What is this orchestral work?

[Daverz]

I have no clue what this is, but I can imagine this playing during a montage in some 1930s historical drama with Adolphe Manjou.

[Ken B]

It sounds like a sea storm scene, possibly from a movie or opera. It does have a whiff of Tchaikovsky. Who is a lesser Korngold? (It's not John Williams, Karl!)

[Biffo]

I would say that who ever wrote it had heard the Introduction to Act I of Die Walkure. Now I will probably be left with egg on my face when it turns out to pre-date that work.

Change of mind, it is more like the Introduction to Act III of Siegfried but still ersatz- Wagner. It sounds vaguely similar in style to the Overture to Captain Blood by Korngold. I thought I had more Korngold film music but can't find it right now.

[relm1]

This music is from the score to the D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film, "Birth of a Nation".  It did have a symphonic score composed that mixed pastiche with classics (Weber, Suppe, Wagner, etc), along with civil war songs, military songs, and an original score by Joseph Carl Breil (1870-1926).  There were two re-recordings/reconstructions so the work is available on CD.  The movie has a running time of 3 hours and 10 minutes and since it is silent, it is all scored.

So good ear to those of you who correctly spotted this as early 20th century pastiche of mid 19th century style. 

[Cato]

This music is from the score to the D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film, "Birth of a Nation".  It did have a symphonic score composed that mixed pastiche with classics (Weber, Suppe, Wagner, etc), along with civil war songs, military songs, and an original score by Joseph Carl Breil (1870-1926).  There were two re-recordings/reconstructions so the work is available on CD.  The movie has a running time of 3 hours and 10 minutes and since it is silent, it is all scored.

So good ear to those of you who correctly spotted this as early 20th century pastiche of mid 19th century style.

Relm1: How did you discover the source?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

This music is from the score to the D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film, "Birth of a Nation". 

Oh dear! Well I have seen things about the movie so I presume I heard the score in relation to that.............

I will certainly not waste three hours of my life watching it!

[relm1]

Oh dear! Well I have seen things about the movie so I presume I heard the score in relation to that.............

I will certainly not waste three hours of my life watching it!

Don't watch the film!  It is offensive unless you are a film historian!  The music is fantastic so imagine your own Ring cycle story which they were clearly trying to imitate in a way that history does not favor.  They used the aryan concept of history and favored white supremacists version of an ideal bread in 1915.  BUT it is a very important historical film of that era.  Take it as a historical document not as accurate history. 

[relm1]

Relm1: How did you discover the source?

I'm a genius.  Plus I found the source of the clip who wrote an extensive thesis on the film score since it included real quotes of preexisting classical music occupying roughly a third of the score.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Don't watch the film!  It is offensive unless you are a film historian!  The music is fantastic so imagine your own Ring cycle story which they were clearly trying to imitate in a way that history does not favor.  They used the aryan concept of history and favored white supremacists version of an ideal bread in 1915.  BUT it is a very important historical film of that era.  Take it as a historical document not as accurate history. 

Yep I think it was even extremely controversial in its own time

[Ken B]

Yep I think it was even extremely controversial in its own time

It was. But it is worth seeing if you have an interest in film. Or propaganda. It was a quantum leap in both.

Surely I don't have to convince an Ives fan that crap can be interesting if it introduced new techniques. 

[Karl Henning]

Ouch!

[Baron Scarpia]

Well, it wasn't Korngold, but I wasn't too far off the mark. I remember long ago hearing a Korngold piece used for the main titles of a film. It had the same combination of dissonance used for tone color, opulent orchestration, and drama. I wish I could remember the film, I don't want to buy a giant pile of Korngold film music CDs to find it.

[Karl Henning]

[...] I wish I could remember the film, I don't want to buy a giant pile of Korngold film music CDs to find it.

We are of a mind, there.

[mc ukrneal]

Well, it wasn't Korngold, but I wasn't too far off the mark. I remember long ago hearing a Korngold piece used for the main titles of a film. It had the same combination of dissonance used for tone color, opulent orchestration, and drama. I wish I could remember the film, I don't want to buy a giant pile of Korngold film music CDs to find it.

Might it have been one of these? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dg1IUEJw9g

Those film music discs (now in a different cover) are quite good in any case...

[Baron Scarpia]

I vaguely remember that the film was set in Ancient Rome. Maybe that's my memory playing tricks. I heard it on a segment on NPR maybe 10 years ago.

[North Star]

favored white supremacists version of an ideal bread in 1915.

As a fan of brown bread, that's disgusting.