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Two trailblazing new music artists — Kronos Quartet and composer Philip
Glass — come together once again for a recording of the first original
score for the Universal Pictures 1931 horror film classic Dracula,
starring Béla Lugosi. Glass’s score marks the first-ever for a film
which the composer himself considers a classic. “Many films have been
made based on Dracula since the original in 1931 — however, none is
equal to the original in eloquence or the sheer power to move us.”
There have in fact been many screen versions of Bram Stoker’s classic
tale of Dracula, but none more famous or enduring than the 1931 original. Starring Béla Lugosi as the world’s best known vampire and
directed by horror specialist Tod Browning, Universal Studios’ Dracula
creates an eerie, chilling mood that has rarely been realized since.
Dracula’s initial theatrical release coincided with the transition from
silent pictures to “talkies.” At that time limited technology existed to
present the film as a sound picture, so no musical score was ever
composed and there were few sound effects. Browning relied on Lugosi’s
legendary Hungarian accent to give the film its distinctive sound.
Glass’s new original score for Dracula was commissioned by Universal
Family and Home Entertainment Production for inclusion as part of
Universal’s Classic Monsters collection, to be released on video on
August 31. Philip Glass, in commenting on writing this score, said, “The
film is considered a classic. I felt the score needed to evoke the
feeling of the world of the 19th century — for that reason I decided a
string quartet would be the most evocative and effective. I wanted to
stay away from the obvious effects associated with horror films. With
Kronos we were able to add depth to the emotional layers of the film.”
Eighth Tower is here to celebrate Dracula on the book’s 125th Birthday.
Two books, since first publication, have never been out of print. One is
the Bible and the other is
Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Dracula is the
embodiment of Satan for the Victorian age. The character is sinister. He
is cunning. He is repulsive, sickening in fact. He is quite different
to the suave gentleman that any of the films depict him as. He is an old
man who grows younger when gorged with blood. He is a walking, rotting
corpse, the opposite to us and a reminder of our own mortality. He is
arrogant, psychopathic and obsessed with imperialism. Perhaps the
novel’s popularity has always been in its ability to make one feel like
order has been restored through a strong empathy with the characters. We
feel that we have become part of their existence through reading their
diaries, letters and hearing their phonograph recordings. There is a
real element of hope in their words and in their practices, we even see
technology used to aid their war. Therein is progress alongside the
knowledge of the past, looking to the future to dispel the shadows and
bring us light where once we only saw fear in darkness. We can see the
war of civilisation versus our baser instincts, not only in the fight
against the sexual
charge in the
vampiric bloodlust but also in the ability that our heroes have to
prevail against the animalistic forms that Dracula brings. As the Bible
this is a book full of temptations and resistances that gets to the core
of the psychological war inside us, as we fight our own inner biblical
adversary, subdue the satanic beast within us and aspire to
righteousness.
To celebrate this modern myth Eighth Tower has called musicians from
various countries and asked them their musical interpretation of the
Dracula myth. Either gloomy soundscapes or electroacoustic compositions,
all the pieces are inspired by chapters, scenes, or characters from
Bram Stoker’s novel.
credits
Our thanks to Raffaele Pezzella for providing us with a copy of this release.
ambient
dark ambient
dark chamber
drone
industrial
noise
Italy
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