Greetings my darklings! I know, I have posted more in the last few days than I usually do in a month! But I always try to post an update when I have something pertinent to tell you, and I actually do have a genuine update to share, but first… Last night I observed World Dracula Day by watching my DVD of the 1931 Universal film adaptation, featuring Bela Lugosi, and selected the bonus option of the revamped score for the movie composed in 1998 by Philip Glass and performed by the Kronos Quartet. I think it is an improvement over the original soundtrack which never had an original score, but used excerpts from famous Romantic works.
Owing to the costs of adding an original musical score to a film’s soundtrack, no score had ever been composed specifically for the film. The music heard during the opening credits, an excerpt from Act II of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, was re-used in 1932 for another Universal horror film, The Mummy. During the theatre scene where Dracula meets Dr. Seward, Harker, Mina, and Lucy, the end of the overture to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg can also be heard as well as the dark opening of Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony” in B minor. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_(1931_English-language_film)#Music, retrieved 05/27/2020]
CD for Philip Glass’ 1998 score for the 1931 Universal film, Dracula.
I feel that Glass’ score suits the film well, with it’s brooding themes and understated arrangement.
Of the project, Glass 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 [the Kronos Quartet] we were able to add depth to the emotional layers of the film.” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_(1931_English-language_film)#1998_score]
Cover art for the collection Dracula’s Guest (1914, George Routledge & Sons )
After that, I read the story Dracula’s Guest (1914), published two years after the death of Bram Stoker and purported to be an excised chapter from the original novel. I have discussed this story before, so I won’t get into it here. It is an entertaining yarn though, and it was a definite inspiration for my early prose poem Walpurgis Night. I have considered revamping that one and submitting it to Spectral Realms.
Speaking of submissions, one of my older submissions, which was accepted, is finally going to be seeing publication, most likely this Fall. It is my Yellow Tale story and it shall be appearing in one of the books from the two volume set Nightmares in Yellow, which were put together by Duane Pesice as a tribute to author Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. Apparently, Pesice got so many good submissions that he decided to make it into a two volume set. In his announcement of the table of contents on Facebook, Mr. Pesice included the cover art, with the illustration by Russell Smeaton and the layout designed by Dan Sauer.
Front cover art for Nightmares in Yellow, edited by Duane Pesice.
manny's book of shadows 