James Bernard

[avevale_intelligencer]

Thinking about Hammer horror movies reminds me of the man who composed the music for most of their earlier productions. He had an instantly recognisable style. I remember being very pleased with myself when I worked out the chord he used for the main theme of the first Dracula movie (the one that goes "DRA-cu-laaaa!"), and even more so when I managed to puzzle out, by repeated listening to the soundtrack that I had recorded on reel-to-reel tape, the opening bars of the piano piece he wrote for Kiss Of The Vampire (which he dubbed the Tooth Concerto). Noticing how the music at the end of The Devil Rides Out was the same theme as used at the beginning, but with all the discords straightened out, I used the same trick on my first tape to turn Rumour-Monger into Home At Last. And it was the way, in that film and in Dracula has Risen From The Grave, that the high major chord on strings and bells that he often used to represent the power of "good" (or God, if you prefer) muscled through and drowned out all the other music, that gave me a notion of the brutal indifference of "good" (or God) to the struggles of mere mortals that has stayed with me and shaped my thinking on lots of things.

There may have been (let's face it, there were) more talented and versatile composers working in the horror music genre...but, to me at any rate, few more memorable.

Comments

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

Bombastic is the word that springs to mind. But unforgettable, too.

[pink-sweater-uk.livejournal.com]

Agreed, Bernard was a great Hammer composer (composer full stop, in fact). I also have a lot of time for Harry Robertson, who composed the scores for the Karnstein Trilogy (Twins Of Evil being a particularly fine score). It amazed and delighted me somewhat when I found out that he was also apparently Lord Rockingham of the famous XI!