The use of cameras or recording equipment during the 

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones,

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Please note that late entry or reentry ofthe 

East Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

For the convenience of concertgoers, 

the Garden Cafe remains open for light refreshments

until 6:00 pm on Sundays.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, dc

uww.nga.gov

Concerts are made possible in part through the generosity of donors

to the National Gallery of Art through The Circle. Reserved seating is

available in recognition oftheir support. Please contact the development

office at (202) 842-6450 or circle@nga.gov for more information.

COVER: Currier and Ives (publishers), The Gallant Charge ofthe 54th Massachusetts

(colored) Regiment: On the Rebel Works at Fort Wagner, Morris Island, near Charleston,

July 18th, 186j, and the Death ofColonel Robt. G. Shaw, 1863, hand-colored lithograph,

Boston Athenaeum, Gift of Raymond Wilkins, 1944

The Seventy-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,975th Concert

National Gallery ofArt Orchestra

Andrew Earle Simpson, guest conductor

Cine-concert

Presented in honor of

Tell It with Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and

Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial

January 12, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

East Building Auditorium

Admissionfree
Program

Silent Films with Music by Andrew Earle Simpson

Drummer ofthe 8th

Directed by Thomas Ince, 1913

The House with Closed Shutters

Directed by D. W. Griffith, 1910

The General

Directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, 1926

The piano used in tonight’s cine-concert has been provided by the Shadd

Piano Company ofWashington, DC. Founded in 2002 by Washingtonnative Warren M. Shadd, the company is the world’s only African

American-owned piano manufacturer. With production and development facilities in China, Germany, and Italy, Shadd Piano Company

owns several important and innovative patents. These include assistive

technology, invented by Warren Shadd, that enriches the lives of piano

students who have neurodevelopmental disabilities. Other members of

the extended Shadd family who have had an impact on American music

are Marie and James Shadd, who were active as jazz pianists and band

leaders in the early and mid-i90os, respectively, and Grammy Awardwinning singer Shirley Horn (1934-2005). One ofthe Shadd ancestors

who figured significantly in African American history was abolitionist

Mary Ann Shadd (1823-1893), the first female African American lawyer.

The Musicians

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1943, the National Gallery ofArt Orchestra began with a small

cadre ofmusicians drawn from the National Symphony Orchestra. Gradually 

growing in numbers, the Gallery orchestra eventually reached the size and

status of a large chamber orchestra. The ensemble has undertaken the full 

range of chamber and symphonic repertoire and has frequently presented

first performances ofworks by American composers, most notably the 1953

premiere ofCharles Ives’ Symphony no. 1 under the direction of Richard

Bales; the 1990 premiere of Daniel Pinkham’s Symphony no. 4 under George

Manos; and the 2007 premiere ofJohn Musto’s Later the Same Evening: An

opera inspired byfive paintings ofEdward Hopper, under guest conductor Glen

Cortese. Other guest conductors who have appeared with the orchestra in

recent years include Bjarte Engeset, Philippe Entremont, Vladimir Lande,

George Mester, Otto-Werner Mueller, and Jose Serebrier.

ANDREW EARLE SIMPSON

Composer, pianist, and organist Andrew Earle Simpson is ordinary professor

and head ofthe division oftheory and composition at the Benjamin T. Rome

School of Music ofthe Catholic University ofAmerica. A composer of opera,

silent film, orchestral, chamber, choral, dance, and vocal music, he specializes 

in multi-faceted, intimate connections with literature, visual art, and film.

Resident film accompanist at the National Gallery ofArt and house accompanist at the Library ofCongress’ Mount Pony Theater in Culpeper, Virginia,

Simpson is also the keyboard artist for the Cantate Chamber Singers. He was

heard recently at the Gallery as pianist for the National Gallery ofArt Vocal

Ensemble’s program ofmusic by Arthur Sullivan and other British composers

in honor of Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 2848-1900. His chamber,

choral, and silent film music has been recorded on the Albany, Athena, Capstone, Fleur de Son Classics, and Naxos labels, and his silent film scores have 

been broadcast on the Turner Classic Movies Channel. More information about

Andrew Earle Simpson is available at www.andrewesimpson.com.

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Program Notes

Since its birth in the 1890s, film has almost always been accompanied by

music in various ways. In the silent film era, for example, most films never

received specifically created scores. Rather, the choice ofmusic tended to be 

left to the artistic staffon hand in each local theater. Film studios developed

musical aids called “cue sheets,” essentially thumbnail guides that suggested

potentially appropriate music to accompany each scene, or “cue.” Music

publishers worked hand-in-hand with the studios by producing volumes of

sheet music that contained numerous interludes suitable for a wide variety

ofsituations: chases, love scenes, moments of danger, etc. Performers would

then use the cue sheets and compiled sheet music to pull together enough

tunes to fill the time. In a few cases, however, particularly for especially

lavish productions, so-called “special scores” were created to accompany

one particular film. These “special scores” were most often compilations

of existing repertoire by established classical masters, with perhaps a

few moments ofnew music linking the borrowed passages together. Still

another type offilm accompaniment was pure musical improvisation:

sometimes a performer would have seen a film before playing for it, but

more often he or she would be working with it at first sight.

Tonight’s cine-concert, a collaboration between the National Gallery of

Art film and music departments, features two different film accompaniment

techniques. The two shorts at the beginning ofthe program are accompanied by piano improvisations; The General is accompanied by an original

orchestral score, written especially for this event. About these techniques,

Andrew Earle Simpson writes:

4

Although I enter into these kinds ofscores using previously crafted

concepts, ranging from phrases to melodies, developed while watching the films ahead oftime, the improvisations upon these concepts

necessarily vary with each performance. The score for The General,

however, is different. It is a fully written-out, newly composed,

original orchestral score, designed with the intent oftracking the 

action and emotion ofthe film as closely as possible, from beginning to end. Ultimately, the goal of both ofthese types of accompaniment is to support the image on the screen. The ideal, to my

mind, is to create music that will be a partner to the film, neither

dominating it nor being dominated by it, but rather amplifying its

natural abilities to express emotion and to tell a story. The finished 

product should provide a seamless aesthetic experience, more 

powerful in the combination of art forms than either could be on

its own.

With improvisation as live accompaniment, there is flexibility. The

artist can respond in the moment to a surge of emotion, a laugh

from the audience, or even a broken film reel. There is, in theory,

infinite space for any and all variation, and infinite possibility for

change. With a fully notated score such as my new one for The

General, there is almost no margin for error: the conductor must

remain synchronized with the film, and synchronize the orchestra 

with it as well. Human beings speed up and slow down, and 

variation in tempo is a natural part ofmusical performance. But a

film runs at a single, constant pace, and the challenge—and the 

thrill! —is to perform with expression while still tracking the

screen.

Drummer ofthe 8th concerns the heroism of an underage youth who

volunteers to serve in the Union Army as a drummer boy. The House with

Closed Shutters, in contrast, is a tale of cowardice and its terrible consequences:

a young Confederate soldier flees his duty at a critical point, only to have his

place taken by his sister.

5
Deservedly one ofthe best-known and best-loved films ofthe silent era, 

Buster Keaton's The General is based on an actual incident that took place in

1862. The film casts Keaton (1895-1966) as Johnnie Gray, a young Southerner

who wants to enlist in the Confederate Army. His application is denied,

however, on the grounds that his job as a railroad engineer makes him too 

valuable as a civilian. A year later, his locomotive, the “General” ofthe film’s

title, is stolen by Union spies. Johnnie pursues them, and the centerpiece of

the film is his quest to find his beloved locomotive and aid the Southern

cause. Keaton performs his own stunts throughout the film in a delightful

series ofwild chases that provide ample opportunity for rollicking music

and much laughter.

Codirected by Keaton and Clyde Bruckman (1894-1955), The General

was released in 1926. The recent restoration ofthe film used in tonight’s

cine-concert was funded by the Film Foundation and Cohen Media.

Program notes by Andrew Earle Simpson

6

Upcoming concerts at the National Gallery ofArt

David Geringas, cellist

Music by J. S. Bach, Corigliano, Geringas, 

and other composers

January 19, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Dali String Quartet

Music by Efrain Amaya, Brahms, 

and other composers

January 26, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone

Russell Ryan, pianist

Schubert: Schwanengesang

February 2, 2014

Sunday, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court