The Jan. 18 performance will begin with two world premiere scores for restorations of short films "The Rosary" and "Suspense," made in 1913 by pioneering female writer/director Lois Weber.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The defining characteristic of silent films is that they are, well, silent.
But the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra, from Boston's Berklee College of Music, will add its score to a Jan. 18 performance of the 1925 Russian classic "Battleship Potemkin" at the Avon Cinema in Providence. It's the first time the BSFO has played in Providence.
The "Battleship Potemkin" score, written by the BSFO, was composed in 2011. The evening will begin with two world premiere scores for restorations of short films "The Rosary" and "Suspense," made in 1913 by pioneering female writer/director Lois Weber.
The orchestra is a product of Berklee's Film Scoring Department, which is chaired by Alison Plante. She said the orchestra will consist of 10 players and about seven composer/conductors. (Silent movies are divided into multiple reels, and each student will conduct one reel and then pass the baton on to the next.
"It's a little like watching a high-wire act," Plante said. "There's always a potential for disaster, but it never quite happens."
Plante said the BSFO started in 2010, when the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Massachusetts, presented a silent movie series, "Sounds of Silents," and commissioned a score for F.W. Murnau's 1927 film "Sunrise."
Coolidge Corner also commissioned the score for "Battleship Potemkin," which was directed by Sergei Eisenstein and concerns a mutiny aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin in 1905, during a precursor to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Conceived as a piece of Soviet propaganda, it is considered one of the great films of all time.
Now the BSFO has shows in the winter and spring. This winter's show will be performed at the Avon on Jan. 18, the Boston Conservatory Theater on Jan. 20 and The Cabot in Beverly, Massachusetts, on Jan. 28.
When silent films originally played the nation's theaters, Plante said, they were often accompanied by piano players who would improvise as the movie ran. Sometimes they would use material that had been pre-written to accompany certain themes — romance, suspense, action.
Berklee approaches scoring silent films the same way Hollywood composers treat a modern film, although Plante said the music for a silent film can be a little more upfront, since there is no dialogue to contend with.
"We look at each film as a piece of living art, and we are helping audiences to appreciate it in a more modern way," she said. So unless there is, say, a jazz band playing on the screen, the BSFO rarely plays period music.
The orchestra has played at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the nation's premiere festival for silent film. On the night before Halloween in 2015 the Boston Pops, led by Keith Lockhart, played the BSFO's score for the 1922 vampire classic "Nosferatu."
Although some of the silent films are more than 100 years old, Plante said scoring them is highly relevant for contemporary students, and almost all the students involved with the BSFO have gone on to find jobs in Hollywood.
For one thing, the orchestra players, composers and conductors are dealing with real commissions, with live performances and deadlines that have to be met. For another, composing film scores for the BSFO is a highly collaborative process, and that's how most films in Hollywood are scored today.
"That's the reality most students will walk into. Composition now is very often done by teams, and a graduate's first job is very likely to be as a member of a team," Plante said.
For conductors, she added, conducting a silent film isn't easy. "You need to stay in sync with a live film as it's rolling. Even Keith Lockhart found it challenging."
Finally, some elements of film scoring are universal, whether the movie is made in 1918 or 2018. "We try to get at the story," Plante said. "What is the story, the human emotion we can use in the music?"
The Berklee Silent Film Orchestra will perform its original score to "Battleship Potemkin" (along with the movie) at the Avon Cinema, 260 Thayer St., Providence, on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30, available on the Avon's website at avoncinema.com/special-events.php