How did a nice Jewish boy from Short Hills, N.J., come to compose an oratorio to accompany Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 silent-film masterpiece “The Passion of Joan of Arc”? According to Richard Einhorn, his score “Voices of Light,” came into being by “sheer accident.”
“I wanted to do a piece about a religious subject,” Einhorn said from his home in New York. “Dreyer’s film wasn’t well known at the time, though there had been corrupted copies floating around. Then, in 1988, I saw a restored print. It blew my mind. On my way home, I already had the idea to use voices and Medieval texts to enhance themes in the film.”
“The Passion of Joan of Arc,” Dreyer’s enduring portrayal of religious persecution and the mystery of faith, considered one of the greatest films of all time, will be screened at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Oct. 19, with Grant Gershon, Los Angeles Master Chorale artistic director, leading a full orchestra and 115 singers, with a vocal quintet including two sopranos. The film will be projected in two locations and visible from every seat in the hall.
Based on Joan’s trial records from the 15th century — she was burned at the stake in 1431 at age 19 — the film conveys an uncanny documentary-like quality. Jean Cocteau said it “seems like an historical document from an era in which the cinema didn’t exist.” Italian actress Maria Falconetti, who portrays Joan, was reportedly nearly destroyed psychologically by the arduous demands Dreyer made on her during filming. After giving an indelible performance, she never made another film.
“This is a film about a woman confronting men,” said Einhorn, who in researching the piece read thousands of pages of writings, including Medieval mystics Hildegard von Bingen and Christine de Pizan. “I arranged the texts as commentary on the trial going on, but I’m not exactly underscoring the action. I tried to deepen and enhance the story.”
“Voices of Light,” which has also been performed as a stand-alone concert piece, met with international success after its 1994 premiere accompanying Dreyer’s film. Since then, Einhorn’s score and the film have been presented some 250 times around the world.
“There’s nothing else that I know of that combines choir, soloists, orchestra and film in such an organic way,” Gershon said of Einhorn’s oratorio, calling the experience “overwhelmingly immersive and cathartic.”
He added: “Einhorn has compiled a tremendously compelling libretto. He’s also captured and even amplified the spirit of this remarkable film through a score influenced by plainchant, Medieval troubadours and minimalism.”
One of the challenges Gershon will face is timing the flow of Einhorn’s music precisely to the film.
“With modern film scores, this syncing is usually done with a `click track,’ a kind of high-tech metronome,” Gershon said, “but that would kill the sense of freedom and musical line that’s so integral to a live performance.”
Luckily, Gershon said he knows the film well enough to “shape the music to it and make all necessary adjustments in real time.”
Einhorn was raised in a Reform Jewish family, and said his heritage is not really the focus of his art.
“It’s about the music, though there is a Jewish way of looking at things,” he said. “Each religion has traditions specific to them. The question is, can you honor them in your work?”
Once a record producer for CBS Masterworks (he has good memories of sessions with pianist Glenn Gould), Einhorn, born in 1952, grew up playing drums in a rock band, then became fascinated with experimental arts. As a young film composer, Einhorn used electronic music to score films like “Shock Waves,” a 1977 cult classic — “best Nazi zombie picture ever,” a reviewer once raved on the Rotten Tomatoes website. That film, starring John Carradine, Peter Cushing and Brooke Adams, is due out on Blu-ray next month.
It may seem a long road from zombies to Joan of Arc, the armor-clad French girl martyred so young, but for Einhorn, as for so many of us, the fascination of her story endures.
“She heard voices and was true to them to the end,” Einhorn said. “Was she schizophrenic? She was grounded in reality, leading armies as a teenager. She breaks every mold. Wherever you go in this story, there’s a contradiction, and Dreyer and Falconetti captured that ambiguity perfectly.”
Einhorn said he’s seen Dreyer’s film at least 100 times. “There’s always something new to see. It’s a joyful experience to watch, for its artistry, acting, mise-en-scène, beautiful cinematography, editing. Yes, it’s a tragedy, but so [are] `Hamlet’ and `Macbeth,’ and we love these plays.”
“Voices of Light”/”The Passion of Joan of Arc,” with Grant Gershon conducting the Los Angeles Master Chorale, chorale orchestra and soloists, will be performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. For ticket information, call (213) 972-7282 or visit www.lamc.org.
