Customer Reviews

History of Horror

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Silva Screen Records presents new digital recordings performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic conducted by Nic Raine featuring Crouch End Festival Chorus (Choir Master - David Temple), also the Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra, plus The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Carl Davis, Neil Richardson and Kenneth Alwyn. The two CD set of twenty-eight tracks, over 130 minutes of music including such selections - "THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN" (1935-Franz Waxman) - "THE THING" (1951-Dimitri Tiomkin) - "THE EXORCIST" (1973-Mike Oldfield) - "HALLOWEEN" (1978-John Carpenter) - "THE HAUNTING" (1999-Jerry Goldsmith) evokes a string of horror and tension.

As usual a few stand outs - "THE DEVIL RIDES OUT" (1968-James Bernard) Bernard's inexorable music may be simply stated, but the orchestration is venomous. This track is surely one of the most formidable and succinct realisations of the satanic in music. "SIX SENSE" (1999-James Newton Howard) this composer adopts a potent blend of richly realised Americana to subtly underscore events, never overtly signposting every narrative twist and turn.

This set of "Horror" is one not to miss, setting the mood are some of the greatest composers ever to pen a film score. Each track with awesome arrangements to make every hair on the back of your head stand on end. Silva has once again proved they are on top, and in rare form with - "A HISTORY OF HORROR"!

Total Time: Disc One 72:43 on 14 Tracks/Disc Two 65:57 on 14 Tracks/Silva Screen Records Ltd - SSD 1111 (2000)

I bought this cd new five years ago, and can't even count the number of times I've enjoyed it. I checked back at this page to see similar items for sale, and felt compelled to write a review after reading Luis' less than stellar review of this compilition.

The thing one must remember about this cd set is that it's not marketed as the greatest horror movie music of all time(if it were we could easily exclude Phantom and Godzilla); the purpose is to trace the development of the horror genre via musical score, hence the title. The Nosferatu Overture is aptly placed as the first track, and I think the re-recording packs a punch. I have never been a fan of the film, so listening to the score minus the film was a whole new experience, and one I still anticipate when I start the cd.

Bride of Frankenstein is also a great track. It's very moody, understated, and many probably won't find it scary, but the arrangement is good and those who appreciate subtlety will probably enjoy it.

There certainly are tracks on these two discs that I am not crazy about, but again, we're looking at the history of the genre so we're seeing the evolution of what scared people: vampires, ghouls, atomic war mutants, ghosts, demons; these two discs run the gammit. Conspicuously absent are any Pino Dinaggio or Bernard Herrmann compositions (as mentioned by another reviewer), but luckily their work is available on many other cds. For anyone wanting to experience their work I recommend Herrmann/Hitchcock: A Partnership in Terror and Brian DePalma:Pino Dinaggio.

Besides Nosferatu, other standouts on this set are The Devil Rides Out, The Shining, Alien, and The Storm. My favorite track on the whole set is Transylvanian Lullaby, which is a modern classic to most violinists, myself included. It's a phenomenal composition, but not "scary" in the conventional sense. Additionally, the inclusion of Peeping Tom is notable. That movie, now widely considered Michael Powell's masterpiece, effectively ruined his career when it was released decades ago. The feel of the music is frantic and confused and I do think it disrupts the flow of the first cd, but that doesn't mean it's not appropriately included.

Of course this cd isn't complete without The Omen--probably the scariest film score ever composed. Nic Raine and his team did an excellent job; the orchestration is tight and I have several cds of his re-recordings and I can't really complain about any of them. The first cd is appropriately bookended with Nosferatu and The Omen.

The second cd is weak when compared to the first, and I believe it's mostly due to the overall lack of composition and orchestration in modern day horror scores; too much synthesizer and not enough substance. I didn't particularly care for Frankenstein Unbound, Hellraiser:Resurrection or the Carousel numbers. The second half of the cd suffers from unoriginality (and thank heavens they didn't include Henry Manfredini's total rip-off of Psycho). I'm not reviewing every track on this set because most anybody looking to buy this cd has at least seen Halloween, Alien, and the other films horror fans consider essential viewing--and we all know Goldsmith was a genius.

Yes, many compositions have been slightly rearranged, but I don't believe it detracts from one's listening enjoyment. The coolest thing about this set is that the producers chose some excellent (and, unfortunately, lesser-known) composers to showcase: Dmitri Tiomkin, Wojciech Kilar, and James Bernard. James Bernard still hasn't gotten the credit he deserves--just listen to this cd. There are three of his compositions included(as I recall)--enough to wet your appetite for more. And be sure to check out his other work for Hammer.

I love this cd set, and the only way I could recommend it more highly is if they had left off three or four tracks that lack the quality of most of the others, but for my money it's probably the most frequently listened to horror score cd I own and a great addition to my collection. So buy this cd and discover how great horror film scores can be.

If you're anything like me and you just hate cheap imitations of famous horror movie music, than you will love this compilation. For the money, you get a great set of "soundscapes" for anything from mood music to a haunted house backdrop. Some of the pieces are flawlessly re-done (and that's exactly what they are), but a few tracks were a tad on the weak side. I do agree that there are more classic themes of horror than what is on these two discs, but I was still completely satisfied with what I paid for. If you're shopping horror compilations, this is one of the best ones. There is NO CHEESE in this set of discs that is so commonly found amongst the piles of imitation CDs out there.

This 2-disc set is a must-have for collectors of film music, including some hard to find, and beautifully crafted excerpts from often overlooked film scores. Notable is the extended suite from "The Omen" which is extraordinarily devilish and lovely all at the same time; the lullaby from "Young Frankenstein" gets a spacious treatment; the eerie synthesized "Dies Irae" done by Wendy Carlos for "The Shining" is creepy, while the excerpt from the "Dressed to Kill" score is lush and romantic. Get this CD while you can. This is what movie music is all about.

This is a good compilation. It's a 2 cd set, with more than 2 hours of music, which is much more than what you can find in any other compilation. Tracks are performed by different orchestras and musicians: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, with the collaboration of the Crouch End Festival Chorus in some of the tracks, conducted by Nic Raine; The Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra and The Philarmonia Orchestra, conducted by Carl Davis, Neil Richardson and Kenneth Alwyn. Electronic tracks are arranged and performed by Mark Ayres.
Now, these orchestras are great, and people like Nic Raine is one of the best modern arrangers nowadays. All versions arranged and conducted by him are quite good versions, above average, that's for sure. We are not talking about someone reproducing the sounds of an orchestra with a cheesy casio. Because of that, all of the versions in this compilations are quite good.
But...
They are NOT original versions. Maybe you think I'm rather a purist or some kind of closed-minded guy who does not accept other versions apart from the original ones. And maybe that's right. I mean, I'm not saying these versions are bad. Some tracks are that good that you would never know whether or not they are the original versions. However, tracks like Nightmare On Elm Street, Halloween, Suspiria, The Omen, The Exorcist, Bram Stoker's Dracula... I know they've done their best, and I appreciate it, but I'd never say these versions are half as good as the original ones. And being used to the original versions, these ones did sort of get on my nerves. Not as good. I don't think I'll listen to this compilation more than three times.
Furthermore, I also have some complaints about the selection of tracks. I mean, if this is supposed to be a tribute to horror films, I recommend people from Silva select better. I'd NEVER have included in a compilation like this Phantom of the Opera, Godzilla, Peeping Tom (is it really that good??????? Is this film really that important?????), Horrors of the Black Museum, Young Frankenstein (isn't this supposed to be a compilation of music from horror films? Is Young Frankenstein a horror movie at all?????????), Frankenstein Unbound (is this music really that good so as to include a 9!!!!! minutes suite from it???????).... Pino Donaggio's music for Dressed to Kill is indeed included, but there's no music at all from Carrie, his masterpiece, and one of the most important and beautiful horror movies ever. They've selected from The Ninth Gate the theme Vocalise, which has nothing to do with horror, instead of, say, the great Opening Titles.
And... what about Psycho? Jaws? Rosemary's Baby????????? The Thing (Morricone)????, The Fly?????, Scream?????, The Fog?????? etc, etc, etc
To sum up, an average compilation with some good versions (except that from Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is pure [junk]) of a very irregular, lacking, and unsatisfactory selection.
Also, the inside booklet has no photos, just a few lines on each of the movies.
Somehow this album has disappointed me.
If you wanna listen to a good dark music from the movies compilation, buy The Dark Side, where you'll find original versions (although I do not like very much the selection of tracks here either). Whatever
Luis