Select a review:

Review of the "Wild Oranges" Score—Film Music Magazine

NPR Interview with Vivek Maddala

"Wild Oranges" Performance with Third Angle--The Oregonian

Review of "The Patsy" Score—Film Music Magazine

"Ace of Hearts" Review Excerpt—DVD Verdict

Excerpt from "The Silent Treatment"—
The Oregonian

Comments on "The Patsy" — Salon.com

Comments on "The Patsy" — National Film Preservation Foundation

Local Composer Scores Silent Film— Gainesville Sun

Excerpt from "The Patsy" Review—San Francisco Examiner

Silent Films Tempt Soundtrack Composer—India-West

Silent Films Tempt Soundtrack Composer

India-West
(August 13, 2004)
by Lisa Tsering, India-West Staff Reporter

In an era when flying superheroes, state-of-the-art car crashes and intergalactic cataclysms are vying to take over the movie screens of America, Vivek Maddala, 30, is a rarity. Maddala, a soundtrack composer based in West Los Angeles, has a soft spot for silent films, and his talents have been recognized by one of the country's leading champions of the form, Turner Classic Movies.

His soundtrack for The Patsy, a 1928 comedy starring Marion Davies, aired in July on TCM. It's his fourth commissioned piece for the channel.

Maddala says he'll typically watch the entire film all the way through, three or four times, before composing the score. "I try to follow the dramatic contours of the film," he explained in a phone interview with India-West.

One of the first things he'll do is identify the film's key characters, or even more importantly, its most sympathetic characters, for which he can construct a musical theme. In The Patsy, Maddala noticed a poignant theme emerging in the relationship of the father and daughter, so he wrote what he calls and "sweet, sentimental" melody line for their scenes. Dramatic twists and comical moments, too, are given musical signatures.

Those expecting a tinkly player-piano will be surprised to hear Maddala's rich and decidedly multicultural arrangements.

On The Patsy's 80-minute soundtrack, written for strings, woodwinds, brass, piano, and percussion, Maddala incorporates Afro-Cuban rhythms, blues harmonica, 21 st-century harmonies and even a line from a Jimi Hendrix song.

"TCM wants me to bring these old movies into the new century," he said. "I try to write music appropriate to the films, but not limiting myself to musical techniques that were available in the 1920s."

Scoring old silent films is different from scoring contemporary films, or "talkies," as Maddala comically refers to them. In a "talkie," dialogue and ambient sound do a lot to establish mood and to segue from one sequence to the next. But with a silent film, the soundtrack is expected to do a lot more. "This gives the composer more ability to manipulate and reflect the movie," he said, "but it has to also constantly engage the viewer. With a silent film, the music needs to have more consistent energy."

Working on a contemporary film score entails deep involvement with the director and editor, whereas composing for a silent film, whose principals may be long dead, affords a composer "a lot more autonomy," he added.

Born in Rochester, New York, Vivek Maddala moved with his family to Florida at an early age, and was playing music as far back as he can remember -- guitar, piano, drums, even the Hammond organ. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Georgia Tech, and got a job working as a design engineer in Portland, Ore., later finding a unique niche for himself as a musician/engineer for the '70s rock band Boston during the "Greatest Hits" tour in 1997. But Maddala's first love was always composition: "I've been writing music since I was a small child," he confided.

He got his break in 2000 when he was named Grand Prize winner of the Young Film Composers Competition, and was given a fellowship to conduct one of his compositions for a 50-piece orchestra.

In his spare time, Maddala likes to listen to '50s jazz, Carnatic and Hindustani music, Balinese instruments, and "the score to a lot of foreign films."

To hear clips, buy his soundtracks or learn more about Vivek Maddala's music, visit www.maddala.com.