Silent films don’t have to be silent anymore. KUHF is hosting a series of silent film screenings at Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney St., accompanied by live music from Texas artists. Free and open to the public, the first film in the series, Destiny by Fritz Lang, will be screened at 7 p.m. Friday, with a performance by Austin’s The Invincible Czars.
Started in the late 90s by Josh Robins, The Invincible Czars can be categorized as progressive rock, in the manner of YES, Rush and Frank Zappa.
‘I don’t know what else to call us,’ Robins said. ‘We have the guitar, the bass, the drums, but we also have a synthesizer, a flute and a saxophone.’
The Invincible Czars is not the typical rock band. One requirement at the Czars’ conception was that all band members be required to read music, a high standard to Robins, who couldn’t read music himself.’
‘Most people that play rock, they don’t read music,’ Robins said.
Besides knowing how to read music, the Czars also compose their own pieces. The band’s performance at KUHF’s Silent Films Concert Series will feature their original score.
‘We didn’t have to arrange a bunch of stuff from the 20s. We wrote it,’ Robins said.
To compose the soundtrack to Destiny, the band broke up the movie into five pieces using the music notation software Sibelius and synched the video as best they could to their score.’
‘ ‘(The scoring) doesn’t have to be exact. It’s really surprising how many things can be fudged,’ Robins said.
Late to the silent film concert phenomenon themselves, the Czars’ first movie scoring experience came with the silent film Aleta in 2005. After trying unsuccessfully to host a similar event at Houston’s Alamo Drafthouse, KUHF approached them about composing for their silent film concert series.
‘KUHF found out and (everything) came together a lot faster,’ Robins said.
In the 1921 film Destiny, Death traps a man and gives his lover three chances to save him. To illustrate the lover’s chances, Death tells three stories, one set in China, another in Venice and another in a location reminiscent of Arabian Nights.
Another Lang piece, Metropolis, will be screened April 17 and will be accompanied by Austin’s The Golden Hornet Project. The final screening in KUHF’s Silent Film Concert Series will be 1924’s Girl Shy, directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, and will feature a performance by Houston’s Two Star Symphony.
KUHF Silent Film Concert Series
Destiny, 1921, directed by Fritz Lang
Performance by The Invincible Czars
7 p.m. Friday
Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney St.
Admission is free and open to the public.
