People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra

The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra accompany the silents with an ear informed by contemporary and classical sources alike. The sounds are made by a violin duo, piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, percussion, ambient tape loops, trumpets, trombones and guitars. Forays into noise, folk and psychedelia are tempered by a melodic sensibility rooted firmly in the Romantics. Their first accompaniment, to Buster Keaton’s Go West (1925), was debuted at the Webster Film Series in St. Louis in 2007. This was followed by F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh (1924) and the Keaton short The High Sign (1921). In addition to the Webster Film Series (which also debuted The Last Laugh in 2008) the Rats and People have performed at the Rag Tag Theater in Columbia, Missouri, and at a handful of art galleries and venues in St. Louis.

References: Matt Pace.