1912 E5 - Stephen Horne

1912 E5 - Stephen Horne

From The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever by Tristan Ettleman

May 20, 2026 · 47 min · Season 14 · Episode 5

About this episode

Stephen Horne discusses his favorite films from 1912 and his experiences as a silent film accompanist.

Silent film accompanist and composer Stephen Horne has already composed for or accompanied a couple of his five multinational picks for 1912. But besides discussing the general aesthetic pleasures of his selections, he also ruminates on how he could approach playing for both these grounded features and short trick films (they were still hanging in there!). Stephen is a house musician at London’s BFI Southbank. He released Silent Sirens , an album of solo piano pieces based on his silent film compositions, and has scored Stella Dallas, The Manxman, and many more films . Films mentioned: The Gardener (1912) - Victor Sjöström How a Mosquito Operates (1912) - Winsor McCay The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) - D.W. Griffith The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912) - Wladyslaw Starewicz The Conquest of the Pole (1912) - Georges Méliès The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920) - Paul Wegener and Carl Boese The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - Carl Theodor Dreyer L’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, and Adolfo Padovan Oliver Twist (1912) - Thomas Bentley The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) - Robert Wiene A Ruined Life (1912) - Victor Sjöström The Abyss (1910) - Urban Gad…

People in this episode

Host: Tristan Ettleman

Guest: Stephen Horne

Topics covered

  • silent film
  • film accompaniment
  • film history
  • film reviews
  • musical composition

Keywords

  • silent film
  • Stephen Horne
  • 1912 films
  • film music
  • film history

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Gardener, How a Mosquito Operates, The Musketeers of Pig Alley, The Cameraman’s Revenge, The Conquest of the Pole, The Golem: How He Came into the World, The Passion of Joan of Arc, L’Inferno, Oliver Twist, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

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