Music from the Hammer Films

Label: Silva Screen
Catalogue No: FILMCD 066

Release Date: 1989

Total Duration: 54:33 

UPN: 5014929006628

The horror films of England’s Hammer Films owed a great deal of their distinction to the powerful, thunderous musical scores of composers like James Bernard, Don Banks, David Whitaker, Harry Robinson and others, and much of the best horror film music of the last 30-odd years has been found in their movies.

Regrettably, little of this music has found its way onto record. There were 4 suites on half of the “Hammer Presents Dracula” - LP, the dismal LP of Bernard’s LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES (ruined by insipid narration and poor re-recording) and a couple themes here and there on compilation or bootleg albums but (aside from Intermezzo’s notable Mario Nascimbene prehistoric soundtrack LPs) nothing has really done justice to the legacy of Hammer horror music.

Leave it to Silva Screen Records to fill in the gap. In the first of what is hoped to become a continuing series of recordings, “Music from the Hammer Films” draws on the iceberg-tip of Hammer music to provide a milestone recording of Hammer’s horror music. Containing newly-recorded suites (all with the participation or cooperation of the original composer to insure authenticity) from six Hammer films, this CD is primarily concerned with the Dracula films of James Bernard. It’s an appropriate starting place, because his thunderous “Dracula Theme” characterized the. powerful dynamic of Hammer horror music and gave a diabolical power co the character in the films.

Bernard’s music for DRACULA (called HORROR OF DRACULA in the USA) is hugely powerful, dominated by a 3-note ostinato for brass and percussion built around the syllables of the vampire’s name. This theme is contrasted with a five-note theme for strings, which represents the good people who struggle against Dracula, and the interplay with which Bernard developed these two themes is complex and remarkably effective; these themes, along with the rousing, violin-and-percussion “Chase Music”, dominated all of Bernard’s DRACULA scores. The segments recorded here include a twelve and a half minute suite from DRACULA and its first direct sequel, DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS, the five minute finale from DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE and a 17-minute suite from TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA.

While some of the same themes were used throughout the Dracula series, each film has its own musical style and so there’s a lot of variety here. The frenzied action of the rooftop chase in DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE is a superb example of Bernard’s furious action music, driving faster and faster, higher and higher until it explodes in a torrent of musical orchestration. TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA contrasts the vampire theme with Bernard’s loveliest romantic theme, a lilting melody reminiscent somewhat of a medieval plainsong.

David Whitaker only scored two Hammer films, DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE (included in an exceptional suite on the “Hammer Presents Dracula” LP, and included on Silva’s “The Omen and Other Horror Music” CD) and VAMPIRE CIRCUS. The latter is included here with a notable 9-minute “Prologue” which captures all of the score’s moods. Mingling a dark carnival-like atmosphere with progressive low-register chords and mysterious dissonances, Whitaker superbly captured the exotic mystery and deadly malevolence of the vampire carnival. The prominent use of a cimbalom amid the orchestra gave the score a unique and haunting effect, and its version here is equally powerful and evocative.

Perhaps most welcome on this recording is the 10-minute suite from Christopher Gunning’s exceptional score for HANDS OF THE RIPPER. His only Hammer horror music, Gunning’s score was a brilliant example of thematic interplay and one of the loveliest romantic horror scores of the ‘7Os. Derived from 3 inter-related motifs (one emphasizing the delicate innocence of Anna, Jack the Ripper’s daughter; the second associated with the murderous compulsion which overcomes her; and the third for the deadly actions caused by that compulsion). The correspondence of these 3 themes is intricately worked out, and the score becomes a tour-de-force of leitmotif interrelation. The suite included here features all 3 themes and becomes a compelling tone poem, painting a frightening but ultimately sad picture of the film’s tragic heroine.

The remarkable thing about the music for Hammer horror films was that so much of it was more than just spooky noises and horrible dissonances; there was a fluidity and a Gothic romance to the best Hammer scores, a sensuous dynamism which gave the pictures a degree of power and passion that horror movies had never before achieved. Not to slight the classic music for the Universal horror films of the ‘4Os and ‘50s (which, despite its effectiveness, was usually farmed out by a team of composers working in assembly-line fashion) Hammer’s horror music achieved a sense of artistry and passion that had never been heard in the genre before and which cried out for renewed life beyond the theatre screen. Silva Screen’s debut Hammer recording takes advantage of digital recording techniques to resurrect, like the ongoing vampire of the Dracula movies, some of the best horror music of the last 3 decades. There’s a wealth of additional music to be had, and hopefully this will only be the first of many Hammer recordings.

Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol.9/No.35/1990 - With permission of the editor, Luc Van de Ven