Animated film revitalized with new score

Ensemble members Liu Lin, Wu Tong, Eric Jacobsen, and Kojiro Umezaki performed at the
Rubin Museum of Art.

In a pairing that would make Scheherazade proud, the Silk Road Ensemble performed live a new score for a screening of the classic feature-length animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

The Ensemble accompanied the groundbreaking 1926 film, based on the tales told for 1,001 nights by the legendary Persian queen, as part of a weeklong October residency at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.

To prepare for the screening, a dozen Ensemble members watched the movie several times over the course of two weeks, each time experimenting with sound and themes that would make the film’s silhouette characters come to life. Eventually, said cellist Eric Jacobsen, “everybody found their role and each instrument was assigned a character.”

As the score took shape, “we wrote down what we were doing,” said Jacobsen, but ultimately the performance was “well-structured improvisation.”

“I’d definitely like to take on something like this again,” he added. “What we did not only fit this movie, but the way the ensemble performs as well.”

Luckily for a new audience, the Ensemble will give a repeat performance in Providence this February.

Museum residencies like the one at the Rubin Museum help visitors experience “the connections between sight and sound and the imagination,” Yo-Yo Ma, artistic director and founder of the Silk Road Project, told the Voice of America this October.

In addition to the presentation of The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the residency included ensemble performances throughout the galleries; workshops in drumming, drawing, and dancing; family concerts; a performance with the Beijing quartet China Magpie; and the world premiere of Nine Rivers, a new piece by Beijing composer and musician Wu Tong.