Stewart Copeland didn’t set out to create a full orchestral score to the 1925 silent epic film, “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.”
But after seeing the first full-length film adaptation based on the 1880 novel by Lew Wallace, Copeland — the 63-year-old composer and drummer/cofounder of The Police — was too overwhelmed by its scale to do anything less.
“It’s a story of a Christ and his work, and the power of his work, and the message is deeply spiritual,” he says. “But there’s also a rollicking tale with pirates and chariot races and skullduggery and love interests that serves the purpose of that spiritual message, and I think that’s the power of the story. There’s something very deep going on in your heart as you’re being entertained by this swords and sandals movie.”
On Wednesday March 16, Copeland joins the Pacific Symphony under the baton of Richard Kaufman on drum kit and percussion for a performance of “Ben-Hur” at the Valley Performing Arts Center. Following it, Pacific Symphony presents the film at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, on Friday March 18 and Saturday March 19. Here is an edited conversation about the project.
The performance includes an original score accompanied by the newly cut version of the original film — the most expensive silent film of the era — directed by Fred Niblo and starring Ramon Novarro in the title role.
Q Why “Ben-Hur?”
A It began years ago with an incoming call from a wild promoter-impresario in Europe who staged the book ”Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ” in arenas across Europe. I was commissioned to write the music, and in London when it opened, I got to be the narrator, too — ride around on a horse while hundreds of underpaid Ukrainians did all the action. It was a huge production. When it finished up about 2 years later, I ended up owning all of the music. I had the idea of doing the music as a concert piece, with slides of chariots as a visual element, but my manager, Derek Power, showed me a video version of the 1924 silent movie. From that moment began the mission of getting the rights to the movie and finding the actual 80-year-old celluloid.
QDo you know what the original score sounded like?
AI haven’t actually found it yet.
QYou edited the film, too. Is that right?
AYes, and curated it and cleaned up frames, dust and scratches. In one frame, there was a giant bug of some kind with its wings and its little legs and its proboscis all squashed up. The film was black and white, technically, but it had some scenes shot in a precursor to color where they had yellows, reds and greens but couldn’t manage blues, which was a problem for the Virgin Mary. All the work that went into it you’ll never see. There’s one shot where I feel for the director, Mr. (Fred) Niblo. The camera is behind Ben-Hur on his chariot as he comes out into the arena filled with tens of thousands of people. The camera truck must have hit a bump because there’s a significant camera shake in the middle of it. With modern technology, I was able to fix that by going into each frame. I’d zoom in on the sequence, and when the camera jogged to the left I could nudge the frame back to the right, and so on. It’s not perfect, because there’s a bit of blur involved as well, but the camera doesn’t do that horrendous shake.That makes me feel just a little bit better, considering the carving and slashing and rape upon Mr. (Fred) Niblo’s work that I did in cutting it down from 2 hours 20 minutes to 90 minutes.
Q: What’s your score like?
A: I use the electric guitar and all of its hairiness, but it’s mostly an orchestral sound. Also, there are the ethnic elements that you just can’t get the first-chair oboe to reproduce.
QHow does working with an orchestra compare to being in a rock band?
ARock musicians play by ear, and by instinct, and by their knowledge of four-bar phrasing. They make it up as they go along for a large part.On the other side of the great divide are the players who follow the page, and the reason they do that is so that 50 or 90 guys can be one thing, which is very selfless and wonderful for a composer.
QWere you trained as a musician?
AYeah, originally. I’m the youngest of four. My father was a musician, and so he thrust instruments into the first siblings’ hands. By the time I came along, the house was full of abandoned instruments of various kinds. At the age of 7, he had me in trombone lessons. And then I took a shine to the drums probably around 9 or 10. It was very valuable. Even in college, when I was all about clashing guitars, I majored in music. But I never saw another chart until a decade or so after I started playing rock and roll when Frances (Ford) Coppola turned to me and said, “I need strings” (for the 1983 film “Rumble Fish,” starring Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke and Diane Lane).
QWas that your first gig as a composer?
AYes, and it was a glorious world. The Police at that time was uncomfortable. But we’ve all had a lot of band therapy since and we love each other like siblings, but at the time it was a very harsh environment for all of us. And we’re all to blame.
QAny desire to go back to the rock stage?
AI get to do that all the time. My studio, known as the Sacred Grove, is a magnet for really great musicians. Whether it’s Snoop Dogg or Ben Harper or Neil Peart or Stanley Clarke, or any of my other buddies come over here, we just while away the hours and play. And ham it up. Then I cut these very long jams down to manageable nuggets and I post them on YouTube. Check it out.
