Mu­sic for si­lent films

"Mu­sic for Si­lent Films" is an in­ter­di­sci­pli­na­ry and in­ter-uni­ver­si­ty tea­ching pro­ject un­der the di­rec­tion of Prof. Ralph Abe­lein, which has been ta­king place sin­ce 2011 in coope­ra­ti­on with the Hes­si­an Film and Me­dia Aca­de­my hFMA and was awar­ded the Hes­si­an Tea­ching Pri­ze in 2021.

The con­cept is simp­le and con­vin­cing:

• HfMDK stu­dents com­po­se new mu­sic for short films by stu­dents from the hFMA net­work of the four film-ma­king uni­ver­si­ties in Darm­stadt, Kas­sel, Of­fen­bach and Wies­ba­den
• The re­sults will be per­for­med live to the film in pu­blic con­certs by the Kam­mer­phil­har­mo­nie Frank­furt un­der the di­rec­tion of the com­po­sers.
• Stu­dents from the Sound and Mu­sic Pro­duc­tion cour­se at Darm­stadt Uni­ver­si­ty of Ap­p­lied Sci­en­ces will make re­cord­ings, which they will then make avail­ab­le to the filmma­kers and com­po­sers. For live-strea­med con­certs, they are re­spon­si­ble for the live sound of the strea­ming con­cert.

For the HfMDK stu­dents in­vol­ved, "Mu­sic for Si­lent Films" of­fers par­ti­cu­lar­ly prac­ti­cal and in­ter­di­sci­pli­na­ry ex­pe­ri­ence: It com­bi­nes com­po­si­ti­on, mu­sic theo­ry, ar­ran­ge­ment, im­pro­vi­sa­ti­on, rehe­ar­sing and con­duc­ting - di­sci­pli­nes that are other­wi­se of­ten trea­ted in iso­la­ti­on du­ring stu­dies. By working with the Kam­mer­phil­har­mo­nie Frank­furt, the filmma­kers and the de­di­ca­ted tea­chers, the stu­dent con­duc­tors learn a lot, de­ve­lop their per­so­na­li­ty and mu­si­cal skills and en­ga­ge with film as an art form.

Film mu­sic is firm­ly an­cho­red in the Hes­si­an grammar school cur­ri­cu­lum and we are de­light­ed that our "Mu­sic for Si­lent Films" event has met with gre­at in­te­rest at Hes­si­an schools. We or­ga­ni­ze non-pu­blic school events with pri­or in­tro­duc­tions on two mornings for school clas­ses who ex­pe­ri­ence a spe­cial prac­ti­cal con­nec­tion to their school cur­ri­cu­lum through the con­cert vi­sit. If you and your class, from year 9 up­wards, are in­te­rested in ta­king part in one of the­se events, we look for­ward to hea­ring from you.

Re­gis­tra­ti­on for the next MfS con­certs for schools will be pu­blished here in good time.