CLASSICAL MUSIC / KENNETH HERMAN : Without a Word, Museum Will Mix Music and Film

If imitation is one of the choicer modes of flattery, then the San Diego Symphony should feel duly flattered. The popularity of its 2-year-old “Nickelodeon” series, which has brought a number of classic silent films to life with period orchestral accompaniment, has encouraged the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art to experiment with a similar format.

Saturday night at Sherwood Auditorium, the museum will present Buster Keaton’s 1926 silent film, “The General,” accompanied by the San Diego Cine-phonic theater orchestra under the baton of Eric Beheim. “Cops,” a shorter film also by Keaton, will accompany “The General.” If this fare is a hit with the La Jolla cinema audience--the museum sponsors about 70 evenings of films every year--the museum’s resident film curator, Gregory Kahn, has two more silent films waiting in the wings.

“I’ve attended all the ‘Nickelodeon’ performances at Symphony Hall,” Kahn said. “I think the advantage of the museum’s presentation is that the setting is more intimate. The audience will actually be able to see the players, and the size of orchestra is more authentic to what audiences would have found in San Diego theaters such as the Spreckels and the Fox in the 1920s.”

Kahn explained that the museum decided to place the musicians on stage just to the right of the screen, rather than below the screen in a pit. Sherwood Auditorium does not have a pit, of course, but, for some chamber opera performances given there, the front rows of audience seating have been removed to accommodate such placement.

According to Kahn, “The General” is one of the best films of the genre.

“Every decade, ‘Sight and Sound,’ the British film industry quarterly, runs a list of the 10 best films,” Kahn said. “ ‘The General’ is consistently on that list. Made at the apex of Keaton’s film career, ‘The General’ is not only his most successful film, but the one done on the biggest budget. It was shot on location (rather than on studio lots), and they blew up real railway bridges when the story called for it. Also, Keaton did all of his own stunt work.”

Beheim is a local musician who plays in the pit for touring musicals and has conducted the Seaport Village Band on occasion. A few years ago, he started playing silent films with friends as an amusement.

“I’ve collected silent films since I was a college student in the 1960s,” Beheim said, “and, in 1981, I acquired a private collection of some 1,800 silent film accompaniments.”

Although Beheim said there is no extant musical score to “The General,” he owns an authentic orchestra cue sheet sent out by the studio to accompany the film.

“The cue sheet gives indications such as ‘mood music number 5’ or ‘ mysterioso number 3.’ Some of the more specific musical indications I’ve changed, however. For example, a 1920s jazz piece ‘Alabama Bound’ would not be recognized or have any meaning to an audience today. And, especially since it’s not a Civil War-era song, I’ve replaced it with period songs such as ‘Marching Through Georgia,’ ‘Dixie’ and ‘Rally ‘Round the Flag’.”

Beheim’s 12-piece orchestra includes five strings and six winds, as well as a drummer and sound-effects man. The latter is responsible for musical noises such as train whistles, cannon shots and train wrecks.

“It’s all done live,” Beheim said. “We don’t use any recorded sound effects.”

Wish you were here: For the La Jolla Symphony’s season-opening concert Sept. 23, music director Thomas Nee had lined up noted classical guitarists Pepe and Celin Romero. Last week, the brothers canceled their appearance because of a scheduling conflict. While guitarists Randy Pile and Alex Dunn, both proteges of Pepe Romero, will still perform on the all-Rodrigo program, two of the larger Rodrigo concertos had to be dropped from the program. In place of “Concierto Para una Fiesta” and “Concierto Andaluz,” Nee’s orchestra will play one of the few Rodrigo works without guitars, the “Suite Soleriana.”

The king of instruments: The University of San Diego will dedicate a new pipe organ at 8 p.m. Friday in Founders Chapel. Organist Robert Thompson will play the dedicatory recital on the single keyboard, mechanical-action instrument constructed by Missouri organ builder Martin Ott. The new instrument, placed in the front of the chapel, will complement the larger pipe organ in the chapel’s rear gallery.

Thompson’s program will include two works commissioned for the event, Variations on “Sine Nomine” by Chicago composer Richard Proulx and “Trompe l’Orielle” by UC San Diego composer Randall Giles. Because the Giles piece requires both of the chapel’s organs, USD music director Father Nicolas Reveles will assist Thompson. Accompanied by the USD String Octet, Reveles will perform Handel’s Organ Concerto in B-flat, Op. 4, No. 6. Thompson is director of music at All Souls’ Episcopal Church, Point Loma, and is a former faculty member of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

Theme and variations: The downtown San Diego Public Library will open its fall chamber music series tonight with a recital by pianist Edith Orloff. . . . Choral singers have one last chance to audition for the upcoming season of the La Jolla Symphony Chorus. Director David Chase will be taking his charges on a two-week tour of Poland and the Soviet Union next spring; interested singers should contact Peter Jorgensen at 481-1582 this week to schedule an audition. . . . St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral will inaugurate a series of noon-hour recitals Wednesday with a performance by the UC San Diego Woodwind Quintet.