Nosferatu

Label: Silva Screen          
Catalogue No: FILMCD 192 

Release Date: 1997

Total Duration: 63:04 

UPN: 5014929019222

The return of James Bernard to film scoring after a hiatus of 25 years is cause enough for celebration. The fact that it’s a horror film is cause for genuine excitement. And when the horror film is one of the great silent classics – one of the earliest cinematic incarnations of “Dracula”, the eerily hypnotic 1922 German classic, NOSFERATU, restored and rescored for live orchestral accompaniment by one of this century’s bonafide masters of horror music – well, it’s downright exhilarating.

Bernard’s Overture is rife with the kind of thrilling orchestral undulations and growing crescendos that Bernard did so well in his Hammer DRACULA series. The comparison is impossible to avoid, but it’s clear that Bernard has given NOSFERATU its own musical sensibility. As with his DRACULA scores – which took their melodic rhythm from the syllables DRAC-u-la, Bernard’s primary theme here is a descending horn motif based on the rhythm of Nos-fer-a-tu. The music doesn’t have quite the same dynamism as did Bernard’s thunderous Hammer scores, but it is suitably appropriate for the film’s expressionistic style. The music is very brooding and builds in dramatic intensity and thematic development as the story progresses, as the Dracula character voyages to England, is discovered and pursued back to Transylvania. Cues such as “The Ship of Doom” and “The Power of OrIok” give the silent film some enormous power. The forceful “Pursuit of Knock” is simply tremendous in its multiple orchestral crescendos. Bernard’s trademark brass-doubled-by-snare style is put to good use in this dynamic chase music.

“Hutter and Ellen” is a delightfully sunny orchestral romp for the main characters’ introduction. As a silent film, the movie relies upon music even more so than a film with dialog or sound effects. Bernard has written the necessary wall-to-wall score; more than an hour of the score’s 90 minutes is preserved on this CD. Entirely orchestral without a synth in sight, the music is compelling, mysterious, suspenseful, and thrilling. The CD comes with a 16-page booklet describing the story line from each cue, including notes by the composer, bios of Bernard and conductor Nic Raine, and illustrated by both scenes from the film and original production drawings by designer Albin Grau. Kudos to Silva Screen for their role in securing James Bernard to score the restored NOSFERATU, and for insuring its presentation on CD in such fine fashion.

Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol.16/No.64/1997 - With permission of the editor, Luc Van de Ven