Andrew Earle Simpson

The Outlaw and His Wife (silent film music)

Instrumentation	piano
Duration	72'
Film Date/Studio	1917, Sweden
Director/Actors	Victor Sjöström, dir./Victor Sjöström
Movements	N/A
Premiere	12/17/06, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Performers	Andrew Simpson, pno
Commissioned by	National Gallery of Art
Recording	N/A
Publication	Composer
Performance History	12/06, National Gallery of Art
mp3 sample

Film synopsis and musical notes

A dark tale from Victor Sjöström's Swedish period which tells of a young man, Kari (Sjöström himself) outlawed from his home in the Icelandic South (again, a story of outcasts), comes to work at the farm of a wealthy widow named Halla.  His identity is discovered, and he and Halla flee to the highlands to follow a life of exile away from society in the wilderness. 

The film ends unhappily, as both freeze to death in a winter storm many years later, but there are many tender moments throughout the film. 

The music evokes both the sweep of the landscape and the intimate nature of Kari and Halla's relationship.