Music

Sonbert’s relationship to music is a subject worthy of more in-depth analysis and study, especially as his own thinking about this subject evolved over time.

All of the films he made between 1966 and 1968 (Amphetamine [US, 1966] to Holiday [US, 1968]) were sound films that employed contemporary pop music scores (by the Supremes, the Four Tops, and other recording artists of the time). Then, beginning with Tuxedo Theatre (US, 1969), he made silent films for a period of twenty years. Sonbert invariably perceived accompanying sound as distracting from the musical and poetic rhythms of his montage films.

During this twenty-year period of silent works, Sonbert also actively wrote music reviews. Two in-depth recaps of the music scene—one of opera performances¹ and the other of classical music records²—clearly demonstrate Sonbert’s mastery of the history of music and the art of its presentation. (Indeed, Sonbert’s knowledge of music recordings was so sophisticated that when he returned to making sound films in 1989, he knew exactly which recording of music he wished to use in counterpoint to his images).

My theory is that Sonbert’s motive for reintroducing music into his films (beginning with Friendly Witness [US, 1989]) can be traced to the expertise he developed reviewing classical music and opera. His films were also attacked for lacking plot and character,³ which prompted him to write a full-length screenplay for Strauss’s opera Capriccio.⁴ Capriccio dramatizes the story of a countess whose affections are torn between a musician and a poet. On a metaphoric level, the opera poses a question about which is the greatest art, poetry or music. Having worked through his own script of Capriccio, Sonbert could renew this dialogue within his own films, exploring whether the images or sounds predominate. Also included in this dossier are Sonbert’s notes about the casting and filming of his screenplay, together with ample references to other filmmaker’s styles.⁵ “Some Notes on Capriccio” has never before been published, yet it provides fascinating insight into Sonbert’s thinking about the representation of his own written work as a motion picture.