Dennis James (musician)
Encyclopedia
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s, with piano, theatre organ
Theatre organ
A theatre organ is a pipe organ originally designed specifically for imitation of an orchestra. New designs have tended to be around some of the sounds and blends unique to the instrument itself....
, chamber ensemble and full symphony orchestras, both around the United States and internationally. He is a noted performer on the musical glasses and the glass armonica, performing in New York at the Caramoor Festival and Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival (2011). He has also been active into the preservation and restoration of theater organs.
Early musical training
James was born in Philadelphia in 1950 and began formal organ training at the age of 12. At the age of 16, he replaced his teacher, Leonard MacClainLeonard MacClain
Leonard MacClain was an American keyboardist and composer who was prominent as an organist in the Philadelphia area...
, in concert when the latter suffered a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
before the performance, and that exposure put him on the international touring circuit. James attended Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
's School of Music as a student of concert and church organ performance, earning his Bachelor's and Master's degrees under the tutelage of Dr. Oswald Ragatz.
James' interest in silent film performance with live music dates from 1969 at the Tower Theatre in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. As James recalls, "The late 'Flicker Fingers' himself, California touring theatre organist Gaylord Carter
Gaylord Carter
Gaylord Carter was an American organist and the composer of many film scores that were added to silent movies released on video tape or disks.-Early Life and Musical Beginnings:...
, was at the Wurlitzer
Wurlitzer
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....
theatre pipe organ console and on the screen Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in The Mark of Zorro
The Mark of Zorro (1920 film)
The Mark of Zorro is a 1920 silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery. This genre-defining swashbuckler adventure was the first movie version of The Mark of Zorro...
. In classic 'Chorus Line' fashion, I turned to my Dad at the end and said 'I can do that!'"
Silent film organ performance
James began performing films with orchestras in 1971. From 1975 to 1989, James was the appointed "Resident Organist for the Ohio Theatre" in Columbus, OhioColumbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
reviving a professional position vacated in 1942. James had his organ concerto with orchestra debut with the Chicago Symphony at Orchestra Hall in 1984. James toured in the 1980s with silent film stars Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
and Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, providing musical accompaniment on national tour revivals of their motion pictures. The New York Times reported on December 13, 1981 that James would play at the recently restored Pascack Theater in Westwood, New Jersey
Westwood, New Jersey
Westwood is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 10,908....
, a deluxe movie house with facilities for stage productions and a specially built Wurlitzer pipe organ for accompanying silent films. James "follows the technique and style of the old-time accompanists, cueing the music exactly to the action and mood on the screen." In 1999, James was House Organist for the El Capitan Theatre
El Capitan Theatre
El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is owned by Pacific Theatres and operated by the Walt Disney Company. It serves as the venue for many of Walt Disney Pictures' movie premieres...
in Hollywood, California, House Organist for the Paramount Theatre
Paramount Theatre (Seattle, Washington)
The Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington is a 2,807-seat performing arts venue at 9th Avenue and Pine Street in Downtown Seattle in the United States of America. The theater originally opened March 1, 1928 as the Seattle Theatre with 3,000 seats, the theater was placed on the National Register...
in Seattle and House Organist for the Historic Everett Theatre in Everett, Washington.
Appointments
James is the newly (2010) appointed "Theatre Organist for the Washington Center" a professional position in the Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia, Washington, and also the newly appointed (2010) "House Organist" for the Coleman Theatre, Miami, Oklahoma and "House Organist" for the Lynwood Theatre on Bainbridge Island, Washington, while continuing as the regular silent film organist for the Stanford TheatreStanford Theatre
The Stanford Theatre is a classical independent movie theater in Palo Alto, California. The theater features neo-classical Greek/Assyrian style architecture and generally screens films made between the 1920s and 1960s...
in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
), California Theatre in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
and Poncan Theatre in Ponca City, Oklahoma.
Production company
James also performs both in the U.S. and internationally under the aegis of his own production company, Silent Film Concerts. James has one of the largest private libraries of authentic silent film music in existence including complete original film scores and hundreds of published generic silent film music compositions that are used to imitate original musical scores where the originals do not survive.Tours
James has played at the PordenonePordenone
Pordenone is a comune of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.The name comes from the Latin "Portus Naonis" meaning the port on the river Noncello - History :...
and Rome Silent Film Festival, Cinema Muto, as well as appearances for special exhibitions at the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
. His scorings have been used on archival recordings of silent films for the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
, National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
, New York Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, Pacific Film Archive, George Eastman House
George Eastman House
The George Eastman House is the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York, USA. World-renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives, the museum is also a leader in film preservation and...
, American Federation of the Arts, the UCLA Film and Television Archive
UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is an internationally renowned visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds more than 220,000 film and television titles and 27 million feet of...
, and the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
.
Commissions
In 1991 James was commissioned to score the 1928 Soviet science fiction spectacle Aelita, Queen of MarsAelita
Aelita , also known as Aelita: Queen of Mars, is a silent film directed by Soviet filmmaker Yakov Protazanov made on Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio and released in 1924. It was based on Alexei Tolstoy's novel of the same name...
and decided to add sounds to the score from an actual original 1929 RCA theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
that he had restored by Robert Moog
Robert Moog
Robert Arthur Moog , commonly called Bob Moog was an American pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.-Life:...
. "I contacted Clara Rockmore, the leading virtuoso of the instrument still then living in New York, who taught me to play it. Then I began performing my Aelita film score all over the world, from the Louvre in Paris to the British Film Institute in London and the National Gallery in D.C." In addition to scoring the theremin for Aelita, Queen of Mars, James has utilized the theremin for Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
's now-restored silent films Metropolis
Metropolis (film)
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...
and Woman in the Moon at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
On September 14, 2007, James performed the score to Tumbleweeds
Tumbleweeds (1925 film)
Tumbleweeds is a 1925 American Western film starring and produced by William S. Hart. It depicts the Cherokee Strip land rush of 1893. The film is said to have influenced the Oscar-winning 1931 Western Cimarron, which also depicts the land rush...
in a live performance at the Poncan Theater (built in 1923) in Ponca City, Oklahoma
Ponca City, Oklahoma
Ponca City is a small city in Kay and Osage counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, which was named after the Ponca Tribe. Located in north central Oklahoma, it lies approximately south of the Kansas border, and approximately east of Interstate 35. 25,919 people called Ponca City home at the...
as a special commission as part of a celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of Oklahoma Statehood.
Musicianship
Stephen Salmons, artistic director of the San Francisco Silent Film FestivalSan Francisco Silent Film Festival
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a film festival first held in 1996 and presented annually every July at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California, USA...
, praised James for his artistic scope and range. "Dennis James is both a musician of tremendous artistic scope and range, and a scholar who strives to preserve and restore this unique 20th century musical practice. He is without doubt the greatest practitioner of the art of solo silent film accompaniment. To witness a contemporary audience experience the beauty and power of silent film through the overwhelming symphonic dynamism that Dennis James unleashes with unerring skill on the theatre organ is an absolute revelation. He's a national treasure."
Peter Mintun, a pianist and cultural historian, praises the authenticity of James' approach to silent films. "Theatre organist Dennis James is one of the only living musicians who understands what is musically, historically, and
cinematically appropriate for silent films. Dennis James’ choice of music (some of which is original) subconsciously guides the listener into many moods, tension, bliss, excitement, despair, terror, and hilarity. He is able to accomplish this while remaining correct for the period of the film. In other words, if Mr. James’ performance had been played when the film was first exhibited, it would have been considered contemporary. He would never attempt to modernize the feeling of the period by creating a score that would clash.”," says Mintun.
Glass armonica performance
James plays the glass armonica and has collected other vitreous vibrators including Francis Hopkinson SmithFrancis Hopkinson Smith
Francis Hopkinson Smith was a United States author, artist and engineer. He built the foundation for the Statue of Liberty, wrote many famous stories and received awards for his paintings.-Biography:...
's 19th century Grand Harmonicon, modern glass instruments such as Sascha Reckert's verrophone
Verrophone
A verrophone is a musical instrument, invented in 1983, by Reckert, in which open-ended glass tubes are arranged in various sizes . The sound is made by rubbing one end of one or more of the glass tubes, or also by striking them or rubbing them with a special mallet...
, the cristal baschet
Cristal baschet
The Cristal Baschet is a musical instrument that produces sound from oscillating glass cylinders. The Cristal Baschet is also known as the Crystal Organ and the Crystal Baschet, and composed of 54 chromatically-tuned glass rods. The glass rods are rubbed with moistened fingers to produce vibrations...
, and a wide variety of glass flutes and glass bells. James played glass instruments on Marco Beltrami's film scores for The Minus Man
The Minus Man
The Minus Man is a 1999 film based on the novel by Lew McCreary. It was directed by Hampton Fancher, who also wrote the screenplay. The film centers on a psychotic killer whom Fancher describes as "a cross between Psycho's Norman Bates, Melville's Billy Budd and Being There's Chauncey...
(1999) and The Faculty
The Faculty
The Faculty is a 1998 science fiction horror film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Robert Rodriguez...
(1998). "I first became aware of glass instruments at about the age of 6 while visiting the Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, dating to 1824. The Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.-History:On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughn Merrick and...
in Philadelphia. I can still recall being mesmerized by the appearance of the original Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
armonica then on display in its own showcase in the entry rotunda of the city's famed science museum.". In the interest of historical and philological accuracy, James adheres to Franklin's original name, "armonica" without the "h".
James performed glass armonica on Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
's album Winter Light. "Linda explained she had first heard the sounds of rubbed glass some 15 years before, just where, though, escapes her to this day. She kept that ethereal sound in her mind all those years and it was during the orchestra sessions and post-session mix on the track "A River for Him", written by Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, that Linda had the inspiration to add the glass tones", says James. James appeared on the Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
with Ronstadt. "It was a great surprise. A sort of unspoken message in the air to me before the broadcast was 'Do not say anything on the air!' After all, these things are Linda's appearances. When David Letterman leaned over his desk and directed a question to me I simply froze - on playback of the dub I can see myself caught and unable to speak. I received a glance from Linda that said to me it was OK and so when he tried again I called back a flip one liner and on things went from there," says James.
James recorded an album of all glass music, Cristal: Glass Music Through the Ages co-produced by Ronstadt and Grammy Award-winning producer John Boylan. James plays the glass armonica, the cristal
Cristal baschet
The Cristal Baschet is a musical instrument that produces sound from oscillating glass cylinders. The Cristal Baschet is also known as the Crystal Organ and the Crystal Baschet, and composed of 54 chromatically-tuned glass rods. The glass rods are rubbed with moistened fingers to produce vibrations...
and the seraphim
Glass harp
A glass harp is an instrument made of upright wine glasses....
on the CD in original historical compositions for glass by Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Scarlatti, Schnaubelt, and Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
. James collaborates with the Emerson String Quartet
Emerson String Quartet
The Emerson String Quartet is a New York–based string quartet in residence at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Previously the Quartet was in residence at The Hartt School. Formed in 1976, they have released more than twenty albums and won nine Grammy Awards. Both violinists...
, operatic soprano Ruth Ann Swenson
Ruth Ann Swenson
Ruth Ann Swenson is an American soprano who is renowned for her brilliance in coloratura roles.Born in Bronxville, New York and raised in Commack, New York on Long Island, Swenson studied at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and briefly at Hartt College of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut...
, and Ronstadt.
Discography
- Dennis James at the "Fotoplayer"
- Dennis James at the Movies. Ohio Theatre Summer Series (1975)
- Dennis James at the Movies. Ohio Theatre Summer Series, Vol 2. (1977)
- Dennis James Classic Theatre Organ
- Dennis James at the RTOS Wurlitzer
- Dennis & Heidi James - Puttin' on the Ritz
- Cristal: Glass Music Through the Ages (2002)