King of Kings

Live Recording by Wilfried Kaets

Short and Sweet:

The courtesan Maria Magdalena is enraged when her lover Judas Iscariot does not attend her feast because he has become a disciple of Jesus. She goes to Jesus, becomes a believer herself, and witnesses the biblical story up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. The film recounts the last three years of Jesus of Nazareth’s life, his crucifixion, and resurrection. Cecil B. DeMille’s opulent, full-length epic film remains one of the most significant portrayals of the life of Jesus to this day.

Music:

New Music for Orchestra.
This new music for orchestra follows the specific dramaturgical requirements of music in silent films: it serves as the connecting element between film and music.

It acts as a substitute for dialogue and sound effects, filling silence in the space; it structures the visual sequences like chapters in a book, supports both internal and external movement (creates atmosphere, reflects emotions, captures moods, and allows for anticipation of later events). Music provides the appropriate “scenery” for bringing a silent, two-dimensional “monstrosity” to life, creating a sense of “realism” for the emotions shared and experienced on the screen.

**Second Projection on a Separate Screen with Newly Translated German Intertitles**

The world premiere of new music for orchestra, soloists, double percussion, piano, harpsichord, organ, and choir by Wilfried Kaets.

The music is dramaturgically adapted to the film scenes:

– In large dynamic arcs and scenographic details
– In organizing movement through the structural and content-related levels of the film’s action
– In the entirety of harmonic-melodic, rhythmic, timbral, and dynamic design elements

For example, Kaets chooses a consistently unison color in a trio of soprano (oral), flute (labial), and clarinet (lingual) as the most reduced core color for the character of Jesus, representing breath-related music-making.

“Plain” compositions in harmony, melody, and rhythm (e.g., where Jesus sits “very humanly” with children in the garden) alternate with the most intense concentrations of all available parameters (e.g., in the crucifixion sequence).

The music is intended to work “on the first level” (e.g., evoking a sense of sadness or abandonment in the viewer) but consciously extends beyond its compositional structure: musical meter structures subtly change or extend whenever Jesus intervenes in the events with miracles—his actions are not of this world and can alter it and our perception of it.

The core theme of the choir and orchestra, which recurs throughout the film and accompanies Jesus’ radiant and healing presence, is “Lux calida – salvator mundi” (Warm Light, Savior of the World). It follows the idea of transforming light rays and their warm to dazzling reflections into sound.

Helpers at the World Premiere 2007:

A Collaborative Cultural Project of the Rochuskirche with the Rochus Music School e.V. (RMS)

Rochus Choir

Performers:

• Suzanne Thorp: Soprano (RMS Lecturer)
• Norbert Rodenkirchen: Flute
• Peter Junk: Clarinet (RMS Lecturer)
• Matthias Haarmann: Concert Organ
• Steffen Paesler: Piano (RMS Lecturer)
• Thomas Roß: Harpsichord
• Norbert Krämer: Percussion (RMS Lecturer)
• Ralf Kurley: Percussion (RMS Lecturer)
• 1st Violin: Ljuba Jovanovic (RMS Lecturer), Takahashi Chizuko, Volha Hanchar, Svetlana Straub
• 2nd Violin: Beate Kleinert, Alexander Eger, Jonathan Kleinert
• Viola: Tobias Röthlin, Irina Baiteriakova
• Cello: Christophe Corazolla, [TBD]
• Double Bass: Marco Göhre

Technical Team:

• Silent Film and Monitor Technology: Joachim Steinigeweg
• Presentation of Intertitles: Matthias Delahaye, Raphael Kaets
• Lighting Technology: Thomas Roß
• Sound Technology: Jan Philipp Knaak (RMS Lecturer)

Register:

Cecil B. DeMille (Director)

Biography:

Cecil Blount DeMille (* August 12, 1881, Ashfield, Massachusetts; † January 21, 1959, Hollywood) was one of Hollywood’s most successful directors and producers. He came from a family of actors with Dutch roots. His career spanned from the silent film era to the Hollywood system of the 1950s, marking an unparalleled trajectory in the industry—from errand boy to producer of multimillion-dollar films.

DeMille is particularly known for his work as a director and producer of biblical and historical epic films. He created grand productions with enormous efforts in extras and decor, noted for their luxurious settings and the fascination of their locations, whether desert or Western towns.

His body of work is heavily influenced by biblical themes, ranging from the early Jesus film The King of Kings to Samson and Delilah and The Ten Commandments, all of which were major public successes. His grandiose imagery exhibits a sense of mass direction, composition, and spectacular effects.

Before entering the film industry, Cecil B. DeMille worked as an actor, writer, and director for stage plays. From 1913, he was part of Hollywood’s first generation of filmmakers and a co-founder of Paramount Studios. For many of his 75 films, the reputedly autocratic DeMille also wrote the screenplay and handled editing.

He directed hundreds of silent films, mostly short Westerns, before achieving a major breakthrough with the risqué comedy Don’t Change Your Husband (1919). In the early 1920s, he made several such films, often starring Gloria Swanson.

Between 1950 and 1953, DeMille received several accolades for his lifetime achievements, including an honorary Oscar and a Golden Globe. His last film, The Buccaneer, was completed in 1958 by his son-in-law Anthony Quinn, as DeMille was unable to continue working due to illness.

DeMille passed away in 1959 while preparing his first science fiction film and is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Filmography

Silent Films

• 1914 – The Squaw Man
• 1914 – The Only Son
• 1914 – Brewster’s Millions
• 1914 – The Virginian (the first adaptation of the material from which the TV series The Virginian/The Men from Shiloh, known in German as Die Leute von der Shiloh Ranch, was later made)
• 1915 – The Cheat – with Fanny Ward, Jack Dean, and Sessue Hayakawa
• 1915 – Carmen – with Geraldine Farrar and Wallace Reid
• 1917 – Joan the Woman – with Geraldine Farrar
• 1918 – You Can’t Have Everything
• 1919 – Male and Female – with Gloria Swanson
• 1919 – For Better, for Worse – with Gloria Swanson
• 1919 – Don’t Change Your Husband – with Gloria Swanson
• 1923 – The Ten Commandments – with Estelle Taylor
• 1927 – The King of Kings – with H. B. Warner as Jesus

Sound Films (Director, selection)

• 1932 – The Sign of the Cross – with Fredric March
• 1934 – Cleopatra – with Claudette Colbert
• 1935 – The Crusades – with Loretta Young, Henry Wilcoxon
• 1936 – The Plainsman – with Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur
• 1938 – The Buccaneer – with Fredric March, Franciska Gaal
• 1939 – Union Pacific – with Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea
• 1940 – North West Mounted Police (Die scharlachroten Reiter) – with Gary Cooper, Madeline Carroll, Paulette Goddard
• 1942 – Reap the Wild Wind – with Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard
• 1944 – The Story of Dr. Wassell – with Gary Cooper
• 1947 – Unconquered – with Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, and Boris Karloff
• 1949 – Samson and Delilah – with Hedy Lamarr, Victor Mature, George Sanders, and Angela Lansbury
• 1952 – The Greatest Show on Earth – with Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, and James Stewart
• 1956 – The Ten Commandments – with Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, and Edward G. Robinson
• 1958 – The Buccaneer – with Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston (due to illness, DeMille handed over directing to his son-in-law Anthony Quinn)