SPEED OF SOUNDSeries: Piano VocalArtist: ColdplaySheet music.As a composer, musician and teacher, it's very likely that I've heard most kinds of music over the years. However, I still love the music of the cinema and, in particular, old horror movie soundtracks (think Hammer Films, etc). Dracula music is a firm favourite!
Let's start with music by Philip Glass, composed for the 1931 Bela Lugosi classic film Dracula and performed by the wonderful Kronos String Quartet.
Glass's minimalist style lends itself well to this subject-matter. The album is modern sounding but with a kind of timeless chamber-music quality, and is a great accompaniment to a dialogue-only film.
The usual Glass fingerprints are here: repetitive ostinati, arpeggios, motifs and rocking two-note bass lines, but touched with tender, lyrical moments. To me (being a melody-man at heart!), it was these melodic moments which prevented this album from becoming too tedious. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy modern, dissonant music, but eventually I long for a damn-good tune and this album gave me something close to that.
Most of the 26 tracks are quite short (1-4 minutes) and, although eerie, are surprisingly tuneful. The string playing is excellent, as you'd expect from the Kronos gang.
Here are a few of my favourite highlights:
"Excellent, Mr. Renfield": an eerie piece with the expected repeated ostinato/riff but with loud scary moments when the quartet suddenly burst in. The ticking bass line keeps things moving and a great winding melody over the top completes the image of the fly-eating lunatic who lives in the asylum!
"The Storm": a violent start to the track, full of discordant harmony and very evocative of a storm. Pizzicato strings produce the rain and fast runs create an impression of speed.
"Horrible Tragedy": not sure if this is bi- or tri-tonal! Sounds like every member of the quartet is playing in a different key. I like its hypnotic qualities and simple short riffs.
"In the Theatre": a great haunting melody and easy chord progressions - reminds me of Phantom of the Opera for some reason!
"Renfield": a surprisingly beautiful and sympathetic sound for our resident madman! Very classical sounding with some predictable chord changes and two-note bass accompaniment, later moving into triplets. Very nice.
This is not the usual blood-spattered Dracula music, full of diminished chords and squealing strings. Yes, it can be repetitive, but Glass seems to be using a greater range of tone colours than usual and, for this style of music, I found it quite tuneful (although you'd be hard-pressed to whistle along with the CD!).
Perhaps the disc gets rather tiring half-way through: 26 tracks is a lot of minimalist music! I have to admit that I've not seen the film with this soundtrack, but I've heard that it complements the images perfectly, especially in 'Carriage Without a Driver', where the spinning wheels are clearly portrayed and the music invokes a sense of menace.
On the whole... I like it!
Alan Moore invites you to join his free email newsletter The Whitby Bite:
http://www.dracula-in-whitby.com/whitby-bite.html where you can learn more about the real Dracula and his connection to Whitby, Yorkshire's unique vampire town.
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