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 Prima Vista Quartet

The Prima Vista Quartet of France, led by artistic director and composer Baudime Jam, has become a leader in the rarified world of silent film musical accompaniment. Together, Jam and the quartet have explored silent cinema genres as diverse as slapstick, expressionism, social realism, historical melodrama, swashbuckler, war movie, cartoon and documentary, as expressed in French, American, German, Russian and Chinese film productions.

Baudime Jam’s first composition for silent film was completed in 1999 for The General (1926) and was followed by music scores for four short films in 2001. Additional scores were written for Nosferatu (1922) in 2002, The Black Pirate (1926) in 2004, two other short films in 2005, Orphans of the Storm (1921) in 2008, The Goddess (1934) and The New Babylon (1929) in 2010, with Studies on Paris and Two Stars in the Milky Way (1931) in 2012, two more shorts in 2013, The Great War and Wings (1927) in 2014, and three new short slapstick comedies in 2015.

Respectful of the aesthetic of each film, the Prima Vista Quartet has performed their silent film accompaniment for more than fifteen years in France and abroad, all with the original scores composed by Baudime Jam. Contrary to common misconception, the Prima Vista Quartet does not accompany silent films with arrangements of classical, baroque, contemporary, jazz, rock or ethnic music, but with ... film music. The quartet believes that cinema has its own musical idiom and their cine-concerts performances offer a unique opportunity to experience an enhancement of its repertoire.

The Prima Vista Quartet eschews modern technology (click tracks over earphones or monitors on stage with timings and cues) in favor of the live experience of pure acoustic musicianship. The quartet sits to the side of the stage and violinist/composer Baudime Jam keeps cinematic images and the quartet’s music in expressive synchronization. Their music scores are composed and performed in the spirit of the era of the movie, to the point that audiences experience movie and music as one.

References: Cine-Concerts website.