious of Caligari and Cesare, but another man is incorrectly blamed with the crimes. However, Cesare later abducts Francis's fiancée Jane, and it becomes evident that Caligari was commanding the sleepwalker to carry out the murders. Francis chases Caligari into an insane asylum where it turns out Caligari is the director who has himself gone mad. Dr Caligari is captured and incarcerated in his own institution. The flashback ends, and it turns out Francis is actually a patient in the asylum, as are Jane and Cesare. The benevolent Dr Caligari is the director, and he states that Francis suffers from peculiar delusions.

Geoff Smith has just completed a successful tour of Faust screenings featuring his live soundtrack performed on prototype hammered dulcimers.

Details

Friday 22 July, Purcell Room, 7pm & 9pm
Geoff Smith and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Cert. U)
Geoff Smith composer & performer
Tickets £12.50 £10
Box Office 08703 800 400 ~ Book online: www.rfh.org.uk