The Jacksonville Symphony commissioned an entirely new orchestral score for *The Flying Ace* because the 1926 film never had one — and because the movie turns 100 this year in the city that made it. According to the Jacksonville Symphony's event listing, the orchestra premieres that score live alongside a screening of the film on Saturday, November 14, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. in Jacoby Symphony Hall at the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts.
Table of Contents
- Why the film had no score to restore
- What makes this particular film worth the investment
- How six composers divide one film
- The authorship question the commission is answering
- How to actually hear it
- Frequently Asked Questions
Why the film had no score to restore
Silent features were not released with fixed music. Theaters hired a pianist, an organist, or a small ensemble, and the accompanist improvised or assembled cues from stock libraries, so the music changed from house to house and night to night. *The Flying Ace* therefore has no original score to recover — only a century of one-off accompaniments. Those one-offs are a real tradition, not an absence.
The University of Chicago Film Studies Center programmed the film in 2016 with a score by composer Renée Baker, one of several accompanists who have filled the gap on their own terms. That is the practical difference between this project and a restoration. Nobody is reconstructing lost parts from a cue sheet. The symphony is adding music the film never had, which means the result is an interpretation — a 2026 reading of a 1926 picture, and one that will sit alongside other readings rather than replacing them.
What makes this particular film worth the investment
Its rarity is the clinching argument. The Norman Studios Silent Film Museum notes that *The Flying Ace* is the only complete Norman Studios feature known to survive; of the studio's other productions, only fragments remain.
A century of nitrate decay, fires and indifference erased the rest. The federal government has already made that judgment formally. The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 2021 for its cultural, historical and aesthetic significance — the recognition that underpins the centennial programming now built around it.
- The Flying Ace* was produced and directed in 1926 by Richard E. Norman at Norman Studios in Jacksonville's Arlington neighborhood. Laurence Criner stars as Billy Stokes, a railroad detective and World War I aviator, opposite Kathryn Boyd as Ruth Sawtelle — a Black action hero and a Black leading lady in an era when mainstream Hollywood offered neither.
How six composers divide one film
Carlos Simon leads the commission. He wrote the concert's unifying musical themes and scored the opening reel, which gives the night a recurring harmonic and melodic language the other reels can pick up. Five composers take the remaining reels: Jongnic Bontemps, Kathryn Bostic, Nathalie Joachim, Allison Loggins-Hull and Levi Taylor. Each wrote roughly ten minutes of music for a single reel, according to Jacksonville Today's report on the project.
Music Director Courtney Lewis conducts, with the orchestra playing live against the projected film. For a viewer, the structural consequence is worth knowing in advance. Expect audible shifts in voice roughly every ten minutes — a feature of the design, not a seam to forgive. Simon's shared themes are the thing to listen for across those handoffs.
The authorship question the commission is answering
The cast of *The Flying Ace* is entirely African American and the film was made for Black audiences, but Richard E. Norman, its producer-director, was white. Race films of the period came from both Black-owned companies and white-owned ones serving a segregated market, and Norman Studios was the latter. That history is why the composer roster matters.
As the Jacksonville Free Press frames it, assembling an all-Black composer team is a deliberate reframing of the film rather than a recovery of original Black authorship. The images are Norman's; the new musical interpretation of them is not. It is a reasonable thing to hold in mind while watching, and it sharpens the stakes of the score. Music in a silent film is not decoration — it tells you how to read a face, a chase, a landing. Six Black composers now decide how a century-old picture of Black heroism sounds.
How to actually hear it
No recording or streaming release has been announced. The score exists, for now, as a one-night live event, which means the only way to hear it as written is to be in the room.
One caution for anyone treating this as a repeatable experience: a live score tied to a projected print is logistically expensive, and six commissioned reels do not automatically become a touring package. Treat the November 14 performance as the event, and any future revival as a bonus rather than a plan.
- **Date and time:** Saturday, November 14, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
- **Venue:** Jacoby Symphony Hall, Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts
- **Format:** full film screening with the orchestra playing live, conducted by Courtney Lewis
- **Buy from:** the Jacksonville Symphony box office, not resale listings — resale markup on a single-performance premiere is steep and the ticket is often non-transferable
- **If you cannot attend:** the film itself is independently accessible as a National Film Registry title, so you can watch it before or after without the new music
Frequently Asked Questions
Is *The Flying Ace* a lost film?
No. It survives complete, and it is the only Norman Studios feature known to do so — the rest exist only as fragments, per the Norman Studios Silent Film Museum.
Will the new score be released on an album?
Nothing has been announced. The commission is currently a live concert work tied to the November 14, 2026 screening.
Does this replace Renée Baker's 2016 score?
No. Silent films carry multiple independent accompaniments by nature, and the 2026 commission is an additional interpretation, not a definitive one.