Christin Danchi

Fiddling with Film

Fiddling with Film (FwF) is a project dedicated to commissioning and performing solo violin film scores live with silent films. Inspired by a 2012 performance of Hanns Eisler’s film composition, 14 Arten den Regen zu beschreiben, (14 Ways to Describe Rain) with its original 1929 art film "Rain," by Joris Ivens, Fiddling with Film takes the idea a step closer to Christin's individual interests by focusing on film scores for violin. Fiddling with Film’s first project in May of 2014 featured the world premiere of composer Ash Stemke’s solo violin score entitled "Launch Sequence" for Georges Méliès’ 1902 film, Le Voyage dans la Lune.  In May of 2016, "Launch Sequence" was selected to be part of the Carnegie Mellon University Moon Arts project.  The waveform of Christin's recording was engraved on titanium rings and included in the MoonArk that accompanied Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission 1 lunar lander on its 238,900-mile journey to lunar distance in January 2024.

FwF's second collaboration was a violin score by American composer Dayton Kinney for the 1938 short film, "An Optical Poem," by German avant-garde artist Oskar Fischinger.  The piece, entitled "Perspective on An Optical Poem," premiered on April 29th, 2015 in Carnegie Mellon University's Kresge Theater as part of CMU's Spring 2015 Rembacher Chamber Music Competition.