The Music of Charlie Chaplin

When you read criticisms or appreciations of Chaplin's music in various music forums you would be forgiven for thinking he had little knowledge. In an era when it was common for the famous musicians of Tin Pan Alley to sing a tune to a "pro" and have it specially arranged, this was not unusual (and certainly is no less usual in the music industry now!)

Charlie Chaplin took lessons from string players in the pit bands whilst on tour and would frequently practice between 4-6 hours a day on violin and cello. As a left hander, he had the bass bar and soundpost reversed on his violin. He knew that he could use the instruments in his vaudeville act at very least, but his secret ambition was to be a concert violinist. He set himself very high standards (hence the practice) but sadly he gave up when he realised he would "never achieve excellence".

Very often musicians, who are a professionally jealous and highly critical species, will assert that Charlie Chaplin simply used professionals to do all the real work. This may or may not be reinforced by the fact that he had many friends among the musical superstars of the time. He dined with Rachmaninov and Chaliapin, the great bass singer, met Caruso backstage and was congratulated by Debussy on his music, for instance, and the picture above shows him with great violinist Jascha Heifitz. In his heyday he will have used all resources available as an actor and director, however in the latter part of his life his love of music came to the fore and he worked on his music anew.

Chaplin's earliest films were made for Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios. The tramp first made an appearance when Chaplin, age 24, appeared in Kid Auto Races at Venice. However, he had devised the tramp costume for Mabel's Strange Predicament. Mack Sennett had requested that Chaplin "get into a comedy make-up"

As Chaplin recalled:

"I had no idea what makeup to put on. I did not like my get-up as the press reporter (in Making a Living). However on the way to the wardrobe I thought I would dress in baggy pants, big shoes, a cane and a derby hat. I wanted everything to be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large. I was undecided whether to look old or young, but remembering Sennett had expected me to be a much older man, I added a small moustache, which I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression. I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully born."


Until he began making spoken dialogue films with The Great Dictator, Chaplin never shot from a completed script. The method he developed, was to set a scene and then improvise action and gags. A narrative would gradually emerge which frequently required reshooting any scene that might have contradicted the story. Chaplin's unique techniques became apparent after his death, when rare out takes and cut sequences were carefully examined. He was also a perfectionist and would film dozens of takes to get things just right. An example from the Gold Rush has a scene wherein the Lone Prospector was eating his shoelaces (made of liquorice) Chaplin was not satisfied and so he did take after take eating the shoelaces.

On 4 March 1975, when Chaplin was aged eighty-five, Queen Elizabeth II dubbed him a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE). The honour had been first proposed in 1931 but controversy prevented it. During World War I, the British press criticized him for not joining the Army. He had in fact been turned down as too small and underweight! However Chaplin raised substantial funds for the War Effort public speaking at rallies and made, at his own expense, The Bond, a comedy propaganda film used in 1918. This did not stop the Press or the satirical song writers from attacking him of course.

He came under fire for his socialist ideals in later life partly because of pro-Russian politics in the final speech from the film The Great Dictator. He was basically hounded out of America in the McCarthy era but when he returned in 1972 it was to a very warm welcome! Knighthood had been proposed again in 1956, but was vetoed by the Conservative government. The reason, they feared damage to relations with the United States during the Cold War and the planned invasion of Suez.

Charlie Chaplin wanted his music to be elegant, romantic and subtle. Musical arrangers often wanted the music to be funny and "knock-about" but Chaplin could see this would undermine the deeper dimension of his films. The tramp was more than just a clown - he had emotional depth and subtlety. To me, in that, he embodies the hopes of the ordinary man to be recognised and loved for who he is.... He didn't want the music to be competition for the comedy, he wanted it to be "a counterpoint of grace and charm, to express sentiment, without which, as Hazlitt says, a work of art is incomplete."


Musicians and orchestrators would become pompous every now and then and talk of technicalities and analysis, restricted intervals of the chromatic and diatonic scales. (He knew and loved Schoenberg's work, but that didn't get in the way of his own voice and personal vision in his music.) He would reply to pomposity with the comment "Whatever the melody is, the rest is just a vamp!"


He looked over his own conductor scores carefully for over-orchestration, saying "That's too black in the brass!" or "too busy in the woodwinds!" Basically, he worked with musicians but hung on tightly to his own view of elegance and romance.