How much does sound shape our viewing experience of a film? “Rescoring Richter” explores this question by reimagining and re-sonifying films from a century ago.
“Rescoring Richter” came to Vassar on Jan. 31 in the Martel Recital Hall. This multimedia event was a part of MODfest 2026: “Sounding the Visionary.” This year’s MODfest theme is centered around celebrating people, such as Richter, who have made an impact on creativity, culture and society. This event featured selections from the project—which uses contemporary sound design to reinvent Richter’s films—including screenings and short documentaries following the involved artists’ process, as well as accompaniments of some of the films.
As a project, “Rescoring Richter” began in 2013, accompanying filmmaker Dave Davidson’s 2013 documentary, “Hans Richter: Everything Turns, Everything Revolves,” which worked to uncover the broader impact of German artist and filmmaker Hans Richter. Richter’s avant-garde work—heavily informed by the absurdist and anticapitalist Dada movement—influenced film and art with its abstract imagery and inherent political messages. “Rescoring Richter” pairs new soundtracks by contemporary sound artists with Hans Richter’s films from the 1920s.
According to Davidson, a key element of Richter’s work was abstracting not only space but also time. Richter’s films rely less on conventional means of storytelling and more on using bizarre and shocking visual motifs to evoke an emotional response. One example of this is in Richter’s 1928 short film, “Inflation.” This abstract collection of shots portrays a narrative of economic unrest in 1920s Germany through floating faces, counted currency and numbers and dollar signs rapidly overtaking the screen. Shots and images are rotated, inverted and fragmented in an unintuitive yet incredibly rhythmic manner, contributing to the building emotional intensity of the film.
“Rescoring Richter” featured a combination of Richter’s original images and visual remixes created by Davidson. “Ballet Entropique” (2025)—my personal favorite piece from this event—utilized shots from multiple of Richter’s films, including “Inflation,” to tell a story of Germany’s political landscape in this economically unstable time. This screening featured live accompaniment from sound artists Lin Esser and Bruce Odland on their custom instruments—Dr. E’s Box of Doom and Green Lady, respectively—that focus on creating music where it may not be expected.
In the first documentary, “A Subtle Exchange of Information Across Time,” Davison works with musicians Esser, Odland and Vassar’s own Professor Emerita Annea Lockwood to explore how to best sonically represent Richter’s art. Inspired by the sound sculptures and experimental instruments created by the Baschet Brothers, Esser, Odland and Lockwood created a surreal soundscape with delicate glass rods, suspended strings and resonant metal planes, each sound overlapping and cascading into the next to illuminate the projected imagery.
This event also focused on Richter’s 1929 film “Everyday,” which abstractly portrayed the mechanization of everyday life. This screening featured an original soundtrack by composer and pianist John Musto as well as jazz musician Vince Giordano’s reinterpretation of Irving Berlin’s 1918 song, “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.” “Everyday” splices various people’s daily routines together, showing their morning routines, time at work and nightlife. This film emphasizes the mundanity of life, chopping and sequencing footage to increase the intensity and sheer discontentment as the days pass by.
In “Clock-In Dehumanize Repeat,” Davidson explains that Richter’s technique of reusing and reinterpreting footage follows the “theme and variation” form, commonly found in music. Richter’s artistic vision is rhythmic and precise, with time carefully given and taken with each shot. This is incredibly conducive to music and soundtracking, something Musto and soprano Amy Burton demonstrated in the next screening, “EVERYDAY Variations 25.” Visually remixed by Davidson, “EVERYDAY Variations 25” featured live performances by Burton and Musto of three songs: “Buddy on the Night Shift” by Kurt Weill and Oscar Hammerstein, “Berlin Im Licht” by Bertolt Brecht and Weill and “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.” While these pieces were not composed for this work, the brilliant synchronicity of this jazz-inspired set list with the pulse of the shots created a compelling visual and sonic experience that truly transported me into the spirit of Richter’s work. The syncopation and harmony allowed me to be more aware of visual motifs and how they paired with the music and gain a deeper understanding of Richter’s abstraction of time.
The final film of this event, “Ghosts Before Breakfast” (1928), was played without sound. The program said, “The audience is invited to imagine their own sound environment.” As a musician, I found focusing on the visuals and letting the soundtrack come to me to be an enjoyable and engaging exercise. My perception of the film was quickly subverted during the repeat showing, which now featured a pop-rock song of the same title by singer-songwriter Rob Morsberger. At times, Morsberger’s lyrics directly narrate the shots and encouraged me to broaden my view on how a soundtrack can function.
“Rescoring Richter” is a fascinating project that explores elements of sound and how it can be used to illuminate a story. Being able to experience the experimental music of Esser and Odland live was transformative and helped me see the intricacies of Richter’s innovative films. More than anything, “Rescoring Richter” reminded me that one of the most beautiful things about art is its ability to be interpreted in infinite ways.