Buster Keaton

Sleeve Notes

My first contact with Buster Keaton’s films was in the late 1970s, preparing for the Thames Television series Hollywood. It was in the context of a comparative study of silent film comedy – ranging from The Keystone Cops through to Keaton, Harold Lloyd to Charlie Chaplin’s first recorded score City Lights in 1930. All three began their careers in live theatre, Chaplin in the Music-halls of London, Keaton and LLoyd touring the United States. Working with live music was an intrinsic part of their act and remained so for all of their film careers. It was important that I understood their different characters: Charlie – the tramp, the total outsider, Lloyd – your average contemporary man and Keaton – the ‘Great Stone Face”, concealing his thoughts behind an inscrutable mask.

All their individual characteristics had to be placed in the context of the plot of the film, be it historical or modern. The latter was more frequently used by Keaton. His subjects ranged from the Stone Age to the American Civil War of the 1860s, as well as the present day, meaning the 1920s.

By 1987 I was composing scores for full feature length films and performing them live in major theatres and concert halls. After the premiere of a full-length feature film (Napoleon in 1980) it became very clear that without narration, spoken dialogue and sound effects, throughout the world, the need for a coherent orchestral score was vital to the success of the experience. Part of the fun of the show has been to include as a curtain raiser, Buster’s 1920-21 shorts, which reveal much about his development as a filmmaker. Some of these are considered to be masterpieces in their own right. This recording consists of highlights from the original soundtracks.

The General (1926)

Researching for background material on the music of the American Civil War (1861-1865) I chanced upon the following anecdote: ‘During recent excavations of the battlefield of Gettysburg the researchers found buried in the mud, band parts that had been abandoned by an orchestra, possibly fleeing the battle. Chief among them was Weber’s Der Freischutz Overture and a medley of themes from Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera. This implied that the famous and decisive battle had been accompanied by a full military band, keeping the spirits of the army high. This nugget gave me the impetus to create my score in the spirit of the 19th Century grand opera but also incorporate significant songs composed specifically to commemorate major incidents of the war. ‘Dixie’ had to be there but because of over familiarity, used selectively. More interesting was The Bonnie Blue Flag for the advance of the Southern Armies and Marching Through Georgia for the Northern Armies plan. For the love theme, I remembered a charming tune a musical aunt sang to me as a child: a folk song that started with the text ‘Who’s gonna shoe your pretty little feet? Who’s gonna glove your hand?’ Johnnie’s (Buster) theme was my own, always strong and purposeful. It is interchangeable for both Johnnie and his locomotive.

Our Hospitality (1923)

Our Hospitality is set in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of the Virginias. It is a melodrama based on the lethal feuds of the Hatfield and McCoy families in 1810 when John McCoy (Keaton) was an infant, moving to 1831 for the bulk of film in which John, raised in New York, returns to the Valley to regain his family’s property. Once there, he is under constant threat. As in The General, Keaton combines comedy with spectacular stunts. In view of Keaton’s meticulous period research, I decided that the orchestra would be a large-scale chamber ensemble of 18 and has a Schubertian feel. There is no percussion, the sound effects are within the composition.

Steamboat Bill Jr (1928)

Rival pleasure boat owners and their respective offspring are the subject of the last of Keaton’s features to be made under his personal control. He is Willie Jr, returning home to the West after the luxury of an East Coast college education, the subject of his father’s (a gruff, no nonsense Captain) wildest nightmare. The orchestra is a mixed, natty, fifteen players.

The Shorts

Between 1920 and 1923, Keaton wrote, directed and starred in a huge number of shorts or two reelers. Some of them are considered to be his highest achievements, in particular One Week and The Playhouse. The four shorts I composed scores for, began to evolve a similar ‘line-up’ (a list of players). Have I got the beginnings of a Buster Keaton Orchestra? The exception is One Week which was composed as a curtain raiser for The General and has nearly a full orchestra. The scores are very eclectic: whatever the film and Keaton’s wild imagination demanded.

The High Sign (1920)

The first film Keaton produced independently, he thought it a flop and delayed releasing it by a year. Eventually, it was released and people found it funny. It is very heavy on plot, involving an extortionist gang with heavily Fascist tendencies. The ‘High Sign’ is their peculiar salute. I helped myself to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries already associated with the Ku Klux Klan.

One Week (1922)

An undisputed masterpiece from Keaton’s early period, One Week was the first complete Keaton short I scored. The orchestration is the same size as The General for whom One Week was intended as a curtain raiser. The plot is very focussed now, in 7 short sequences with no digressions: two newly-weds are given a D.I.Y. house as a wedding gift. A resentful ex-suitor of the bride sabotages the assemblage by changing the numbers on the boxes, resulting in the house being built upside down.

The Scarecrow (1920)

The plot of The Scarecrow centres on the relationship of Keaton with housemate who share a house of which we see one large room which containing both kitchen and sitting/bedroom and bathroom. They are both in love with the same girl and compete desperately for her affection.

The Playhouse (1921)

In a dream, Buster (a stagehand) imagines himself performing every role in the theatre: the orchestra, the conductor, the audience and every member of a chorus line.