“I wondered whether the audience would dare to laugh”

How do you write music for a silent film without losing its humour? In this conversation with Zsófia Hacsek, Judit Varga discusses her score for Lev Kuleshov’s 1924 comedy The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks.

Commissioned by the Wiener Konzerthaus, the score brings a typewriter, a car horn and other unlikely instruments into the ensemble. Varga talks about timing music to the picture, writing for the performers and hearing the audience begin to laugh.