The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari

What is it that makes The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the 1920 psychological horror film by Robert Wiene, such irresistible fodder for the live-score treatment? (I just saw one earlier this year in Brooklyn, with a sort of avant-garde jazz score.) For one, it was a silent film, which means that it doesn’t come preloaded with any musical associations—it’s an open canvas for musicians to play on, but one full of compelling shadows and shapes. As canvases go, it is a very striking one, as a high point of German Expressionism. Its canted angles and bulging lines are intrinsically musical already, as they represent feelings and intuitions as much as forms. The Mallarmé Chamber Players, one of the Triangle’s most flexible and reliable chamber-music groups, should have a field day with original music by Eric Schwartz, performed by Bo Newsome (oboe), Suzanne Rousso (viola), Nathan Leyland (cello), Jacqueline Nappi (piano), and Andrea Edith Moore (soprano).