I once had lunch in a “themed” restaurant that referred to one of its appetizers as “The Cabinet of Dr. Calamari”. Fortunately the dish (and how could anyone not order that?) turned out to be far less strange than the famous expressionist silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, though the marinara dipping sauce was too salty. Alas, too much spice is the least of this release’s problems. The actual music that Giuseppe Becce (1877-1973) composed for the film is lost, though the booklet spends many paragraphs whetting our appetites for it by describing how important it was to the project’s eventual success. Instead, the arrangers here have taken snippets that Becce (known in his lifetime as “the Toscanini of the cinema”, whatever that means) composed for other, totally unrelated silent movies, stitched them together, and transcribed them for an ensemble of 11 players for use with modern viewings. It’s trite, repetitious stuff, alternating for 54 minutes between a “doom and gloom” motif in fourths for darker-toned instruments (with excessive participation by the tam-tam) and some cute cartoon music–cute, that is, the first two or three times that you hear it; annoying forever after. So for all we know, this concept enjoys about as close a relationship to Becce’s original score as did Dr. Calamari the fried squid, and the latter was a lot more satisfying.
