Organist Will Create Mood, Emotion For ‘Faust’

It’s the rare person who hasn’t wished for a better life. So most of us should relate to Faust’s predicament fairly easily.

Here he is, one of the respected elders in his village, when the plague comes calling. Villagers are dropping left and right, their bodies being hauled away by robed figures who look like they just came from a KKK meeting.

And Faust can do nothing about it. His books, his research, all the knowledge that he has gained during a lifetime of research into the occult, prove worthless.

Even his faith can’t help.

So he chucks it all. Depressed and disillusioned, he falls prey to the wiles of the sinister Mephistopheles, who tempts him with the promise of eternal youth. What a mistake.

For Faust has been had. He’s been the subject of a wager between the yin-yang forces of heaven and hell. And he’s fallen short of perfection.

But will it last forever? Will humankind become the plaything of dark forces?

Well, think about it. If such were to happen, we wouldn’t have much of a story to tell, would we?

And Charles Bradley and the Cathedral and the Arts Association sure want you to like the story that they’re preparing to tell tonight and Saturday at St. John’s Cathedral.

As part of the association’s ongoing attempts to marry film and music, the group will present F.W. Murnau’s 1926 silent classic “Faust” at 8 tonight and at 8 and 11 p.m. Saturday.

As he has with other silent films such as “Phantom of the Opera,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Nosferatu,” master organist Bradley will attempt to convert the cathedral into a silent-film theater by accompanying the movie with a score of his own choosing.

“Some of the music I hope to use, and of course I never know until I get up there and play it, is Franz Lizst, in particular ‘Les Preludes,”’ Bradley says. “I think I’m going to lift some things out of the Berlioz ‘Requiem,’ and I think I’ll use some of Gounod’s ‘Faust.”’

Berlioz wrote what Spokesman-Review classical music critic Travis Rivers describes as “a big cantata for orchestra, vocal soloists and chorus.” And Gounod’s work, an opera based on the classic tale, was part of Bradley’s score to “Phantom.”

“But I don’t think it matters much,” he says.

Probably not. But the task before him might be a little more difficult than Bradley has faced in the past. Being a study of temptation, failure and ultimate redemption, “Faust” is less action-oriented than “Phantom” and certainly less so than “Hunchback.”

The story of “Faust” emanated originally from a series of tales called “Faustbuch,” which were bawdy stories combining horror with coarse humor. Their roots were based on a real figure - or figures - who, before dying circa 1540, became involved with various scientific and quasi-scientific practices, including alchemy, necromancy, astrology, etc.

The English playwright Christopher Marlowe first gave the “Faustbuch” dramatic form with his 1604 play “Doctor Faustus.” The best known literary version, however, is probably J.W. von Goethe’s two-part “Faust” (1808, 1832).

In terms of cinema, there have been many versions of the tale, many of which are low-budget horror film such as “The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus” (1959).

In any event, nothing surpasses Murnau’s effort. The German-born director, whose film “Nosferatu” (1922) became one of the leading examples of German Expressionism, managed to give “Faust” a look that is impressive even by today’s high standards.

The great German actor Emil Jannings, who plays the evil Mephisto (Murnau opted for a shorter name), became the image that influenced Disney’s “Fantasia” cartoonists. Murnau’s use of miniatures is incredible, especially given the limitations of the day.

The storyline he follows, though, is more of a problem. Hans Kyser’s screenplay, opted from both Goethe and Marlowe, combines elements of the “Book of Job,” “Joan of Arc” and “Way Down East” (a D.W. Griffith film that Bradley accompanied at the cathedral in 1996).

Some of the sequences, especially those involving the hardships faced by Gretchen, the woman Faust ruins, run a little long.

But with Murnau’s sense of style, the cinematography of Carl Hoffman and the acting of Jannings, Gosta Eckman as Faust and Camilla Horn as Gretchen, Bradley’s job should be somewhat easier.

“I hope it goes here,” Bradley says. “They’ll turn out in droves for ‘Phantom’ or ‘Hunchback,’ but then you try to sneak in a classic that isn’t quit so familiar, or isn’t such a cult hit, and people tend to shy away.

“I have these musical ideas flying around,” he says. “I’m gonna try to nail it.”

Hmmmmm, maybe Mephisto could help.

Silent film at St. John’s “Faust,” the 1926 silent film by F.W. Murnau, will screen at 8 tonight, 8 and 11 p.m. Saturday, at St. John’s Cathedral, 127 E. 12th. Organist Charles Bradley will accompany the film. Tickets are $7, $5 for seniors, $3.50 for children 12 and younger, available though G&B Select-A-Seat outlets or by calling 325-SEAT.