King of Kings: silent film with live music

On Sat. Nov. 7 at 7pm St. Mary’s Church, Lakeville CT, will present a screening of De Mille’s 1927 silent film, The King of Kings (155 minutes), as part of the church’s 140th anniversary celebration. All are invited, and admission is free.This is a truly extraordinary film. Great pains were taken to ensure that it met with the approval of many of the intertitles are quotes from Scripture, with chapter and verse. De Mille gave his share of earnings to charity It was shown somewhere in the world each day for decades after its release.The movie broke records for audience attendance, and free showings around the world brought the estimated audience to over a billion. In Egypt, Christians and Moslems came up to the screen on their knees to kiss the place where Jesus walked. When the Mexican government closed churches, displaced worshippers knelt and prayed in theaters showing the film.(source: https://www.cecilbdemille.com/king.html )De Mille’s film depicts the last weeks of the Christ, from his work as a carpenter to the events of the Gospels. H. B. Warner stars as Jesus in a warm, understated performance. Other cast members of note include Joseph Schildkraut and Ernest Torrence. Extras included Sally Rand, and (no relation) Ayn Rand (!) who met her future husband, Frank O’Connor, on the set. A large gate in this film was reused for King Kong and torched in the burning of Atlanta in Gone With the Wind.King of Kings, like our trees these days, also has splashes of color, in the opening scene with Mary Magdalene (don’t miss the zebras), and the stunning Resurrection scene. Two-stripTechnicolor was rare but not impossible in the 20’s–Wikipedia lists no fewer than 50 films with at least some real color before this one. Parenthetically, I will be playing a program of some breathtakingly beautiful short color films at MoMA on Nov. 22. https://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/25362Here are some clips from the film with my recorded score: https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/438030/The-King-of-Kings/videos.html The music is symphonic in scope and feel. The themes date from 1985, when I scored a 12-hour dramatized reading of the entire New Testament, recorded on audio cassettes. The background music accompanied everything in the Gospels except for the Epistles, which were done by another composer. If you can’t make it to the November screening, the entire film can be seen here, from the Criterion Collection DVD release. singers in the area who are interested in participating in the brief choral sections in the performance, please reply to this email and put “Silent film singer” in the subject.Donald Sosin is one of the world’s foremost silent film musicians, performing on piano, organ, and synthesizer at major film festivals—New York, Telluride, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, TriBeCa, Denver, Virginia, and Newport—and at MoMA, BAM, the Berlin Filmmuseum, Moscow’s prestigious Lumière Gallery, and the Jecheon International Music and Film Festival in South Korea. He and his wife, singer Joanna Seaton, are favorite guest artists at the National Gallery and at Italy’s annual silent film retrospectives in Bologna and Pordenone. They have appeared at Lincoln Center, Mass MoCA, Boston’s MFA, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Tarrytown Music Hall, at Yale, Harvard, Brown and Emory Universities—and created scores for over 50 silent film DVDs on the Kino, Criterion, Milestone and other labels.Donald grew up in Rye NY and Munich, studied composition at Michigan and Columbia, and played on Broadway for many years. His music has been heard on PBS, TCM, as background for soaps on the major networks, and in many contemporary films. Donald was Minister of Music at the First Church of Christ, Congregational in Sharon CT for ten years, and has played at many other area churches and synagogues. He is currently organist and choir director at St. Mary’s. Donald and Joanna live in Lakeville and have two musical children.

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Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

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Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

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