http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/arts/music/philharmonic-plays-score-at-screening-of-modern-times.html 2014-09-21 22:39:01 Philharmonic Plays Score at Screening of ‘Modern Times’ The New York Philharmonic performed Charlie Chaplin’s original score during a screening of a restored print of “Modern Times.” === After its You can imagine how thrilled Chaplin would have been to hear this score played live with such glowing sound and vitality. The audience was certainly thrilled to be there, judging by the uninhibited laughter that erupted throughout the film, punctuated by bursts of applause after standout scenes. The symphonic richness of the score, far from seeming inflated or intrusive, lent depth and nuance to “Modern Times,” a comic indictment of industrialization and the exploitation of labor, the last Chaplin film in which he appears as the Little Tramp. In the film, which is mostly silent, we first see the Tramp as a worker on an insanely high-speed production line, before he literally becomes a cog in the wheel of the machines. Mr. Brock, who has composed many concert works and conducted internationally, has been acclaimed for his efforts at restoring overlooked film scores. In 1999, at the request of the Chaplin estate and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, He spoke to the audience on Friday about Chaplin’s background in music. Though he could not read or notate music, Chaplin grew up in the culture of English music halls, played several instruments and, after the introduction of sound, began writing the scores for his films. Naturally he had expert help from composers, some of whom went on to important careers in Hollywood, especially David Raksin. Chaplin had clear ideas about the music he wanted. But, as Mr. Brock emphasized, the final product for “Modern Times” was a prerecorded score linked to the film. The score presented on this night was full of jaunty dancelike segments, rollicking bits and tuneful stretches in the British music hall tradition. Still, I was impressed at how often — during tender moments of the story, when the hapless Tramp gets booted from another job or winds up in jail — the music turns elegiac with minor-mode melodies and mellow harmonic writing. There are hints throughout that Chaplin was aware of Ravel, Richard Strauss and the mechanistic modernism that shook up Paris in the 1920s. After the Tramp meets the Gamin, a wild-eyed impoverished young woman played by Paulette Goddard, whose beauty shines through her grimy face and greasy hair, Chaplin’s music achieves genuine romantic elegance. The score contains the breakthrough tune that, fitted with words after the movie came out, became The program began with a screening of a 1914 Chaplin short, “Kid Auto Races at Venice,” in which the rumpled sad-sack Tramp first made his appearance. This short was accompanied by Mr. Brock’s original score, lively and fresh music that captured the style of the era and the essence of the tale.