People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Photograph: courtesy Martin Marks.

Martin Marks

Martin Marks, Ph.D., is one of North America’s preeminent authorities on music for silent film. He is a senior lecturer in music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the author of Music and the Silent Film published in 1997 by Oxford University Press. His goal in accompanying silent films is to recreate the experience theatergoers originally had when the films were first viewed, reflecting the style of the silent film period and the genre of the individual film.

Marks also performs and records piano accompaniments for many silent films. His work in this capacity is featured on the award-winning DVD collection Treasures from American Film Archives: 50 Preserved Films (2001), as well as on the follow-up collection More Treasures from American Film Archives, 1894-1931 (2004).

Currently he is working on a textbook on Film Music. At MIT he also teaches classes relating to early music, opera, and musicals, as well as film studies classes.

References: Martin Marks.