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Compositions for Silent Film

Concert Pieces Developed from Silent Film Improvisations

Click icons for SAMPLE score and sound bites.  Contact Robert Constable by email to purchase full scores. 

Piano

Junior Fisticuffs (for The Man from Kangaroo-1919) (2019) 2’10”
A Slinky Foxtrot (for an imaginary silent film) Composed for Piers Lane (2019) 4’00”
Hieronymous Sprocket’s Bicycle Race (for Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Junior-1924) (2019) 2’15”
Professor Pollard’s Super Racing Car (for Snub Pollard’s It’s a Gift-1926) (2019) 1’30”
Cops (chase music for Buster Keaton’s Cops -1922) (2019) 2’17”
Walking With My Horse (for Buster Keaton’s Cops -1922) (2019) 4’00”
Taking the Air (for Buster Keaton’s The Navigator - 1925) (2019) 5’00”
Mr and Mrs Moose (for Mighty Like a Moose - Charley Chase - 1926) (2019) 2’45”
My Wife’s Relations (for Buster Keaton’s My Wife’s Relations - 1923) (2019) 2’35”
The Seven Chances (for Buster Keaton’s The Seven Chances - 1925) (2019) 2’50”
Tarantella  (for The Man from Kangaroo - 1919) (2019) 2’20”
Barcarolle (for the boating scene in King Vidor’s Bardelys the Magnificent - 1926) (2019) 1’50”
Doreen’s Ma (for The Sentimental Bloke - 1918) (2019) 3’20”
Doreen Strolls to Work (for The Sentimental Bloke - 1918) (2019) 2’10”
Alice’s Lament (for Hitchcock’s Blackmail - 1927) (2020) 5’40”

Three Silent Film Scenes (2021) (Composed for the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2023)

iii) Bicycle Race (4’40”)
ii) Lamentation (6’40”)
i) Fast Living (4’20”)

Xylophone or Marimba and Piano​​​​​

Junior Fisticuffs (for The Man from Kangaroo - 1919) (2020) 2’10”
A Slinky Foxtrot (for an imaginary silent film) (2020) 4’.00”
Hieronymous Sprocket’s Bicycle Race (for Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Junior - 1924) (2020) 2’15”
Professor Pollard’s Super Racing Car (for Snub Pollard’s It’s A Gift - 1926) (2020) 1’30”
Cops (chase music for Buster Keaton’s Cops - 1922) (2020) 2’17”
Walking With My Horse (for Buster Keaton’s Cops - 1922) (2020) 4’00”
Taking the Air (for Buster Keaton’s The Navigator - 1925) (2019) 5’00”
Mr and Mrs Moose (for Mighty Like a Moose - Charley Chase - 1926) (2019) 2’45”
My Wife’s Relations (for Buster Keaton’s My Wife’s Relations-1923) (2020) 2’35”
Doreen Strolls to Work (for The Sentimental Bloke - 1918) (2020) 2’10”
The Great Escape - in a wheelbarrow (for Dirty Dan II - 2004) (2020) 4’.50”
Fast Living (4’20”) – from Three Silent Film Scenes (xylophone arrangement 2022)

Violin and Piano​

A Slinky Foxtrot Violin and Piano - Nocturne 2021

Piano Trio​

A Slinky Foxtrot (4’20”) (Piano Trio arrangement 2021)

Military Band​

Steamboat Bill Junior for Military Band

Improvisations with Silent Film 2007-2019

 

2019 Serenata Series

  • March 30th Buster Keaton: The Navigator, Cops,One Week

  • June 29th Alfred Hitchcock: Blackmail, Leo McCarey Mighty Like a Moose

 

2016

  • FRFS, February 2016- Buster Keaton Festival

  • Buster Keaton: The General, Sherlock Junior, The Playhouse

  • Woodend Winter Arts Festival, June 2016  

  • Buster Keaton: The General, Cops, Sherlock Junior

 

2015

  • Thirteenth Annual Kangaroo Valley Buster Keaton Festival

  • Buster Keaton:The Navigator

 

2014

  • Twelfth Annual Kangaroo Valley Buster Keaton Festival:

  • Laurel and Hardy: Liberty, Buster Keaton: Cops,  Peter Wesley-Smith:Our Shirl

​

2013

  • School of Music Platform Festival-September 2013 

  • Buster Keaton: Sherlock Junior

  • Eleventh Annual Kangaroo Valley Buster Keaton Festival

  • Buster Keaton: The Playhouse,Snub Pollard: It’s A Gift, Peter Wesley-Smith:Albert’s Air

 

2012  

  • Fermata- Music Research Lecture Series- Silent Film Accompaniment: Is It the Singer or the Song?Performance -  Buster Keaton:The General

  • Tenth Annual Kangaroo Valley Buster Keaton Festival

  • The Man From Kangaroo(1919), The General(1925)

 

2011

  • Klassik Musik Fest, Oberneukirchen – Austria, July 13th

  • Buster Keaton: Neighbours, Sherlock Junior

  • Ninth Annual Kangaroo Valley Buster Keaton Festival, October 1st

  • Buster Keaton: Sherlock Junior, Ken Longford:The Sentimental Bloke

 

2010

Australian Silent Film Festival, Sept 24th-26th 

  • King Vidor: Bardelys the Magnificent, Buster Keaton:Neighbours, The Playhouse, My Wife’s Relations,

  • Snub Pollard: It’s a Gift

​

Eighth Annual Kangaroo Valley Buster Keaton Festival, August 7th

  • Buster Keaton: The Three Ages, The Haunted House

 

2009

Australian Silent Film Festival, October 17th

  • Charles Tait: The Kelly Gang, Ken Longford: The Sentimental Bloke, Buster Keaton: The General

  • Kangaloon Silent Film Festival, August 14th

  • Buster Keaton: The Electric House, The Blacksmith, The General

  • Seventh Annual Kangaroo Valley Buster Keaton Festival, August 15th

  • Buster Keaton: The Navigator, Neighbours, The Electric House

 

2008

Sixth Annual Kangaroo Valley Buster Keaton Festival, August 30th

  • Buster Keaton: My Wife’s Relations, The Paleface, The Seven Chances

 

2007

Australian Silent Film Festival, September 9th-10th

  • Buster Keaton: The Goat, Steamboat Bill Junior, Alfred Hitchcock: Blackmail

  • FC Music Society, Auckland, June 8th: 

  • Buster Keaton: The Haunted House; The Playhouse; The General

​

Fifth Annual Kangaroo Valley Buster Keaton Festival, October 27th

  • Buster Keaton: Steamboat Bill Junior; The Goat, Martin and Peter Wesley Smith: Dirty Dan I, II & III

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