Sitting at a table, scores in hand, hair slightly tousled, Dylan Champagne looked the part of a composer. The massive, cumbersome scores occupied nearly the entire table, the rest stacked with various other music-themed books.
Champagne, a University of Idaho junior, set out on a behemoth task last spring. Inspired by a friend and a passion for music, he set out to write a score for the silent film “Phantom of the Opera.”
“I put together some mock-ups last summer, and one thing led to another,” Champagne said.
Joleen Evans | Argonaut
Professor Alan Gemberling talks about the music he will be conducting at the Phantom of the Opera that played Thursday.
The original film premiered in 1925, and had a score that was basically pieces of the opera “Faust,” Champagne said. He said there”s no record of what that actually is.
“We don”t really have a ton of information,” Champagne said.
Since the movie is silent, Champagne was tasked with telling the story through music.
“I”d watch the scene I was working on and respond to what was happening on screen. I just did that for all 90 minutes,” he said.
Working on this score has become a full-time job for Champagne on top of school. He said he works on it seven days a week, and since Christmas break he”s been running with it.
Though it”s been plenty of work, he said he wouldn”t trade it for anything. He said one of his favorite parts so far has been the visualization.
“The whole process has been stressful, and a ton of work, but all of it”s been amazing,” Champagne said. “The process of writing it has been so much stuff, making stuff and imagining how it”s going to sound.”
He said he thought he would end up doing big outlines and planning the score on a macro level. However, Champagne ended up working on it chunk by chunk instead.
“What ended up happening was I kind of just let the film percolate in my subconscious for a while, and when I got around to working on it, I had ideas,” he said.
Last fall, Champagne went to Alan Gemberling, a UI music professor, seeking a conductor for the project.
“It seemed like a great challenge,” said Gemberling.
Throughout the process, this challenge was still Gemberling”s favorite part. The music has to be timed perfectly with what”s happening on screen.
The score was written for a live 8-piece ensemble. That meant no editing, no click-tracks, no opportunities to go back and try things again, Gemberling said.
From the beginning of rehearsals Champagne and Gemberling worked in collaboration. Champagne had clear direction of exactly what he wanted, Gemberling said.
Gemberling conducted the piece Thursday night at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre.
“Our first rehearsal, while everybody was warming up and playing little bits from the score I had written, that was incredible, because all the sudden, you spend months with this thing by yourself, and now you”ve got a group together,” said Champagne.
Gemberling sets the tempo for the piece. He said he has to be able to coordinate 8 musicians for any changes that need to happen live.
“In a way, the audience is going to get an inside look into the way an orchestra is and works,” Gemberling said. “It”s pretty fascinating what we”ve got going.”
Carly Scott can be reached at [email protected]