Christabel Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra

  • Albert Syeles
    Author
  • Albert Syeles
    Name of Band or Artist
  • Project Type:
    Film Score
  • Length:
    11 minutes 36 seconds
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Student Project:
    No
  • New Media Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    June 7, 2023
    NOMINEE -Film Score
  • New York Tri-State International Film Festival
    New York
    January 4, 2023
    HONORABLE MENTION - Original Score
  • Las Vegas International Film & Screenwriting Festival
    Las Vegas
    November 29, 2022
    WINNER Best Film - Musical Score
  • Toronto's Fusion Awards - International Art Festival of Future
    Toronto
    December 15, 2022
    WINNER - Best Music Composer
  • Munich New Wave Short Film Festival
    Munich
    November 3, 2022
    WINNER - BEST FILM SCORE
  • ROMA Short Film Festival
    Rome, Italy
    October 4, 2022
    WINNER - BEST FILM SCORE
  • Cannes Shorts
    Cannes, France
    February 12, 2023
    NOMINEE - Best Composer
  • Madrid International Short Film Festival
    Madrid
    January 9, 2023
    HONORABLE MENTION - Best Film Score
  • International Motion Picture Festival of INDIA
    India
    November 20, 2022
    WINNER - Best Original Score
  • Indo French International Film Festival
    India
    November 9, 2022
    WINNER - Best Original Score
  • Dreamz Catcher International Film Festival
    India
    November 24, 2022
    WINNER - Best Film Score – Soundtrack
  • Seoul International Short Film Festival
    Seoul
    October 6, 2022
    HONORABLE MENTION - Best Film Score
  • Fox International Film Festival
    Rome, Italy
    October 28, 2022
    HONORABEL MENTION - Best Original Song
  • Zagreb International Film Festival
    Zagreb
    December 2, 2022
    HONORABLE MENTION - Best Composer
  • Zagreb International Film Festival
    Zagreb
    December 2, 2022
    HONORABLE MENTION - Original Score
  • Zagreb International Sound & Film Music Festival ISFMF
    Zagreb
    October 7, 2022
    FINALIST Feature Film, Score
  • Warsaw TopShot International Film Festival
    Warszawa, Poland
    January 10, 2023
    Official Selection - Original Film Score
  • Tokyo International Short Film Festival
    Tokyo
    October 3, 2022
    Official Selection - Film Score
  • iHORRORdb Film Festival
    Maglie, Italy
    March 4, 2023
    Official Selection - Original Score
  • Star International Film Festivale
    Firenze, Italy
    June 2, 2023
    Official Selection - Film Score
  • Toronto Indie Filmmakers Festival
    Toronto, Canada
    January 25, 2023
    WINNER -Best Film Score
  • King Film Awards
    London
    August 18, 2023
    WINNER Best Original Score
  • Reel Harmony Film and Script Festival
    London
    October 27, 2023
    WINNER Best Original Score
Artist Biography

Albert won "Best Music Composer" at Toronto's 2022 Fusion Awards, and was Nominated for that honor at the 2023 Cannes Shorts Film Festival.

His "Christabel" Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra has won eleven top Awards in 2022 and 2023 at competitive film festivals in London (2), Toronto (2), Las Vegas, Munich, Rome, Istanbul, and India (3).
It also achieved HONORABLE MENTION in New York, Seoul, Zagreb, at a second Rome event,
NOMINEE in Los Angeles, FINALIST in Samobor, Croatia,
and OFFICIAL SELECTION in Warsaw, Tokyo, Madrid, Montreal, as well as iHorror in Italy.

His "Quietude Rondo for Jazz Orchestra" won the award for Jazz Music at the 2023 World Music Festival, and Honorable Mention Best Film Score at the 2022 Tokyo Short Film Festival.

President and co-founder of Romanza - St. Augustine, Inc., and EpiCentre Alliance, both 501(C)(3) nonprofits.

Add Artist Biography
Artist Statement

Christabel falls under the spell of vampire Geraldine,
who inevitably has her horrid way.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote his dark, sexy, epic “Christabel” in 1797, a hundred years before Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and 19 years before Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Coleridge’s story is ripe for a modern screenplay with strong female leads:
• Christabel, who may be impetuous and naive, or rebellious and cunning,
• and Geraldine, who may be a vampire, or a misunderstood lesbian, or both.

SCRIPT OUTLINE:

Act 1: Christabel, who is haunted by the memory of her "sainted" mother, defiant with her father Sir Leoline, and engaged to an absent soldier, comes to the aid of Geraldine, an apparent rape victim, takes her home, and hides her in her father’s mansion.
But then, under Geraldine’s magic charm, her sympathy progresses to compulsion, then to subjugation. In 1797, Coleridge wrote a very explicit sex/horror scene, even by today’s standards, where "holy" Christabel finds herself helplessly in bed with her seductress.

Act 2: Soon, as Geraldine, the deceiver?, ingratiates herself to Sir Leoline, and implications escalate, Christabel struggles with Geraldine’s control, and with her own guilt.

Act 3: Coleridge never completed his epic, so the door is open to creative development and conclusion.
PERHAPS:
Geraldine also sleeps with Sir Leoline
Christabel enlists "Bracy the Bard" and her mother's clan, the Teutates, to exorcise Geraldine at a "sacred" nemeton.
Sir Leoline, Geraldine, and her father Sir Roland deVaux, all die.
In the end we realize that Geraldine’s only "sin" was being promiscuous and bisexual.
And that all along, Christabel has been the one with "fangs".

Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1797 Poem excerpt:

And thus the lofty lady spake--
`All they who live in the upper sky,
Do love you, holy Christabel !
And you love them, and for their sake
And for the good which me befell,
Even I in my degree will try,
Fair maiden, to requite you well.
But now unrobe yourself ; for I
Must pray, ere yet in bed I lie.'

Quoth Christabel, So let it be !
And as the lady bade, did she.
Her gentle limbs did she undress
And lay down in her loveliness.

But through her brain of weal and woe
So many thoughts moved to and fro,
That vain it were her lids to close ;
So half-way from the bed she rose,
And on her elbow did recline
To look at the lady Geraldine.

Beneath the lamp the lady bowed,
And slowly rolled her eyes around ;
Then drawing in her breath aloud,
Like one that shuddered, she unbound
The cincture from beneath her breast :
Her silken robe, and inner vest,
Dropt to her feet, and full in view,
Behold ! her bosom, and half her side-- --
A sight to dream of, not to tell !
O shield her ! shield sweet Christabel !

Yet Geraldine nor speaks nor stirs ;
Ah ! what a stricken look was hers !
Deep from within she seems half-way
To lift some weight with sick assay,
And eyes the maid and seeks delay ;
Then suddenly as one defied
Collects herself in scorn and pride,
And lay down by the Maiden's side !
And in her arms the maid she took..