Die Sklavenkönigin - The Moon of Israel

'Die Sklavenkönigin' ('The Queen of the Slaves', English title: 'The Moon of Israel') is an Austrian-British silent film.  Shot in 1924, it is one of the most monumental productions to be filmed in Austria in the 1920s.

In this presentation the film is accompanied by voice, organ and live-electronics. The voice represents on the one hand the prophet Moses, moral authority of the enslaved Israelites, and on the other - in the style of the BENSHI from the Japanese silent film tradition - acts as narrator throughout the film, rendering the scenes with dialogue as in a sound film.

 

Concept and music for voice, organ and live-electronics: Franz Danksagmüller, Martin Haselböck

The film 'The Queen of the Slaves' was filmed in Austria in 1924 and is one of the country's most lavish film productions of the 1920s.  The Israelites are enslaved by the Egyptians. A romance develops between the Jewish slave Merapi and the Pharaoh’s son, Prince Seti. This unequal love affair encounters many obstacles, but ultimately overcomes them, while Abraham leads the Israelites through the Red Sea out of Egypt into the Promised Land.

The realistic depiction of the Israelites traveling through the Red Sea, leaving their Egyptian persecutors behind to drown, received great attention, with even Hollywood expressing appreciation for this feat of cinema.
The organ, with its powerful sound, is the ideal instrument to accompany this archaic tradition.  It builds the acoustic counterpart to the impressive wall of water in the Red Sea, emphasises the power of the Pharaoh, and bursts forth with its tremendous richness of colour when plagues overtake the land.

The live-electronics imbue the voice with different characteristics, or mutate it into various 'instruments' or multi-voice ensembles. They also expand the sound of the organ and bring voice and organ together, synthesising them into a Promethean evangelist.