Death scene

A blank screen, left to be filled in by the viewers’ own imagination and memories as they listen to the piano piece Death Scene (1913) by American composer J.S. Zamecnik. This score is one of the many he composed as bases for improvisational accompaniment during the heyday of silent cinema, for film theatre orchestras to quickly adapt themselves to any movie scene. Here the illustrative quality of music is isolated as a fabric for cinematic archetypes.