Philip Glass + Kronos Quartet

Dracula

About this Album

This CD is now available from the Nonesuch Store; however, free album MP3 downloads, available with most other discs in the Store, are not included with this disc.

Two trailblazing new music artists—Kronos Quartet and composer Philip Glass—come together once again for a recording of the first original score for the Universal Pictures 1931 horror film classic Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi. Glass’s score marks the first-ever for a film which the composer himself considers a classic. “Many films have been made based on Dracula since the original in 1931—however, none is equal to the original in eloquence or the sheer power to move us.”

There have in fact been many screen versions of Bram Stoker’s classic tale of Dracula, but none more famous or enduring than the 1931 original. Starring Bela Lugosi as the world’s best known vampire and directed by horror specialist Tod Browning, Universal Studios’ Dracula creates an eerie, chilling mood that has rarely been realized since. Dracula’s initial theatrical release coincided with the transition from silent pictures to “talkies.” At that time limited technology existed to present the film as a sound picture, so no musical score was ever composed and there were few sound effects. Browning relied on Lugosi’s legendary Hungarian accent to give the film its distinctive sound.

Glass’s new original score for Dracula was commissioned by Universal Family and Home Entertainment Production for inclusion as part of Universal’s Classic Monsters collection. Philip Glass, in commenting on writing this score, 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 Kronos we were able to add depth to the emotional layers of the film.”

Philip Glass and Kronos Quartet made their first collaborative recording in 1985 for the Paul Schrader film Mishima, after which Kronos commissioned the composer’s Quartet No. 5, and subsequently recorded it along with three others for a 1995 Nonesuch release.