New Score for Silent ‘Lost World’

Robert Israel, who composes and arranges music for silent films, has arranged a new score for the academy screening of “The Lost World.”

“I am arranging an original score, much how scores were done in the ‘20s,” says Israel, who composed a new score last year for a restored four-hour version of “Greed.”

“Back then tons of music was being written for all different kinds of mood pieces that would last anywhere from a minute to five minutes even 10 minutes,” he explains. “From these various selections, they could put together a score. That is essentially what I am doing.”

Israel was given a video of the restored “Lost World” by the George Eastman House. “I watch the film, time out a sequence,” he says. “When a mood changes to catch a particular feeling, then I move to another selection of music.”

Though his six-piece Robert Israel Orchestra will be performing the new score for “Lost World,” on Friday, Israel will not be leading his group. He’s in Europe conducting his original new score of the Lon Chaney silent “Here Come the Marines,” which will be seen on Turner Classic Movies next month.