Breil's "Love Theme 1" is a photoplay (silent film) cue composed by Joseph Carl Breil (1870 - 1926) published by Chappell and Co. Ltd. in 1917.

As was common for early photoplay compositions, this piece was intended to be matched to the action or mood on screen. It's use wasn't intended to be limited to any specific film. The piano accompaniment part explains, "For scenes of deep love and affection. Fervent passion". 

DAHR hosts a discography of recordings of Breil compositions, mostly of his best known pieces "The Perfect Song" and "Song of the Soul".

This all-new recording was produced by @MLucas using OMR, starting out with scans of the original pit orchestra sheet music. The tempo changes hint at the roller coaster emotions of new love. The lush and sentimental sound is typical of the early days of Hollywood.

Other Recordings: Viv Rolfe performed and recorded a piano oriented version of Breil's Love Theme 1. It's posted at https://soundcloud.com/viv-rolfe/motion-picture-plays-no-8-love-theme-i.

Cover art and photograph by MLucas. The image features a detail from "Three Strong Women", a thunder gourd by McKenzie.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Love Theme 1 (Joseph Carl Breil)

Gaston Borch composed "Triste Convoi" (Melancholy Procession) in 1923. It's a powerful late romantic piece, published as #26 in Hawke's Photo Play series -- meaning it was intended for performance by a theater orchestra as accompaniment for a silent film.

This all-new recording was produced by @MLucas using OMR, starting out with scans of the original pit orchestra sheet music. My original production followed the composition structure resulting in a recording over thirteen minutes in duration. While that might be useful for a silent film, it seemed excessive for this medium, so for SoundCloud I've carefully edited the piece to a bit over six minutes. Public Resource will post the full length version on the Internet Archive at a later time. The percussion parts were re-assigned to a collection of asian and middle-eastern percussion instruments.

Other Recordings of this composition: Phillip Sear posted his piano performance of this piece on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOQa67QzMTQ

Cover art by MLucas using "Antwerp refugees fleeing to Holland" from 1914 by Bain News Service, hosted by the Library of Congress. LCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/2014703585

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Triste Convoi (Gaston Borch)

"The Vampire" is a photoplay composition by Sol P. Levy (1881-1920) published in 1917. Today it sounds more akin to a theme for a mobster saga than a batcentric horror fest, but the theme is alluring nonetheless. And, as it turns out, it probably was not intended to be used for a horror film.

Most film buffs reference "Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens" (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror) as the first vampire film. Murnau's expressionist classic may well be the first vampire horror film, but it was released in 1922, five years later than the publication of this composition.

The most likely explanation is that Levy's composition finds its origin not in the Transylvanian mountains, but in a poem by Rudyard Kipling, written to accompany a painting by Philip Burne-Jones named the Vampire. The painting depicts a femme fatale and her victim -- it's suggestive, but there's nothing supernatural about it. Kipling's poem and Burne-Jones' painting also inspired a theatrical play, and then in 1913 a silent film, "The Vampire". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vampire_(1913_film). However, there is no direct link between this composition and the film -- the composition is subtitled "A Dramatic Theme".

This new recording of Levy's "The Vampire" was produced by @MLucas for Public Resource using Optical Music Recognition (OMR). Original printed music for a theater orchestra was scanned and then converted to music XML. Next the individual parts were assembled into a score in a professional music notation program. Then the edited score was exported to MIDI and applied to sampled orchestral instruments. This version adheres closely to Levy's original music, with frequent tempo changes.

Other Recordings: Classical guitarist Eric Roth posted his solo classical guitar arrangement of this piece, recorded September 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ni_uyOCmpI.

Cover art by MLucas.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

The Vampire (Sol P. Levy)

"Sérénade Grotesque" was composed in 1920 by Gaston Borch (French 1871-1926). Borch was a prolific photoplay music composer. 

When we think of a serenade, we usually think of a gentleman playing a sensitive piece of music on a guitar or lute, and perhaps also singing, outside a lady's window at night to express his affections and perhaps as a demonstration of his artistic side and skillfulness.

On the other hand, 'grotesque' suggests something freakish, ugly, or at least weird. Did Borch intend that the serenade was performed by someone (or someTHING) grotesque? Or is it the music itself that is strange, mysterious, and possibly just a bit hideous? The printed music provides no clue.

This all-new recording of Borch's Sérénade Grotesque was produced by @MLucas using OMR in late 2024. The OMR process began with digital scans of the original theater orchestra sheet music. The scans were then converted into a computer readable form -- music xml -- using SoundSlice and assembled into a score in a professional music notation program. The resulting score was then exported as music xml and as MIDI. Then in Logic Pro, the MIDI score was re-assembled and each part was assigned sampled orchestral instruments. The resulting recording generally follows the original scanned music, but some careful editing is required to achieve a quality audio product.

We found no other recordings of this piece. Note however, that other composers wrote unrelated pieces called "Sérénade Grotesque", perhaps most notably one composed by French impressionist Maurice Ravel in 1893.

Cover by MLucas using (with permission) a photograph by his sister, Donna Lucas.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Sérénade Grotesque (Gaston Borch)

Otto Langey (German/American 1851-1922) was a prolific photoplay music composer and author of a successful series of music education manuals. He composed "Pastorale" for Ditson in 1918. Like the other pieces in the Ditson series, it was composed for use with any film, and in particular for "scenes of a rural character, waterfalls, etc."

"Pastorale" puts the percussion section to the task of evoking the sounds of wild creatures in springtime or summer -- frogs croaking, birds singing, and insects humming and chirping away. The cover of the Ditson collection that includes "Pastorale" lists the tools for the percussion section including: "sandpaper, cymbals, thunder sheetiron, bells, triangle, horse hooves, cow bells, bird whistle". We used Spitfire's LABS library "Percussion" which proved remarkably effective for recreating this effect, though it's difficult to imagine a single percussionist making all these sounds simultaneously.

This all-new recording of Langey's "Pastorale" was produced by @MLucas using OMR starting in late 2024 and ending with a remix in March 2025. The OMR process began with digital scans of the original theater orchestra sheet music. The scans were then converted into music xml using SoundSlice and then assembled into a score in a professional music notation program. The resulting score was exported as music xml and as MIDI. Finally in Logic Pro, the MIDI score was re-assembled and each part was assigned a sampled orchestral instrument.

For this recording the organ/harmonium part was assigned an accordion sound (for extra swampiness), and the trombone part was assigned to a Euphonium - a brass instrument similar in range but mellower. The original music shows most of the musicians playing throughout the piece, but for this recording the arrangement was modified so that the parts enter and exit to try to create a more varied and interesting soundscape. It seems likely that photoplay orchestras also did this, perhaps on the fly.

We found no other recordings of this piece.

Most small orchestra photoplay compositions from this period are in the Late Romantic style. Langey's "Pastorale, however, sounds more like an early example of Americana, akin to some of Aaron Copland's  music like "Rodeo" -- music Copland composed decades later.

Cover art and photography by MLucas.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Pastorale (Otto Langey)

"Sea Song re-do" begins our exploration of another facet of the Public Resource OMR project -- making derivative works using fragments or passages extracted from of out-of-copyright compositions.

 Christopher O'Hare composed "Sea Song" in 1918. It was intended to accompany photoplays (silent films), with the instruction that it would be appropriate for "surf scenes, on the sea, sailors, etc."

We've recast Sea Song as a lighthearted nautical chill track. The drums and most of the bass are new, but reflect the lilting rhythm of the original piece. The trumpet-like synth lead is improvised over the top. Most of the other parts use passages pulled from the original composition using MIDI tracks derived from the music XML product of the OMR process though most of the sounds are quite different. This new derivative work would probably be amenable to copyright protection, but we're not claiming any.

We'll post a recording that's closer to the original O'Hare composition soon, and will also make the music XML and MIDI versions freely available for download on the Internet Archive in the next few weeks so you can try your hand at reusing parts of the silent film era.

"Sea Song re-do" was produced and performed by @MLucas using OMR in winter 2025.

Cover art and photography by MLucas.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Sea Song re-do (chilly remix)

Gaston Borch (French, 1871-1926) composed "Apparitions" in 1920. Both the title and the music itself suggest a supernatural visitation, but perhaps more wonderment than horror.

This all-new recording was produced by @MLucas using OMR. The OMR process starts with a digital scan of the original theater orchestra sheet music. The scans are converted into music xml using SoundSlice and then assembled into a score in a professional music notation program. The resulting score is opened as MIDI in a DAW (Logic Pro) and each part assigned a sampled sound and then edited and mixed. This recording adheres rather closely to the original scores, but inevitably considerable editing is required.

Cover art and photography by MLucas.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Apparitions (Gaston Borch)

Andante Patetico e Doloroso is a 1918 photoplay composition by Gaston Borch (French, 1871-1926). According to its subtitle, it was intended "for deep sorrow, sickness or death". It's a slow and gentle piece in the late romantic/classical orchestral style.

This all-new recording was produced by @MLucas using OMR. The OMR process starts with a digital scan of the original theater orchestra sheet music. The scans are converted into music xml using SoundSlice and then assembled into a score in a professional music notation program. The resulting score is opened as MIDI in a DAW (Logic Pro) and each part assigned a sampled sound and then edited and mixed.

Cover art by MLucas.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Andante Patetico e Doloroso (Gaston Borch)

Gaston Borch composed “Lullaby” for Carl Fisher’s Theatre Orchestra, 3rd Ed. in 1919. It’s a late romantic photoplay piece and despite the title it’s not obviously soporific. In C minor, it seems to be influenced by the blues. Borch (French 1871-1926) was among the most prolific of the photoplay (silent movie) composers.

This original recording of Borch's "Lullaby" was produced by @MLucas using OMR beginning with a digital scan of the original theater orchestra sheet music. The scans are converted into music xml using SoundSlice and then assembled into a score in a professional music notation program. The resulting score was imported into Logic Pro as MIDI. In Logic, each part assigned a sampled sound and then edited and mixed.

Cover art by MLucas using his photographs of the moon and three tundra swans at Kankakee Fish and Wildlife Area in Indiana, USA.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Lullaby (Gaston Borch)

Leo A. Kempinski (German/American 1891-1958) composed “Heavy (con moto) Tension” in 1922 as part of the "Incidental Symphonies - Half Reel Dramatic Illustrations" series for the Photo Play Music Company, 1520 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 

The cover sheet explains that the Incidental Symphony series was "compiled with the purpose of solving the difficult problem of eliminating Monotony when accompanying Dramatic and Agitated Scenes of unusual length" and modestly proclaims the series to be "Master Compositions that may justly be called THE ACME of Perfection."

The piano part was "Fully Cued" and could be used alone or as a simplified score. The composition is in 12/8 time, a compound quadruple time signature sometimes used in classic rock (think R.E.M.'s 'Everybody Hurts'). The tempo is "Allegro ma non troppo" - fast but not too much. To achieve intensity but avoid a rushed, frenetic feel we've recorded it at 124 BPM. 

Kempinski's career extended well into the audio recording age, and in the 1940s he led the "Leo Kempiski Continental Orchestra" at Columbia Records - https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/108230/Kempinski_Leo_A

This recording of Kempinski's "Heavy (con moto) Tension" was produced by @MLucas in North Judson, Indiana USA in April 2025 using OMR. The OMR process begins with a digital scan of the original theater orchestra sheet music. The scans are converted into music xml using SoundSlice and then assembled into a score in a professional music notation program. The resulting score was imported into Logic Pro as MIDI. In Logic, each part was assigned a sampled sound and then the project was edited and mixed. All the notes in our recording are in the original music, but we've arranged the piece to add more dramatic variation by silencing some instruments in selected passages.

Cover art by MLucas using his photograph of a rainy night time street.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Heavy Tension (Leo A. Kempinski)

"In the Jungle" was composed in 1918 by Otto Langey (1851-1922) as number 19  in Ditson's "Music for the Photoplay" series.  Though from the silent film era, it's clearly for use as a soundtrack, complete with sounds conjuring chattering monkeys and mysterious forest birds. So don your pith helmet and grab a machete, let's go!

This recording of Langey's "In the Jungle" was produced by @MLucas in January 2025 using Optical Music Recognition (OMR). The process starts with a digital scan of the original theater orchestra sheet music. The scans are converted into music xml using SoundSlice and then assembled into a score in a professional music notation program. The resulting score was imported into Logic Pro as MIDI. In Logic, each part assigned a sampled sound and then edited and mixed. Our rendition of "In the Jungle" features mainly the string section and keyboards -- the clarinets and brass parts were omitted.

Cover art by MLucas using his photograph of a great blue heron along the Bear Skin Trail near Minoqua Wisconsin, USA.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

In the Jungle (Otto Langey)

Prolific photoplay composer Gaston Borch penned "Uneasiness" in 1919 for Carl Fischer, New York. It's in 2/4 time with tempo allegro agitato, meaning uptempo with a sense of nervousness and emotional intensity. We recorded it at 124 BPM.

"Uneasiness" was written for a theater orchestra in the late romantic style. To me the main theme is similar to the US Civil War era folk song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", first published by Patrick S. Gilmore, bandmaster of the U.S. Army Band. Gilmore said he believed the melody to be African American in origin.

For our recording of Borch's “Uneasiness” we opted for a seven-piece chamber orchestra, seeking a clean and precise sound. Percussion, brass, inner strings and clarinets were omitted. The sound is re-imagined rather freely, with compression and chorusing effects and additional layering and a lo-fi piano approach. “Uneasiness” is subtitled "Allegro agitato misterioso".

Cover art by MLucas.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved

Uneasiness (Gaston Borch)

John  Stepan Zamecnik composed “Misterioso (Stealth, Horror, Dark Scenes)" in 1920 for publication in Sam Fox Photoplay Edition, Vol. 1.  It’s a soundtrack piece — intended to be subservient to on screen action without drawing too much attention to itself.

It's repetitive, and that makes sense given its BGM role. It seems likely that the theater orchestras varied their delivery to keep it interesting and to make it work with on-screen action. Our version, created using OMR in winter 2025, adds some playful variations, especially in the organ part, and does not adhere closely to the original arrangement.

Cover photo and art by @MLucas.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Misterioso (John Stepan Zamecnik)

W. C. O’Hare published this arrangement of a José Serrano composition under the title “A Night in Granada” in 1917. Serrano (Spanish 1873-1941) is best known as a producer of zarzuelas, an indigenous Spanish music theater form. For an example see ‘La Dolorosa’, available on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31MZi7C11Bs

O’Hare’s theater orchestra arrangement of Serrano’s composition is full and relatively complex for a 1917 photoplay piece requiring nineteen instrumental tracks. We created our all new recording starting with a Soundslice OMR of the original music and adhering rather closely with few changes or omissions.  We used samples of larger sections to try to achieve a sound that suggests the roots of silent film music in the opera repertoire. The final mix was recorded on November 17, 2024.

The cover art is based on a photograph by Charles Clifford (1819 - circa 1863) described as “the Lion Fountain in the Courtyard of the Lions at the Alhambra, Grenada, Spain”. The photo is hosted by the Library of Congress at https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2019646707/ and dated “between 1854 and 1858”.  The photo was captured in daylight but for our purposes it was substantially altered to suggest a nighttime visit.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

A Night in Granada (Serrano)

Christopher O’Hare (1867 - c. 1943) composed “Sea Song” in 1918 "for surf scenes, on the sea, sailors etc.” as part of Oliver Ditson’s “Music for the photoplay” series, intended to accompany movies in the silent era. It’s a late romantic theater orchestra composition — a rolling 12/8 time blizzard of arpeggios. Though brief, it could have been looped for longer scenes. 

Our recording started using Optical Music Recognition (OMR) applied to scans of the original copies of theater orchestra parts from 1918. The OMR product was edited in Dorico, assembled into a score and exported to Logic Pro to be recorded with sampled instruments. 

This piece was interpreted rather freely: the original organ part was mostly omitted, with the retained parts being performed by a synthetic choir. The low brass melody -- written for trombone - was recorded using a Euphonium sample.

The artwork is based on a Currier and Ives hand colored lithograph captioned “A squall off Cape Horn”. The print was originally published between 1840 and 1890. Library of Congress bookmark: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97514621/. 

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Sea Song (Christopher O'Hare)

John Philip Sousa composed Jack Tar in 1903, hoping this march might prove to be as popular as "The Stars and Stripes Forever". That was not to be, but it's a lively tribute to the the British sailing heritage nonetheless.

In spring of 2024 we used Optical Music Recognition (OMR) to transform the score into musicxml, and then edited and corrected the resulting product in Dorico Pro. Then we used sampled instruments to produce recordings of the individual parts and submixes of the band sections (woodwinds, low brass, etc.) All of these as well as the MIDI and musicxml files are freely available on the Internet Archive at: archive.org/details/InternetJukebox.JPS.62


Music produced by @MLucas.

Free to download and use as you wish. We hope you'll put these to work for your projects. Be creative, and don't hesitate to comment and ask questions. We'll answer if we can.

Public Domain. No Rights Reserved.

Jack Tar

Jack Tar (J. P. Sousa)

"A Garden Matinee (Entr' Acte)" is a two-step dance composed by songwriter hall of famer Rudolf Friml. It's a light composition intended for a small orchestra. Friml was classically trained but is best remembered for his operettas and pop songs including "Indian Love Call". Listening to this piece one would not be surprised that he composed music for the Ziegfeld Follies.  

Our all-new recording of "A Garden Matinee" started with an Optical Music Recognition transcription of an original set of theater orchestra music dated 1906. The printed music credits the arrangement to J. Bodewalt Lampe. Our recording follows the printed music closely, including numerous tempo changes. The result is a classic early Hollywood sound.

Cover art by MLucas, using his photo of the formal garden at the West Baden Springs Hotel in West Baden, Indiana.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

A Garden Matinee (Rudolf Friml)

Otto Langey composed "Mysterious Furioso" to serve as a theater orchestra live music accompaniment for photoplays -- what we now call silent films. The piano part suggests it would be "suitable for Infernal and weird scenes, Witches etc". Mysterious Furioso was not intended for any particular film, but instead to be part of the orchestra's standard repertoire to be used on any film with a scene deemed appropriate.

Our all-new recording started with an OMR transformation of the original music. The OMR product was edited in Dorico, and then exported to create a multi-track session in Logic Pro. There orchestral samples were assigned and the project was mixed to make this audio recording. The result is a piece that is, perhaps, short on thematic value but makes sense for creating tension without distracting from the on screen weirdness.

Feel free to download and use as you see fit, especially for any Infernal and weird scenes you've put together. And Witches, of course.

Cover art by MLucas, based on a photograph of one jack-o-lanterns for halloweens of yore.

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

Mysterious Furioso (Otto Langey)

Published in 1839, our recording started as an Optical Music Recognition reading of a version edited by Rafael Joseffy and published by G. C. Shirmer, Inc. in 1915.

Our OMR version of this brief and dark composition is straight off the printed page with minimal interpretation. 

Public Domain, No Rights Reserved.

F. Chopin - Prelude Op28 No14 in Eb minor

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