Cinema music buff here. Thank you for honoring Wojciech Kilar's score for Dracula. It contains S-tier writing. I'd go so far as saying Love remembered is the most hauntingly beautiful theme ever written for a film. Genius is not a word I use often but here it flourishes, couched with simplicity and profound emotion. His stunning vocalise for the 9th Gate also is haunting and overwhelmingly moving. Have a great week my friend.
@@timcardona9962 That's a little disingenuous. Picking out the individual notes in a dense and layered chord isn't as easy for some as it is for others, even with musical training. But what can one expect from the youtube comment section, but arrogance.
Just rewatched this film and was so struck by the intro. The way that chord hits after the Dracula origin story is so brilliant. Thanks for unpacking this!!
This is one of my favourite scores. I think it deserves (or he) more recognition. Also love the 9th gate OST (I recently have the weird theory that the ninth gate main theme might have been even more fitting for Dracula). Great that you’re bringing up this score!
I bought the full score of this masterpiece last year, and at nearly 70 quid, I felt it an outrageous purchase... but it is one of my most treasured possessions. No 'Hollywood' composer could have come up with anything like this. Thanks for the video, it's bloody marvellous!
According to the score, the piano part alone is playing every note of an E minor scale simultaneously, A-E half notes in the bass, E-A quarter notes in the treble.
yeahhh! Thanks so much for making this one dude! It was cool to see you have such a history with the film. Also agree you can't all it a m11. I always tell my students that naming chords using the system we use for tertian harmony is futile when the chord isn't tertian in nature.
@@Keith_Horn yeah, I don't mind add2/4, I'd know what it meant, and that's what matters. You write that, I'll play what you wanted. If you say m11, I won't.
I'm Polish-Silesian, the region from which I think Kilar was from too. PLEASE do something about Kilar's score for "Sól Ziemi Czarnej". One of the most beautiful war film scores.
Poledouris, like Howard; must've had the Barbarian himself, lurching over his shoulder as he wrote the score. He never even came cloase to matching it.
Absolutely one of the best interpretations of the Dracula story ever, and with a stunning score to boot! Kilar hit it out of the park - like you, I was quick to pick up a copy, which I still have as well. The ominous bits are great, but the love themes are amazing.
This video is so amazing. Thank you for discussing a topic I thought I only liked....I bought that soundtrack just like you....I have been a fan of the story, the film, and the music from that film all my life. In fact my three favorite movies and film scores are Bram Stoker's Dracula, Interview With The Vampire, and Amadeus!! Hails!!!
Played on Fender Rhodes the chord sounds quite nice and chill...warm and melancholic even. I think the way the chord was orchestrated makes it sound terrifying. The way the brass and strings emphasize different notes in the chord than the choir does. This creates an abrasive 'rub' between the close semitone intervals. The dynamic is fortissimo and the choir sings with molto vibrato, creating extra drama.
I listen to the soundtrack like every day on loop... Marvelous work... Of course the melodic and harmonic content is genious... Congratulations for this video, plus I found the Keanu pun funny 😁 Thanks for teaching us this chord!
@Keith_Horn Another "vampire sequence" that I notice at several "black metal" songs, is the relationship between let's say Em to Cm, or Em to Gm... How would you name/describe such kind of "macabre" progression?
@@JohnManopoulos That's a great sound! Those are mediant progressions/sequences - the cool thing is anytime you move a third from one triad to another of the same quality (minor to minor for example), there is always a common tone. Ex. Cm shares a common tone with Em, Ebm, Am, and Abm.
Adore this score! It has the dense bleak dissonance of the Polish school but also moments of dark lyrical beauty. One of the best love themes ever. I think it’s more influential than it’s given credit for these days. Been killing it with CotW 👌
Thanks for putting this together! That chord always fascinated me; the implications of all of Dracula's pain and rage blaring out of your speakers. It's interesting that on this keyboard setting you got, it almost has a "smoky all-night bar" ambience,, like someone who just got dumped and is there all by themselves.... maybe about to step out into the pouring rain and go home alone.
It does give that kind of vibe with the Rhodes. I like that sound because the tone is fairly pure which makes it easier to hear harmonies. Thanks for watching!
Brilliant film and score. Another would be 'Interview with a Vampire' Amazing music. Maybe cover that in the future? Thanks for this great insight on Dracula.. so good
Love his writing on this and also Ninth Gate! It’s a pretty basic E minor 11 chord but the instrumentation really makes it sound more crunchy and complicated than it really is. The type of minor voicings that Oliver Nelson and other jazz arrangers used throughout the early 1960’s, like on Stolen Moments from Blues and the Abstract Truth. Thanks for the great video!
I was just revisiting The Ninth Gate score yesterday - amazing! This chord is more complicated actually - I did. follow up video after seeing the score. It's very muddy in the low end. i'll give that Nelson tune a listen. Thanks!
I was re-listening to the soundtrack of this movie about a couple days ago, and I was talking to someone about who are their favorite composers. And I was talking about a few people and I remember this soundtrack was like the one that I felt so emotional and deeply connected to so this is actually really cool little piece of information.
Love this chord. I would add that contrary to what is said, the Dracula character in Bram Stoker's novel is not a romantic / Byronic character at all. The heartbroken Dracula story arc in the movie is an invention which is absent from the book, where he is described as a purely evil and enigmatic figure. In fact, there is very little description of him at all! This movie is faithful to the novel in many other ways, but Dracula's character is not one of them.
I agree. Stokers book came out after the Crimean war and in britain there was the beginnings of the 'anti slavic' movement. A distrust of people who would be 'too communist' for britains taste. The book reads like a propagandists wet dream. The british characters are all larger than life 'super heroes' practically, in a way that makes american white hero myths look tame. Dracula isn't even IN the book after the midway point. He is almost literally the personification of eastern europe. Its vampiric predecessor Carmilla was written by an irishman and the men in that story are pretty much useless. The dialogue in Dracula is almost unreadable, its the female characters talking about how great the men are for 'protecting little old me' and each of the men are teutonic heroes that are practically larger than life. I like COMEDIES about dracula better because its so absurd. Van helsing says that of course he learned how to kill Dracula IN eastern europe. So these eastern europeans are literally too lazy to walk up the road in daylight and stick a stake through this guys heart. Either implying "they need leadership" or else they are in collusion and working WITH Dracula, which is the more likely when trying to stoke general fears of eastern europe. Dracula is basically british propaganda and the character is the personification of eastern european 'mystery ' and violence that any empire needs to fabricate to authorize expansion.
Hell yeah, my 40s brother still got the CD he bought back when! I've got most of mine, and regret the few I lost or ket go ✌🏻 Cool video and great 🎥 movie
I believe the voicing and orchestration plays just as much, if not more, of an impact on the listener than the chord structure. Thank you for the analysis.
Love the film. Have the soundtrack. The movie released Friday, the 13th of November, 1992. Intentional? Perhaps. I love that it extended the Halloween aura well into the following month. It was the first time for me to see this as a love story. Thank You for this additional background.
Two years later, Interview with the Vampire released Friday, November 11th, 1994. Again extending the Halloween vibe. (could be so there's no other seasonal competition).
"I shall rise from my own death to avenge hers with all the powers of darkness... The blood is the life, and it shall be mine!" That scene with that score gives me chills every time.
The La-La Land double disc re-release of this score is pretty intriguing with all the different variations of themes it's going on. Very warmly recommended.
That's an incredible score. I only saw the film for the first time recently and was struck by the score, I even made sure to buy a physical copy! Interesting note on the tetrachord, coming from guitar these are not talked about, so I tried to figure out a few they are quite the challenge due to limitations. My guitar adaptation for the chord is: 075975, which unfortunately has the G an octave lower. 074055 also gets all the notes but this inversion compromises some of the magic. I can't say I've seen that chord before, it was fun trying to figure them out on guitar. Happy New Year! // Edit, another one: 0x4055, much easier to play.
Happy New Year to you as well! I'm a guitarist, too, and it is fun to try these chords out on the fretboard. Cluster voicings like this are pretty tricky, though.
I didn't quite get every note by ear. I missed a couple notes in the low end. I had a peek at the score after I posted this and did a follow up video with the full chord voicing.
Kilar is an asbolute goat, he did not only composed film scores but classical orchestral and ensamble music too. Check out "Orawa" which is probably the most famous piece, or any of 2 piano concertos he wrote. He only died in 2012 which means i could have pontenially perform his music with him being in the audience.
Another fascinating thing about the score is that the film heavily edited the music and was released in the same way on the original album, much to Wojciech Kilar's disappointment (he was even mad at himself for not producing the album - he always believed that the director is free to do whatever he deems necessary in the film, but as for albums and concerts, it was a different story). However, in 2018 the extended edition of the soundtrack was released and many of the pieces exist there in the way they were originally written (including different unused versions). It's very different from the 1992 album and I prefer the 2018 edition because not only it shows you the original pieces and the composer's intention, but also you can see the structure in the score (e.g. the relations between the themes). Another fun fact is that Kilar had a heart attack after his arrival to the US, but Coppola was so adamant that he wanted him to do the score that he waited until his recovery.
@@Keith_Horn There's a beautiful, discarded theme on the 2018 release (the only leftover in the final film was in the scene where Mina kisses Jonathan before his journey to Transylvania). The liner notes don't really say what it was supposed to represent, and it seems that the people working on the extended album had some trouble with making sense of where many of the cues were supposed to be in the working prints of the film, it seems like nobody kept the record. I think it's a theme for Mina, her own opposite to the love theme. It's a beautiful waltz, and Kilar was pretty much an expert in writing waltzes for Polish films, check out the one from Tredowata or Ziemia Obiecana - Coppola was even playing the latter one on his hi-fi set when they met for dinner to discuss the project. Kilar even once jokingly said that his favorite thing in writing for films was that he could get away with writing very melodic waltzes (as opposed to avant-garde concert music). Another interesting piece of trivia is that the producers were very surprised that he orchestrated himself, and Kilar was very surprised that Hollywood composers don't orchestrate their own music. When he was told that they had to put somebody's name in the proper file to pay for the orchestration, he replied that he composed the music on the piano and later did the orchestration, so they should put it in his name.
@@Keith_Horn It seems that somebody uploaded the entire score on TH-cam. The theme I mentioned appeared in "Rules cafe waltz", try looking for that one. If you have any trouble, I can DM you the link to the proper channel. You can find the alternative version of the prologue (there were two on the 2018 album - not sure if both were included on the channel) or the original, uncut version of the Storm. Fun fact: I sang that piece with the choir at the music academy where I study. The parts seemed easy at first, but very quickly I realized they required a great stamina. Also: there were so many tritones in such a high register that our conductor decided to simplify the parts a bit to let our throats rest.
Discerning that chord from the layers of the orchestra and the chorus...fantastic work. If you haven't updated your copy of the score to the extended release, it's worth the investment.
Ok, so I am fairly new to reading music on a staff, but I figured out the treble clef (at least, I think) before I looked at your keyboard; I got E, F#, G, A, and those little C1, C2, etc., those must be the octaves on the piano? The one thing I didn't get correct, probably because I have never played piano and don't know anything about the bass clef, were those bass notes: if it was the same as the treble clef, I had C and G, but according to the keyboard, it's E and B? Would anybody mind explaining why that is? Does the bass clef just start out lower, or is that because I need to transpose the notes? Yes, I could Google this, but I would rather have a musician explain it if possible, thanks for any insight! Great chord, and great film, by the way
Yes C1 is the lowest C on the piano and C4 is middle C. I'm actually not sure how to explain WHY the bass clef is that way. You could argue that it would be more intuitive to just have another treble clef with "8vb" (octave below) next to it. I grew up playing saxophone so I first learned treble clef. Only when I started playing marimba in high school did I learn bass clef and I never wondered why it seemed "transposed". Maybe someone who learned a bass clef instrument could give a good answer. I know the history of the grand staff (treble and bass clefs bracketed together) is rooted in the history of vocal music that preceded instrumental music. But I don't know the details of that history offhand.
@Keith_Horn OK, thanks; a friend of mine has played violin for 65 years, I will ask him, he will likely know just because he hates transposition, lol! Thanks for getting back to me!
Your "don't listen in the dark" warning made me smile. Took me back to being a teenage music geek in the 70s, which necessarily meant I owned the LP of Tomita's Firebird Suite. At some point I thought, this would be awesome if I turned out the lights, lay on my bed, and just listened. TLDR: No. No it was not. Unlike Kilar's Dracula score, Tomita's synthesiser (room-filling space-age tech in those days) re-scoring of Stravinsky wasn't exactly terrifying. At least not at first. It was just creepy, and gradually but steadily became more creepy as you listened on, minute after minute, until your mind just exploded with a nameless, undefinable panic. Good times. Anyone who doubts can easily repeat the experiment in the questionable safety of your own home. Thanks for the analysis! I join others here in their envy of your relaxed mastery of music theory.
@@Keith_Horn I don't remember that one, but he did release a full portfolio of classical and avant garde pieces. Tomita was an incredible pioneer, especially when you figure that the technology of the day required actually re-wiring a wall of computers differently to get each effect. He was literally inventing sounds as he went.
If my music memory, from when I learnt Music notation decades ago, serves me well, you can't have a 9th, 11th, etc chords without a 7th in the chord, thus defiantly not a 9th or 11th chord.
Agreed. Calling it an Emi add9 add 11 or Emi2/4 makes more sense. Although it turns out this chord has all 7 notes of Eminor in the power register which makes it an Emi pandiatonic. I posted a follow up video
@@harrybardos1283 It must have been the North Campus because it was 1993. I had a class with Mick Goodrick which was over my head at the time. I didn't realize how big a deal he was until years later.
2:26 those 3 notes (G-F#-A) played in that order is the Game of Thrones score for Milasandre the Red Priestess. I heard that and replayed it several times racking my brain as to why it sounds so familiar. "Brown eyes, green eyes, and blue eyes. Eyes that you'll close forever".
Quickest way to find it is by typing in "The Lord of Light" theme, and it actually plays an additional note after those 3. But the slow way you played it is almost the same, easily missed if you played it faster.@@Keith_Horn
I like it has both of the suspended tensions in it. The 2 or 9 is longing, reaching up and the 4 or 11 is more defiant and has to fall down to resolve.
@@Keith_Horn Despite this, due to the way the notes are arranged, I wouldn’t classify it as an Em11 chord. Analyzing chords truly makes sense only when connected to the "harmonic function" they serve in the overall context. In this case, I would simply classify it as a cluster formed by that particular combination of notes.
after this video and how you described the chord I think itd be intersting to see a video that shows chords that reflect emotions...angry chord, happy chord, sad chord, etc..
@Keith_Horn not sure i play guitar a little but i dont know music or theory but have heard chords called happy (major), sad (minor)..and had thought about movies being better when they were scored vs just playing artist recorded songs, the scores set the mood, make you anticipate thing, make you feel scared, sad etc..
I may be crazy and I'm just listening to the chord on your youtube video not on a .wav file but I feel it's almost as if there's a very low D in there, or like the rumble and resonance of the percussion creates the illusion of a very low D. Somehow the root in the bass feels too stable when I play it on my piano compared to the timbre of the orchestra + choir. I don't know.. Interesting stuff! Cool video and fantastic movie, thanks!
Thanks! There is a D in the trumpets, actually. I'm hoping to check the published score today and confirm the exact voicing. Didn't know there was a published score until after made this video
@Keith_Horn 80s dx is not really worth that much bro. They're around. I understand that the hip-hop composers are finding new use for the 80s dx now. But check out Yamaha Reface Dx 37 key for genuine 80s fm piano sounds! Thank You for Reply 😊
His score for Polanski's "The Ninth Gate" is great too. Check out another great Pole: Krysztof Komeda. He did the early Polanski films like 'Rosemary's Baby', 'The Fearless Vampire Killers', a.o.
Great video man! When I'm listening to it with headphones it reeally sounds like a D for the basstone to me, even-though its difficult to hear. So maybe a Dsus2add4 or Em9/D? Idk..
I do not understand: if I search Apple Music for this film's score, I found two, titled obviously the same, but one has WK's name on it, the other one Anton Coppola. What does it even mean?
@ of course I find it. I was not clear. I wasn’t saying I can’t find the soundtrack. I was wondering: what is the “other” soundtrack? Track list and cover art are identical.
This is a tricky one. There’s the example of X6/9 which is like a 13 chord without the 7 and the 11 But then there’s a chord in the Hairspray guitar part which is D2/4 (notated with the 2 and 4 stacked), but upon further investigation there’s no 3 in anywhere in the conductors score which makes it a suspended chord so there’s obviously no clarity in just calling it Em2/4. So Em(add2/4) or (add9/11) is probably the best way to spell it.
Makes sense. Em2/4 is just my personal shorthand. It turns out that this chord is a full Em pandiatonic with all 7 notes of E minor. Posted a follow up video about it today
@@Keith_Horn I know... I dug my copy out this morning after seeing your video and discovered a cat had peed on my copy some time ago. Guess he doesn't like vampires :-(
@@BrettWMcCoy That's the funniest and most tragic thing i've heard all day. I just heard from Tim Rodier at Omni and he helped me spell it out correctly. Follow up video on the way!
Hello Keith. I teach orchestra and compose. I was a terror to my theory teachers in undergrad because I "broke the rules." Nonetheless, I still got A's in theory and aural skills. Cluster chords and tritones when voiced properly create wonder and awe. Selfish request, have you ever looked into video game music? I'm looking through your videos and thought I'd suggest it. A game for chord of the week: Metroid Fusion - Title Theme. 32-bit soundtrack that instills dread and fear the second the main title shows up.
I haven't done any video game scores, actually. I've been digging through everything else but I think it's time to dive into some game scores. Thanks for the suggestion. I grew up with the original Metroid for NES and it's still one of my favorite games of all time. Very cool music in that original game as well
Could it be a different scale? As in not from a Diatonic scale? More potentially a melodic/harmonic minor scales? Also it looks like for some of the pieces in the work for trance states it would be an iconic whole tone for the mysterious feels.
@@Keith_Horn You should contact some retailer for their books, it is likely they could still have some remaining copies. They can provide you a list, OMNI always was very helpful regarding this situation!
Cinema music buff here. Thank you for honoring Wojciech Kilar's score for Dracula. It contains S-tier writing. I'd go so far as saying Love remembered is the most hauntingly beautiful theme ever written for a film. Genius is not a word I use often but here it flourishes, couched with simplicity and profound emotion. His stunning vocalise for the 9th Gate also is haunting and overwhelmingly moving. Have a great week my friend.
Same to you and happy new year! Looking forward to hearing more of his work - especially his concert pieces.
@@Keith_Horn i would notate it as an min9sus that's how i saw Dr. Guy Schkoknik notate double sus chords. he calls them 9sus chords
@@Maplefoxx-vl2ew 9sus makes sense
Love Remembered is absolutely beautiful
@@pippastar1606 Yes it is
I am so impressed that you can discern the notes in that beautiful choir and orchestral cluster. I remember that film.
Thanks! I did miss a D natural though - so it's actually an Emi11
Anybody with music training can do this
@@timcardona9962 So true - with some practice and training it becomes easier over time to pick out the notes more accurately.
@@timcardona9962 That's a little disingenuous. Picking out the individual notes in a dense and layered chord isn't as easy for some as it is for others, even with musical training. But what can one expect from the youtube comment section, but arrogance.
Just rewatched this film and was so struck by the intro. The way that chord hits after the Dracula origin story is so brilliant. Thanks for unpacking this!!
That intro is so intense leading up to this chord
Unfortunately Keanu Reeves is in it.
@@vidneypopples ha!
This is one of my favourite scores. I think it deserves (or he) more recognition. Also love the 9th gate OST (I recently have the weird theory that the ninth gate main theme might have been even more fitting for Dracula). Great that you’re bringing up this score!
He is definitely underrated. I’ll give Ninth Gate a revisit
Kilar's "Dracula" soundtrack is one of the greatest of the 1990's - even though that decade was full of brilliant film music. An absolute masterpiece.
Agreed!
I bought the full score of this masterpiece last year, and at nearly 70 quid, I felt it an outrageous purchase... but it is one of my most treasured possessions. No 'Hollywood' composer could have come up with anything like this. Thanks for the video, it's bloody marvellous!
Thanks for watching! It does not sound like Hollywood, for sure!
@wigs666 If you have the full score then surely you can tell us exactly what notes are actually in this chord, no?
@@sierrabiancaI’m putting together a quick video with a reduction of the exact voicing
According to the score, the piano part alone is playing every note of an E minor scale simultaneously, A-E half notes in the bass, E-A quarter notes in the treble.
@@rldcad1 Right! The piano covers the full scale
yeahhh! Thanks so much for making this one dude! It was cool to see you have such a history with the film.
Also agree you can't all it a m11. I always tell my students that naming chords using the system we use for tertian harmony is futile when the chord isn't tertian in nature.
Well said. Not sure if "add2/4" works for everyone but it's how I remember the chord
@@Keith_Horn yeah, I don't mind add2/4, I'd know what it meant, and that's what matters. You write that, I'll play what you wanted. If you say m11, I won't.
btw - thanks for suggesting this one!
Best Dracula movie
My top 3 horror films! This was a great video. Thanks, Keith!
What are?
Thanks for watching! What are the other two films?
I'm Polish-Silesian, the region from which I think Kilar was from too. PLEASE do something about Kilar's score for "Sól Ziemi Czarnej". One of the most beautiful war film scores.
I’ll give it a listen. Thanks for the recommendation!
Oew thats a good one 😉
Thanks for the analysis, Keith. This is a great film score.
Thanks for watching!
Kilar's score for "The Ninth Gate" blew my fkn mind
So good.
o,0... did it?
I gotta go back & listen to it.
@@Randall_Kildare I think "The Motorbike" from Ninth Gate has about 8 chords of the week!
Conan the barbarian score is magical
This is true!
Basil Poledouris.. along with the mighty John Milius
Most of fantasy scores of the early to mid 80’s are orchestral masterpieces. Excalibur for example
@@davidhooper259 Oh man I haven't seen/heard that in ages!
Poledouris, like Howard; must've had the Barbarian himself, lurching over his shoulder as he wrote the score.
He never even came cloase to matching it.
Absolutely one of the best interpretations of the Dracula story ever, and with a stunning score to boot! Kilar hit it out of the park - like you, I was quick to pick up a copy, which I still have as well. The ominous bits are great, but the love themes are amazing.
They really are
This video is so amazing. Thank you for discussing a topic I thought I only liked....I bought that soundtrack just like you....I have been a fan of the story, the film, and the music from that film all my life. In fact my three favorite movies and film scores are Bram Stoker's Dracula, Interview With The Vampire, and Amadeus!! Hails!!!
thanks for watching! Goldenthal's score for Interview would be worth revisiting.
Love this score. I especially enjoy the theme “Love Remembered” which features a beautiful alto flute theme
That's a beautiful cue. I also love the song by Annie Lennox
Great analysis as always, Keith! I love this film and need to listen to the score.
Thanks, Michael!
Played on Fender Rhodes the chord sounds quite nice and chill...warm and melancholic even. I think the way the chord was orchestrated makes it sound terrifying. The way the brass and strings emphasize different notes in the chord than the choir does. This creates an abrasive 'rub' between the close semitone intervals. The dynamic is fortissimo and the choir sings with molto vibrato, creating extra drama.
True on all points
The chord sounds less terrifying on electric piano than it does with horns and double bass. With E.P. it's kind of like terrifying jazz hands
Haha true!
I listen to the soundtrack like every day on loop... Marvelous work... Of course the melodic and harmonic content is genious...
Congratulations for this video, plus I found the Keanu pun funny 😁
Thanks for teaching us this chord!
Beautiful melodic writing in this score. Thanks for watching!
@Keith_Horn Another "vampire sequence" that I notice at several "black metal" songs, is the relationship between let's say Em to Cm, or Em to Gm... How would you name/describe such kind of "macabre" progression?
@@JohnManopoulos That's a great sound! Those are mediant progressions/sequences - the cool thing is anytime you move a third from one triad to another of the same quality (minor to minor for example), there is always a common tone. Ex. Cm shares a common tone with Em, Ebm, Am, and Abm.
@@Keith_Horn Thank you sir!
YES!!! My favorite!! I listen to the soundtrack quite a lot. Greatest opening title sequence of all time
A classic!
Transitioning from a podcast to this I forgot to change my playback speed and the intro is 1000% more terrifying
HA! I bet it is.
Reminds me of Carmina Burana's opening
Absolutely!
Carmina Burana suggests the same chord and the orchestration is quite similar as well.
@@wietzejohanneskrikke1910 That opening is on my list. It would be an interesting comparison.
Adore this score! It has the dense bleak dissonance of the Polish school but also moments of dark lyrical beauty. One of the best love themes ever. I think it’s more influential than it’s given credit for these days.
Been killing it with CotW 👌
Thanks, buddy. I agree that it’s pretty influential but doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
Thanks for putting this together! That chord always fascinated me; the implications of all of Dracula's pain and rage blaring out of your speakers. It's interesting that on this keyboard setting you got, it almost has a "smoky all-night bar" ambience,, like someone who just got dumped and is there all by themselves.... maybe about to step out into the pouring rain and go home alone.
It does give that kind of vibe with the Rhodes. I like that sound because the tone is fairly pure which makes it easier to hear harmonies. Thanks for watching!
@@Keith_Horn Ooooh, it's Rhodes setting? No wonder so lovely!
Thanks for the lesson and the back story man. Great content.
Thanks for watching!
Brilliant film and score. Another would be 'Interview with a Vampire' Amazing music. Maybe cover that in the future? Thanks for this great insight on Dracula.. so good
A few people have suggested that, actually. Goldenthal is one of the greats from that era.
クラシック音楽の作曲が趣味な通りすがりの日本人です。
とても興味深い内容で今後に参考になるものでした。
大変ありがとうございました。
今年は人生において記念の年になるので何か残そうと思っていますが
これにも参考になると思います。
Thanks for watching and I hope it helps you in your musical journey!
Do you know the film composer Torshiro Mayuzumi? His score for The Bible 1966 was a favorite of mine.
@@cynthiafrank5638I do not. I’ll have a listen. Thanks for the recommendation!
Love his writing on this and also Ninth Gate! It’s a pretty basic E minor 11 chord but the instrumentation really makes it sound more crunchy and complicated than it really is. The type of minor voicings that Oliver Nelson and other jazz arrangers used throughout the early 1960’s, like on Stolen Moments from Blues and the Abstract Truth. Thanks for the great video!
I was just revisiting The Ninth Gate score yesterday - amazing! This chord is more complicated actually - I did. follow up video after seeing the score. It's very muddy in the low end. i'll give that Nelson tune a listen. Thanks!
I was re-listening to the soundtrack of this movie about a couple days ago, and I was talking to someone about who are their favorite composers. And I was talking about a few people and I remember this soundtrack was like the one that I felt so emotional and deeply connected to so this is actually really cool little piece of information.
Studying this chord prompted me to do the same. I forgot how lush and beautiful "Love Remembered" is.
One of the few film scores I actually bought many years ago. Such an excellent piece of art. ❤️
Agreed
Happy to have recognised this sound first go! Great analysis.
This chord smacks us in the face! Thanks for watching
Sounds so lofi and chill when you play it on your keyboard
It does chill it out a bit
Isn't it interesting how the color of the notes change the feel?
@@Harmonic_shift it makes them sound a bit more blue
this was a great score, but i think his work on "the 9th gate" was even better and i liked the movie alot more too
That's a popular opinion. I need to revisit 9th Gate
Love this chord. I would add that contrary to what is said, the Dracula character in Bram Stoker's novel is not a romantic / Byronic character at all. The heartbroken Dracula story arc in the movie is an invention which is absent from the book, where he is described as a purely evil and enigmatic figure. In fact, there is very little description of him at all! This movie is faithful to the novel in many other ways, but Dracula's character is not one of them.
Good info - thanks!
I agree. Stokers book came out after the Crimean war and in britain there was the beginnings of the 'anti slavic' movement. A distrust of people who would be 'too communist' for britains taste.
The book reads like a propagandists wet dream. The british characters are all larger than life 'super heroes' practically, in a way that makes american white hero myths look tame. Dracula isn't even IN the book after the midway point. He is almost literally the personification of eastern europe.
Its vampiric predecessor Carmilla was written by an irishman and the men in that story are pretty much useless. The dialogue in Dracula is almost unreadable, its the female characters talking about how great the men are for 'protecting little old me' and each of the men are teutonic heroes that are practically larger than life.
I like COMEDIES about dracula better because its so absurd. Van helsing says that of course he learned how to kill Dracula IN eastern europe. So these eastern europeans are literally too lazy to walk up the road in daylight and stick a stake through this guys heart. Either implying "they need leadership" or else they are in collusion and working WITH Dracula, which is the more likely when trying to stoke general fears of eastern europe.
Dracula is basically british propaganda and the character is the personification of eastern european 'mystery ' and violence that any empire needs to fabricate to authorize expansion.
@@mikearchibald744 lol. Interesting take! But probably on the nose given how Brits viewed the world back then.
@@mikearchibald744 Great insight - thanks for the breakdown. I didn't know Dracula was considered propaganda - or could be interpreted that way.
Hell yeah, my 40s brother still got the CD he bought back when!
I've got most of mine, and regret the few I lost or ket go ✌🏻
Cool video and great 🎥 movie
Thanks for watching!
I believe the voicing and orchestration plays just as much, if not more, of an impact on the listener than the chord structure. Thank you for the analysis.
You’re so right. I did a follow up video showing what each section of the orchestra is playing
@Keith_Horn Great follow up video.
Brilliant.🐲
This movie is so great that even Keanu Reeves still acting like Bill and Ted’s couldn’t ruin it. If anything, it actually worked for it.
Ha!
Amazing presentation. Learned a lot from it. 👏👏
Thank you! The follow up video has the complete chord voicing
Love the film. Have the soundtrack. The movie released Friday, the 13th of November, 1992. Intentional? Perhaps. I love that it extended the Halloween aura well into the following month. It was the first time for me to see this as a love story. Thank You for this additional background.
Friday the 13th? I did not know that - thanks for that
Two years later, Interview with the Vampire released Friday, November 11th, 1994. Again extending the Halloween vibe. (could be so there's no other seasonal competition).
@@robertmccoy9901 I didn't know they were that close together!
"I shall rise from my own death to avenge hers with all the powers of darkness... The blood is the life, and it shall be mine!"
That scene with that score gives me chills every time.
it's so intense
I JUST watched this movie for the first time two days ago and then this video pops up - HELL YEAH that's awesome! Happy 2025!
Happy new year!
Terror in a tuxedo. Classy AND scary. And Dracula was exactly that!
"Terror in a tuxedo" - nice
The first second I heard that chord I thought to myself “Em11” . Glad to know I was close!
A very evil Em11!
The La-La Land double disc re-release of this score is pretty intriguing with all the different variations of themes it's going on.
Very warmly recommended.
I wish I could find it but it's out of print now
That's an incredible score. I only saw the film for the first time recently and was struck by the score, I even made sure to buy a physical copy! Interesting note on the tetrachord, coming from guitar these are not talked about, so I tried to figure out a few they are quite the challenge due to limitations. My guitar adaptation for the chord is: 075975, which unfortunately has the G an octave lower. 074055 also gets all the notes but this inversion compromises some of the magic. I can't say I've seen that chord before, it was fun trying to figure them out on guitar. Happy New Year! // Edit, another one: 0x4055, much easier to play.
Happy New Year to you as well! I'm a guitarist, too, and it is fun to try these chords out on the fretboard. Cluster voicings like this are pretty tricky, though.
That is clearly a starting chord for a beautiful love song!!
HA! Well played
Great video! And a great new finding for me (your videos)! Happy new year!
Thank you! Same to you!
Can you hear each note of the chord by ear? That's incredible-what an impressive skill if you're doing it that way!
I didn't quite get every note by ear. I missed a couple notes in the low end. I had a peek at the score after I posted this and did a follow up video with the full chord voicing.
My favourite part of the week!!!
Haha thanks!
Kilar is an asbolute goat, he did not only composed film scores but classical orchestral and ensamble music too. Check out "Orawa" which is probably the most famous piece, or any of 2 piano concertos he wrote. He only died in 2012 which means i could have pontenially perform his music with him being in the audience.
I'll give those a listen - thanks!
I’ve bought the soundtrack for several movies. I really like the music for Meet Joe Black. Makes the movie glorious. ✨
Thomas Newman - one of my favorite film composers. That's a very good score.
This is chord from polish modern symphonic school.Kilar,Gorecki , Lutosławski
Another fascinating thing about the score is that the film heavily edited the music and was released in the same way on the original album, much to Wojciech Kilar's disappointment (he was even mad at himself for not producing the album - he always believed that the director is free to do whatever he deems necessary in the film, but as for albums and concerts, it was a different story). However, in 2018 the extended edition of the soundtrack was released and many of the pieces exist there in the way they were originally written (including different unused versions). It's very different from the 1992 album and I prefer the 2018 edition because not only it shows you the original pieces and the composer's intention, but also you can see the structure in the score (e.g. the relations between the themes). Another fun fact is that Kilar had a heart attack after his arrival to the US, but Coppola was so adamant that he wanted him to do the score that he waited until his recovery.
Great info! I'll look for the 2018 OST release.
@@wojtekwieczorek6397 this is great information! Thanks!
@@Keith_Horn There's a beautiful, discarded theme on the 2018 release (the only leftover in the final film was in the scene where Mina kisses Jonathan before his journey to Transylvania). The liner notes don't really say what it was supposed to represent, and it seems that the people working on the extended album had some trouble with making sense of where many of the cues were supposed to be in the working prints of the film, it seems like nobody kept the record. I think it's a theme for Mina, her own opposite to the love theme. It's a beautiful waltz, and Kilar was pretty much an expert in writing waltzes for Polish films, check out the one from Tredowata or Ziemia Obiecana - Coppola was even playing the latter one on his hi-fi set when they met for dinner to discuss the project. Kilar even once jokingly said that his favorite thing in writing for films was that he could get away with writing very melodic waltzes (as opposed to avant-garde concert music). Another interesting piece of trivia is that the producers were very surprised that he orchestrated himself, and Kilar was very surprised that Hollywood composers don't orchestrate their own music. When he was told that they had to put somebody's name in the proper file to pay for the orchestration, he replied that he composed the music on the piano and later did the orchestration, so they should put it in his name.
@@wojtekwieczorek6397 More great insight - thank you! Is that cue available to stream anywhere? The 2018 release is sold out
@@Keith_Horn It seems that somebody uploaded the entire score on TH-cam. The theme I mentioned appeared in "Rules cafe waltz", try looking for that one. If you have any trouble, I can DM you the link to the proper channel. You can find the alternative version of the prologue (there were two on the 2018 album - not sure if both were included on the channel) or the original, uncut version of the Storm. Fun fact: I sang that piece with the choir at the music academy where I study. The parts seemed easy at first, but very quickly I realized they required a great stamina. Also: there were so many tritones in such a high register that our conductor decided to simplify the parts a bit to let our throats rest.
Discerning that chord from the layers of the orchestra and the chorus...fantastic work. If you haven't updated your copy of the score to the extended release, it's worth the investment.
Thanks! I tried to get it yesterday but it's sold out because of the limited release
@@Keith_Horn I posted a link twice, but TH-cam took it down. Try DiscogsQ
Ok, so I am fairly new to reading music on a staff, but I figured out the treble clef (at least, I think) before I looked at your keyboard; I got E, F#, G, A, and those little C1, C2, etc., those must be the octaves on the piano? The one thing I didn't get correct, probably because I have never played piano and don't know anything about the bass clef, were those bass notes: if it was the same as the treble clef, I had C and G, but according to the keyboard, it's E and B? Would anybody mind explaining why that is? Does the bass clef just start out lower, or is that because I need to transpose the notes? Yes, I could Google this, but I would rather have a musician explain it if possible, thanks for any insight! Great chord, and great film, by the way
Yes C1 is the lowest C on the piano and C4 is middle C. I'm actually not sure how to explain WHY the bass clef is that way. You could argue that it would be more intuitive to just have another treble clef with "8vb" (octave below) next to it. I grew up playing saxophone so I first learned treble clef. Only when I started playing marimba in high school did I learn bass clef and I never wondered why it seemed "transposed". Maybe someone who learned a bass clef instrument could give a good answer. I know the history of the grand staff (treble and bass clefs bracketed together) is rooted in the history of vocal music that preceded instrumental music. But I don't know the details of that history offhand.
@Keith_Horn OK, thanks; a friend of mine has played violin for 65 years, I will ask him, he will likely know just because he hates transposition, lol! Thanks for getting back to me!
Your "don't listen in the dark" warning made me smile. Took me back to being a teenage music geek in the 70s, which necessarily meant I owned the LP of Tomita's Firebird Suite. At some point I thought, this would be awesome if I turned out the lights, lay on my bed, and just listened.
TLDR: No. No it was not.
Unlike Kilar's Dracula score, Tomita's synthesiser (room-filling space-age tech in those days) re-scoring of Stravinsky wasn't exactly terrifying. At least not at first. It was just creepy, and gradually but steadily became more creepy as you listened on, minute after minute, until your mind just exploded with a nameless, undefinable panic.
Good times.
Anyone who doubts can easily repeat the experiment in the questionable safety of your own home.
Thanks for the analysis! I join others here in their envy of your relaxed mastery of music theory.
That’s an incredible arrangement! Especially for the times. Didn’t he also do The Rite of Spring?
@@Keith_Horn I don't remember that one, but he did release a full portfolio of classical and avant garde pieces. Tomita was an incredible pioneer, especially when you figure that the technology of the day required actually re-wiring a wall of computers differently to get each effect. He was literally inventing sounds as he went.
@@RobMacKendrick It was so difficult back then to pull off what he did
@@Keith_Horn Extremely, yes.
Great mention of the Polish composers. Penderecki's Polymorphia is perhaps the greatest piece of music/sound ever written - in my opinion of course
That's a good one for me to revisit
If my music memory, from when I learnt Music notation decades ago, serves me well, you can't have a 9th, 11th, etc chords without a 7th in the chord, thus defiantly not a 9th or 11th chord.
Agreed. Calling it an Emi add9 add 11 or Emi2/4 makes more sense. Although it turns out this chord has all 7 notes of Eminor in the power register which makes it an Emi pandiatonic. I posted a follow up video
The Keanu Reeves bit done me! 😂😂😂😂😂😂
We like to have fun over here. He makes an appearance in the follow up video, too!
Excellent!!!
Many thanks!
I used some of this for an audition to get into Humber College music course , it’s brilliant!
Humber! I spent two weeks there for a summer guitar camp when I was 17!
@ nice! I’m guessing that was on the lakeshore campus? I was there when it was still at the North Campus back in the early nineties lol
@@harrybardos1283 It must have been the North Campus because it was 1993. I had a class with Mick Goodrick which was over my head at the time. I didn't realize how big a deal he was until years later.
@ I was there at the same time! 🤘🏼 yes he is awesome. Also I’m new to your channel but I’m so looking forward to deep dive on your channel!
2:26 those 3 notes (G-F#-A) played in that order is the Game of Thrones score for Milasandre the Red Priestess. I heard that and replayed it several times racking my brain as to why it sounds so familiar.
"Brown eyes, green eyes, and blue eyes. Eyes that you'll close forever".
Good catch!
Quickest way to find it is by typing in "The Lord of Light" theme, and it actually plays an additional note after those 3. But the slow way you played it is almost the same, easily missed if you played it faster.@@Keith_Horn
This score rules! Top ten, easily.
It’s pretty dang awesome
Cat said “Mu” ! Add 2 ( or 9 ) chord. Love them ! Just discovered you, liked and subscribed.
You're the first one to notice that!
@ thank you, that makes me proud !
I like it has both of the suspended tensions in it. The 2 or 9 is longing, reaching up and the 4 or 11 is more defiant and has to fall down to resolve.
I like that, too.
There's a D in that cluster too, which makes it an Em11.
Yes there is - I heard it yesterday. That makes it a full Em11
@@Keith_Horn Despite this, due to the way the notes are arranged, I wouldn’t classify it as an Em11 chord. Analyzing chords truly makes sense only when connected to the "harmonic function" they serve in the overall context. In this case, I would simply classify it as a cluster formed by that particular combination of notes.
@@gaburincho I think you're right - classify is a good word for these kinds of chords
after this video and how you described the chord I think itd be intersting to see a video that shows chords that reflect emotions...angry chord, happy chord, sad chord, etc..
That would be very interesting. I wonder if people would agree on the emotional effects of harmony or if it would be more subjective.
@Keith_Horn not sure i play guitar a little but i dont know music or theory but have heard chords called happy (major), sad (minor)..and had thought about movies being better when they were scored vs just playing artist recorded songs, the scores set the mood, make you anticipate thing, make you feel scared, sad etc..
@@Myrrhkuri Yes a good film score will tell you how to feel from moment to moment
There's a D natural in that chord right in the middle of the voicing that's pretty difficult to miss.
Yes there is a D down in the piano low end. My follow up video shows the full chord
Wow I learned something about the scale, d...something! lol Thank you so much
😂
Skip to 2:15 for the chord.
This movie absolutely rocks
A classic from the 90s
Nice one! Would love to hear your thoughts on the chord's orchestration. It feels particularly significant here.
Great point - I think the choir is the terror agent in this one. And the trumpets in a cluster above the staff is pretty gnarly and unusual.
It's my favorite film ever
Definitely an iconic film
Second soundtrack I every bought, still my favorite.
Classic 90s score
I may be crazy and I'm just listening to the chord on your youtube video not on a .wav file but I feel it's almost as if there's a very low D in there, or like the rumble and resonance of the percussion creates the illusion of a very low D. Somehow the root in the bass feels too stable when I play it on my piano compared to the timbre of the orchestra + choir. I don't know.. Interesting stuff! Cool video and fantastic movie, thanks!
Thanks! There is a D in the trumpets, actually. I'm hoping to check the published score today and confirm the exact voicing. Didn't know there was a published score until after made this video
It and The Beavis and Butthead Experience were my first CDs. Got both for Christmas.
So many scary movie themes done with f m synth sound! Still have my 80s yamaha fm dx👍
That thing is worth a lot now I bet
@Keith_Horn 80s dx is not really worth that much bro. They're around. I understand that the hip-hop composers are finding new use for the 80s dx now. But check out Yamaha Reface Dx 37 key for genuine 80s fm piano sounds! Thank You for Reply 😊
I felt there was a 9th in there, glad there was! Also surprised there isn't any flat 2 or flat 5, wow.
As dissonant as it sounds, I’m surprised how consonant it actually is
His score for Polanski's "The Ninth Gate" is great too. Check out another great Pole: Krysztof Komeda. He did the early Polanski films like 'Rosemary's Baby', 'The Fearless Vampire Killers', a.o.
I'll check those out!
Love Remembered from the Dracula soundtrack is another gem! Anyone got the music charts for it? Tks ....hehehehe🌞🌞❤️🌹
That is a gem. The full score is published but hard to find
@Keith_Horn awww man.....hey tk u so much for all you doing👍‼️learnt so much from u sir👍🎹🙏‼️
@@journeyman1302 Thanks so much for watching!
Kilar is my favorite...
I'm diving deeper into his catalogue now. Listening to Orawa today
Ishioka and Kilar are de foundations of the film
Great video man!
When I'm listening to it with headphones it reeally sounds like a D for the basstone to me, even-though its difficult to hear. So maybe a Dsus2add4 or Em9/D? Idk..
Thanks! The written score has E as the lowest note but it's really hard to hear it on the recording
Cool chord. I'm gonna rewatch it!
It is a cool chord
I’m definitely hearing a D.
It’s just an Em11
Yep it’s in there
i love how the tonality of a wurli (or rhodes) will make even the most disgusting chords sound jazzy
It does do that for sure. I like the Rhodes over a piano because the sustain is longer and the tone is more pure.
I do not understand: if I search Apple Music for this film's score, I found two, titled obviously the same, but one has WK's name on it, the other one Anton Coppola. What does it even mean?
Try "Dracula Kilar"
@ of course I find it. I was not clear. I wasn’t saying I can’t find the soundtrack. I was wondering: what is the “other” soundtrack? Track list and cover art are identical.
@@marco_movie Oh I see. Apparently, Coppola's father was a conductor - maybe he conducted the score?
This is a tricky one.
There’s the example of X6/9 which is like a 13 chord without the 7 and the 11
But then there’s a chord in the Hairspray guitar part which is D2/4 (notated with the 2 and 4 stacked), but upon further investigation there’s no 3 in anywhere in the conductors score which makes it a suspended chord so there’s obviously no clarity in just calling it Em2/4.
So Em(add2/4) or (add9/11) is probably the best way to spell it.
Makes sense. Em2/4 is just my personal shorthand. It turns out that this chord is a full Em pandiatonic with all 7 notes of E minor. Posted a follow up video about it today
@ cool!
Just watched the follow up. Em11(addb13) I guess
@@kevycanavan Apparently!
It's surprisingly happy. I first heard it as a weird voicing of Cmaj13#11/E with too many doubled thirds, but after looking at it, there's no C nor D
I just realized that there is a D - it's buried though
One of my favorite films and favorite film scores! Do you have the full score published by Omni publishing?
No I don't and it's currently sold out.
@@Keith_Horn I know... I dug my copy out this morning after seeing your video and discovered a cat had peed on my copy some time ago. Guess he doesn't like vampires :-(
@@BrettWMcCoy That's the funniest and most tragic thing i've heard all day. I just heard from Tim Rodier at Omni and he helped me spell it out correctly. Follow up video on the way!
@@Keith_Horn Sweet!!!
Hello Keith. I teach orchestra and compose. I was a terror to my theory teachers in undergrad because I "broke the rules." Nonetheless, I still got A's in theory and aural skills. Cluster chords and tritones when voiced properly create wonder and awe. Selfish request, have you ever looked into video game music? I'm looking through your videos and thought I'd suggest it. A game for chord of the week: Metroid Fusion - Title Theme. 32-bit soundtrack that instills dread and fear the second the main title shows up.
I haven't done any video game scores, actually. I've been digging through everything else but I think it's time to dive into some game scores. Thanks for the suggestion. I grew up with the original Metroid for NES and it's still one of my favorite games of all time. Very cool music in that original game as well
It remind the sound of Gyorgy Ligeti first chord of 10 pièces for wind quintet .
Woah! Just heard that chord for the first time and it's going on the list. Thanks for that!
Zappa used same idea on Sad Jane , first movement i think
@@SamyDaussat I'm a big Zappa fan - haven't heard the LSO record in a while. Thanks for connecting that!
Video starts at 2:13
It’s a five minute video.
@@JonMurray that couldve trimmed to 3 :)
Could it be a different scale? As in not from a Diatonic scale? More potentially a melodic/harmonic minor scales? Also it looks like for some of the pieces in the work for trance states it would be an iconic whole tone for the mysterious feels.
@@Harmonic_shift turns out it’s a complete Emi scale - pandiatonic. I posted a follow up video with the full chord voicing
@@Keith_Horn Very cool, that's a term I had never heard before. Once knowing that it makes a lot of sense.
Appreciate your analysis!
Thanks!
0:41 is that Nosferatu?
That's Kilar - they do have similar hairstyles, though
what kind of Piano do you use to play the examples? somehow it sounds great.....
Thanks! It's a Rhodes patch from Keyscape
This score is available in FULL ORCHESTRA by OMNI MUSIC PUBLISHINGS.......
Yes it is but sadly they are currently sold out. Maybe they will print another edition soon.
@@Keith_Horn You should contact some retailer for their books, it is likely they could still have some remaining copies.
They can provide you a list, OMNI always was very helpful regarding this situation!
@@nicolashrvgood idea!
Great choice !
How about some Leonard Rosenman chords ?
Good idea - Star Trek IV, maybe?
I have just bought the CD of Star trek 4
His soundtracks usually have atonal chords all over the place @@Keith_Horn
@@guillaumechabason3165 I'll give it another listen myself