We will be introduced to the world of silent and animated films by Charlie Chaplin and Walt Disney through a conversation between film art professor Silvana Dunat and flutist Marko Zupan, both lecturers at UMAS, and moderator Ivana Orešić.
In the early years of film, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, film screenings were inevitably associated with music, which, along with the blurry images, provided atmosphere. In the beginning, mechanical instruments helped to mask the noise created by the screening, but live performance soon became the preferred choice because it allowed for a better connection to the film's story. In those early years, improvised accompaniments, often with a pianist or organist, ensured continuity of scenes, but also created atmosphere with the help of already familiar melodies and sound effects.
The early 20th century brought greater sophistication: film productions increasingly employed permanent instrumental ensembles and specialized organs, and music producers chose the repertoire. The first film scores were improvisations, but over time they became more structured. Edison Pictures was distributing music instruction sheets as early as 1909, and music publishers were creating anthologies of film scores.
The early stages of the film were filled with live music that was key to connecting the audience to the film, making the musical accompaniment not just a technical part of the film experience.
Charles Chaplin and Walt Disney share the same relationship with music: both were extremely musically talented, full of ideas that they could not put on sheet music or play on an instrument, and others did it for them. For example, the famous French impressionist composer Claude Debussy, after meeting the 20-year-old Charlie, said something that stuck: "You are a born musician and dancer." On the other hand, Walt Disney, during the working days of his career, said beautiful words: "Music has incredible power. You can play any of these films and they will be boring and slow, but as soon as you put music behind them, they gain a life and vitality that they cannot get in any other way." In addition to a similar view of music and relationship to it, they are connected through a common foundation in creating characters that communicate universal human emotion through body language and comedic gestures, without relying on dialogue. Disney, in fact, recognized in Chaplin's hobo the characteristics that shaped Mickey Mouse – especially in the physical comedy, body language, and the ability of a comic character to convey emotions with minimal verbal expression. The author of this evening's concept, Ivana Orešić, writes:
“In the birth registry, the date of birth of the most famous animated muscle in the world is recorded as November 18, 1928, at the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Burbank, California, USA, but in the imagination of the boy Walter Elias Disney (1901 – 1966), Mickey Mouse was born in a different place and much earlier. The thirteen-year-old boy was introduced to the magical world of film by his schoolmate from Kansas, Walter Pfeiffer. The first film that the future animator, director and screenwriter watched was "Kid Auto Races at Venice" (1914), by Charlie Chaplin, in which for the first time the world's most famous silent film comedian brought the character of the tramp who made him famous to life on screen. Thirteen years later, Walt Disney drew the first version of Mickey Mouse in his studio, a smiling, dancing mouse with oversized shoes – an animated version of Charlie Chaplin.”
And finally, we come to the main actors of tonight's event. The musicians gathered in the Adriaphonics quintet approached this project as performers, composers and arrangers. More precisely, each of them took on the task of preparing the musical backdrop for one of the Mickey Mouse animated films that will be shown, while during the broadcast of the Charlie Chaplin film they will play the music of the French composer and pianist Claude Bolling. The musicians, who move within the fabric of classical music in different micro-milieu, each approached the task in a special way. One approach will sound more improvisational, another will be composed of well-known melodies that will be skillfully arranged into a whole, while the third will enter the process exclusively with their own innovations that they have precisely written down for performance. It remains for you to uncover where the well-known melodies are hidden, and where the completely new, fresh music of the imaginative musicians standing before us tonight is emerging. Or, better yet, don't think at all and just indulge in this unique synthesis of live image and sound.
The Bokun festival is a multimedia project created according to the idea of the artistic director Ivana Orešić, which explores new dimensions of film art and is created with the help of versatile artists and friends of the festival. The specialty of the festival is the composition of new music for films and its live performance during the program. The program is created and directed like a theater performance so that the audience can experience the theme of the festival as well as possible and participate in it as much as possible by interacting with the artists.
In eight years of activity, through various programs and guest appearances, the audience was presented with the work of artists who marked the 20th century: composer Ivo Tijardović, comedians Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, painters Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali and Diego Rivera, animators Dušan Vukotić and Walt Disney.
The festival's staff collaborates with numerous institutions and organizations.
Marko Zupan has had a rich international career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, improviser, arranger and professor. He regularly performs throughout Europe, Asia and America. He has played in prestigious halls such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Wiener Musikverein, Konzerthaus Berlin, Hanoi Opera House, Shanghai Oriental Art Center and elsewhere. Since 2010 he has been teaching at the Academy of Music in Split. www.markozupan.com
Goran Cetinić Koća was self-taught until the age of 22. He completed his undergraduate studies in the class of Prof. Maroje Brčić and then enrolled in classical guitar at the Academy of Arts in Split, where he graduated in the class of Prof. Goran Listeš. He has collaborated with many famous Croatian musicians, performed at all the most important Croatian blues and jazz festivals broadcast on the Croatian State Radio and Television. He is a member of the Split Guitar Quartet, the blues band Otprilike Ovako and the jazz band Šporkestar.
Tonči Tranfić has been awarded at numerous national and international competitions. He worked as an accompanist-artistic collaborator at the Academy of Arts in Split, and was also awarded as the best piano collaborator at the String Festival in Serbia. He has performed as a soloist with the Croatian National Theatre Orchestra in Split. He is a piano professor at the Josip Hatze Music School and the artistic director of the klapa groups Cambi and Elektrodalmacija.
After graduating from the secondary music school in Ljubljana, Piero Malkoč continued his studies as a double bassist at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. He was a member of many international orchestras under the auspices of Jeunesses Musicales International, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Maribor Opera, and numerous chamber orchestras. He performs in Europe and Asia. He often plays in various chamber ensembles. With the Funtango quintet, he has delighted and performed on Slovenian and European stages. He is currently a double bassist soloist with the Croatian National Theatre Orchestra in Split and a professor at the Josip Hatze Music School.
Boris Žuvela was a permanent collaborator of the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra for eight years, occasionally collaborating with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. He performed at festivals in Puerto Rico, Austria, Korea and Croatia. He currently lives in Split where he is employed as a solo timpanist in the orchestra of the Croatian National Theatre in Split.
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