Stephen Horne: The Manxman
Ulysses Arts

Stephen Horne: Silent Sirens
Ulysses Arts

Need a silent film accompanist and an original score to go with it? Look no further than Stephen Horne. He's performed at film festivals across Europe, North America, Asia, and the United Kingdom, and the London-based pianist has been a house musician at the British Film Institute Southbank for thirty years. Two very different Ulysses Arts releases testify to the artistry of this singular musician, silent film accompanist, and composer. Whereas Silent Sirens, issued a few years ago, features solo piano pieces based on several of his silent film scores, The Manxman presents the soundtrack he created for Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 silent film. The score for the latter was orchestrated by Ben Palmer, who conducts the Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone and two soloists, oboist Louise Hayter and violinist Jeff Moore, on the recording. Establishing a connection between the two releases is terrific cover artwork created by the pianist's late uncle Philip Worth.

Horne's been involved in many projects during his multi-decade career as a silent film pianist and composer. He's recorded material for many restorations of classic and rediscovered silent films, including scores he was commissioned to compose for the London Film Festival galas of The First Born and The Manxman in 2011 and 2012, respectively. A decade on from that, his orchestral score for Stella Dallas, commissioned by MoMA, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. As he did for The Manxman, Palmer worked with Horne to create the orchestral score for Stella Dallas, which, like The Manxman, was originally arranged for small ensemble. By his own reckoning, Horne has accompanied over a thousand films in more than twenty countries.

A couple of details from his Silent Sirens notes bear repeating. His contention, first, that the album's pieces are intended to stand apart from the films that inspired them is supported incontrovertibly by the result. The absence of visual correlates to the music in no way detracts from the recording (Horne does, however, include background details in the release booklet that clarify ties between the music and the films that inspired it). Secondly, as many of the selections were inspired by the films' lead actresses, Horne decided to title the project Silent Sirens. Most of the music derives from his scores for The First Born, The Manxman, Varieté, The Informer, Tonka of the Gallows, Menilmontant, Stella Dallas, L'Hirondelle et La Mésange, and Visages d'Enfants. In a few cases, titles were taken directly from the films' inter-titles (e.g., “The Water Guards their Secret” from L'Hirondelle et La Mésange), and a few are personal pieces with no tie to any film—the heartfelt “Meditation for Miranda,” for example, was written for his romantic partner. Though the eleven parts originate from different sources, they hold together beautifully as a collective expression of solo pianism.

The flowing lilt of Horne's resonant playing in “Beyond the Trees” instantly captivates, as does the lyrical tone of the music, and even at this early stage of the album there's as much pleasure to be had from his piano playing as the material itself; similar impressions re-emerge when the gorgeous “Keep Me” and “Springtime and Her Twin Sister” surface later. Drawn from the score for The Manxman, “Tidal Forces” is as dramatic and grandiose as one would expect, but there are disarmingly pretty passages too, and affecting also is “Will You Wait?” when it's permeated by romantic ardour and longing. Haunted (and haunting) are the classically tinged settings “Strange Charm” and “Faces of Children.” Separating itself from the others is “The Kindness of Strangers,” a poignant expression that augments piano with flute, Horne the player of both instruments. He endured a number of personal tragedies during the album's production, which might in part account for an undercurrent of melancholy. That said, Silent Sirens is hardly a one-note exercise when sunny moments offset ones cast in shadow. Contrasts in mood aside, Horne's writing is formally sophisticated, bountiful in melody, and never less than engaging. He is a special talent indeed.

Of course, Horne is less present in one specific sense on The Manxman when he's not featured as a performer. His personal stamp is, however, all over the writing, and it's this that establishes a through-line from the earlier release to the new one, as different as they are on instrumentation grounds. At twenty-eight tracks, the score is a substantial creation—as it would be: after all, rather than a conventional film that might include intermittent snippets of music, in the silent film it runs throughout as a constant correlate to the screen content. Hitchcock's penultimate silent film and based on a popular 1894 novel by Sir Hall Caine, The Manxman is set in an Isle of Man fishing community and follows two boyhood friends whose professional paths diverge—one, Pete Quilliam (Carl Brisson), becomes a fisherman, the other, Philip Christian (Malcolm Keen), a lawyer—but who also fall for the same woman, Kate Cregeen (Anny Ondra). Horne purposefully fashioned the music to accord with the film's atmosphere and geographical setting, and also wove traditional songs (“Car y Phoosee,” “Ny Kirree Fo Niaghtey”), the Manx national anthem, and associated hymns into the score.

Years after the restored film's well-received London première, Horne's original quintet arrangement was expanded into an orchestral score that received its own premiere in 2022 and was then captured in the studio last year. His original desires, that the score be both intimate and epic and that its coupling of solo instruments with the orchestra would mirror the way the love triangle plays out against the rugged coastal backdrop, are splendidly realized. Themes of a tragic and romantic character emerge repeatedly to help bind the score, the soloists, oboist Hayter (cor anglais too) and violinist Moore, do their part to elevate the material, and Horne's music is dramatic, sumptuous, melodically rich, and kaleidoscopic in mood. Palmer deserves fulsome praise for his terrific orchestration.

The score enchants the moment “Island Brothers” introduces it with Hayter soloing against a backdrop of dancing strings. A lovely romantic theme introduced in track two, “You Speak for Me,” re-appears in the third, “You Penniless Lout,” this time voiced beautifully by Moore. As the score advances, rousing dance pieces (“The Wedding Wake,” “A Happy Home") alternate with aching romantic expressions (“I Can't Keep My Secret,” “I'm Not Staying”), and the tone sometimes turns rustic (“From the Island”) and, intimating tragedy, foreboding (“I've Given Myself”) before reaching its climax (“There Before You is the Betrayer,” “He Speaks the Truth”) and satisfying resolution (“We Too Have Suffered”). Track titles enable a coherent narrative to crystallize, though the score amply rewards as a pure musical statement. That said, it would be fascinating to experience the score with the film, such that, in a perfect world, the release would be a double-disc set, one the CD recording and the other a DVD pairing music and film. Regardless, both of these Horne releases have much to recommend them and, while they're two recordings only, nonetheless provide an illuminating portrait of this most talented artist.

February 2025