Ena Baga

Ena Baga(5 January 1906 – 15 July 2004) was a British pianist andtheatre organist.She is best known for improvising accompaniments to silent films, both in the 1920s and during the revival of interest in silent films that began in the 1970s.

Career

Early years

Ena Rosina Baga was born atClerkenwellin 1906, to an Italian father, Constantine, and an Irish mother, Charlotte.Her father was musical director for the Angel Cinema,Islingtonand conducted an orchestra to accompany silent films. After the family moved toSouthend,12-year-old Baga began playing organ for the Roman Catholic Church.

Tony Moss, co-founder of theCinema Organ Societyin 1952, wrote the following inBagatelle: Queens of the Keyboard:

Born on 15th January 1906 at 45 Colebrook Row, off the City Road and near the Angel Islington, she was christened Ena after the Queen of Spain. The Royal Ena, daughter of Princess Beatrice and Henry of Battenburg, and grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, was in the news in 1906 as she was to marry Alfonso XIII, King of Spain on 21 May that year. Returning to the Royal Palace after the ceremony, a bomb was thrown at the new Queen Ena's coach and she and the King were lucky to escape with their lives.
The two Ena's never met but Ena Baga was much later commanded to appear at Balmoral before King George V and Queen Mary, who, as the Prince and Princess of Wales, had been present in Madrid on that near fateful day. But, we are jumping ahead. Ena, the future 'Queen of the Keyboard', was the fourth daughter of Constantine Joseph Baga, born in Liverpool, the son of an Italian whose mother came from Cork. Her mother's father had a flair for stocks and shares and had been pretty successful, whereas her father's father was a devotee of Donizetti (and Italian composers of opera) who sang opera in Italian all day long! He had come to England with Giuseppe Garibaldi, who he recalled had kissed the ground when they disembarked at Folkestone.

1920s–1930s

In the 1920s, whensilent filmtheatres began replacing orchestras with one organist playing atheatre organ(as a cost-cutting measure), Baga became an organist for silent films, improvising music that dramatized the emotions or actions depicted in the film. In 1928, when "talking pictures" arrived, she provided music for the intermission between the opening "B-movie"and the feature movie.

Baga also did other musical jobs, such as accompanyingmusic hallperformers on a smallWurlitzer organ.In 1932 she was invited toBalmoral,where she improvised music forCharlie Chaplin'sThe Gold RushforGeorge VandQueen Mary.From 1940 to 1945, she replacedReginald Dixonas the organist of the Tower Ballroom.

1945–1960s

After the war, the greatpipe organsin theatres and cinemas were seldom used. In some theatres, the organs were removed to make room for biggerCinemascopescreens. From 1957 to 1962 Baga visited southern Africa to perform for the Italian workers building theKariba daminNorthern Rhodesia.

By the 1960s, though, interest in organs was revived, andHammond organswere imported from the US as home organs. In the 1960s, Baga played an electric organ at Joe Lyons's corner house onTottenham Court Road,and later at the Jolly Blacksmith atFulwell.Baga updated her repertoire to suit the 1960s, and the new Hammond electric organ, performing tunes such asSmoke Gets in Your Eyes.

Late 1960s–2000s

In 1968, herChampagne for Twowas released onCrystalCRY 3010. She was backed by percussionist Eric Howell.

WhenLondontheatres began showing silent films again in the late 1960s and into the 1980s, she played organ again for silent movies, improvising melodies and passages to suit the onscreen action. She performed on the Light Programme, and from 1969 on, she played onBBC Radio 2'sThe Organist Entertains.In 1976, she gaveOscar Petersona masterclass on how play for silent film scenes.

She has several roles in film and television (playing herself), such as inUpstairs, Downstairs,and later inRichard Attenborough's filmChaplin(1992).Her recordings include HappyHammond Plays the BeatlesandHappy Hammond Plays Bacharach.Her composition Bagatelle, is a word play on her name, that uses its four letters as musical notes. Baga dressed in a theatrical style, with evening gowns and sequinned tops. She outlived her two husbands (Reginald Turnbull and then James Hamilton-Brown).

Bibliography

• Porter, Laraine (27 June 2013). "Women Musicians in British Silent Cinema Prior to 1930".Journal of British Cinema and Television.10(3).Edinburgh University Press:563–583.doi:10.3366/jbctv.2013.0158.ISSN1743-4521.

External links

• Ena Bagavoice recording and interview transcript at the History Project.