The contribution of Kurt Schindler’s compositions for silent films in the Spanish filmography of the 10s and 20s

Abstract

The German musician Kurt Schindler (1887-1935) worked for the Spanish filmography since his first visit to Spain in 1917 to his death in 1935. He was, in that time, a famous composer and editor of popular songs and appeared, in daily news for several newspapers in all over Spain (apart from the United States). During the 20s and 30s he was commissioned by Columbia University (NY) and several Spanish research institutions in 1920 to do a fieldwork on popular folksongs in all over the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). With the original material recollected in those fieldworks he wrote several soundtracks for Spanish black and white films of that period. Through researching his papers (founded in some archives and libraries of several cities of different countries) we can attribute him some soundtracks for picturesque films, which has been lost for several decades because of their controversial significance. The study of the original music for this special filmography will give us more information about the amazing kaleidoscopic musical career of this composer.