Princeton Brass Band

Peter Graham’s Metropolis 1927 takes its inspiration from Fritz Lang’s landmark silent film, a defining work of German Expressionist cinema and one of the most visually ambitious films of the 20th century. Set in a vast futuristic city, the film presents a starkly divided society. Above ground, a privileged elite enjoys leisure and excess, while far below, anonymous workers labor endlessly to power the machines that sustain the city. Lang’s vision is both futuristic and mythic, blending social critique with symbolism drawn from religion, industrial modernity, and moral allegory. Rather than attempting a literal depiction of the film’s narrative, Graham responds musically to its atmosphere and imagery. The score reflects the composer’s impressions of Lang’s stark visual contrasts and monumental settings: the oppressive weight of the machine halls, the lurid glamour of nightclubs, the looming presence of the cathedral, and the uneasy tension between human ambition and mechanized control. Throughout the work, moments of raw power and mechanical drive are set against passages of lyricism and fragile beauty, mirroring the film’s paradoxical blend of terror and wonder. Dark, brooding textures and relentless rhythmic energy evoke the inexorable motion of the machines, while more reflective episodes suggest fleeting humanity within an unforgiving environment. The result is a soundscape that captures the moral unease at the heart of Lang’s film: a world capable of extraordinary beauty, yet shaped by division, excess, and dehumanization.