Pianist Doug Protsik accompanies silent movies in person and on TV.
LEWISTON – Doug Protsik balanced his electronic keyboard on a pair of amplifiers, gazed up at the state-of-the-art video screen and played a few notes.
“Does it sound alright?” the musician asked, adjusting a lever on his console. The notes seemed to come from something else, sounding as if they were played on an upright piano in the corner of a whiskey-soaked saloon.
“Perfect,” Protsik said, plunking on the keys.
A few moments later, as the lights dimmed and the image on the screen stirred, Protik’s music suddenly fit.
On the screen, Charlie Chaplin shuffled through an inner city alley. His tattered clothes, oversized shoes and derby were accompanied by the Maine musician’s dance-hall melody.
When the little tramp dodged a cop’s fist, Protsik rumbled through the lower keys. When bad guys took the tramp’s adopted son, Protsik’s playing turned sweet and tender, punctuating each move on the screen.
When a chase began, Protsik’s playing turned frenzied.
“I try to capture what I see on the screen,” he said. “I get better every time I do it.”
Accompanying movies is an art that few people know anymore. It’s been more than 70 years since people filled movie houses to watch Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd.
Protsik, who lives in Woolwich, fell in love with old-fashioned piano music more than 20 years ago. He studied dance hall and saloon tunes and apprenticed under a Maine master, Danny Patt.
He learned to play the hard-pounding stride piano, picking out the melody with his right hand while beating the rhythm with his left.
When Patt, one of the region’s last film accompanists, died, Protsik began accepting movie jobs. For four years, he has played for silents at Brunswick’s Eveningstar Cinema. Last Thursday, he appeared at the Lewiston Public Library’s Marsden Hartley Cultural Center, where he plans to perform again.
Meanwhile, his work is being played on cable TV’s Turner Classic Movies. He has come up with scores for 9 or 10 classic silents, including works by Alfred Hitchcock and Tom Mix.
The key to creating their music is absorbing the images on the screen. That’s what he did here in Lewiston with the Chaplin film, “The Kid.”
“There are all the little things he said up on the screen without saying a word,” Protsik said. “I just try to keep up.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.