Lost Issue Wednesday: Dragonslayer Score Analysis

The production logo fades...and out of the darkness comes the title card, heralded by an ominous low brass statement. After shrilling woodwinds give an unsettling rebuttal, swirling strings quietly take up the grim theme as the credits dissolve into a procession of villagers journeying towards an unknown destination. This opening music is filled with harsh polytonal sonorities and strange orchestral textures. Amidst the density of the cue, one can also strain to hear an emphasis on parallel fourths and fifths, betraying the story's medieval setting. This is the world of Alex North's Dragonslayer!

In 1981, Disney and Paramount released the Matthew Robbins film which chronicles the journey of a sorcerer's apprentice who takes the task upon himself, after the death of his master Ulrich, to rid Urland village of an aged dragon, Vermithrax Pejorative (whose anger is only appeased by semi-annual virginal sacrifices). At the time of its release, the film boasted impressive visual effects (they still look great) combining stop-motion animation with scale models of the dragon's head, a technique that was employed years later for Jurassic Park. Alas, Dragonslayer was not able to put up the box office that Jurassic Park did, partly because it was in direct competition with another Spielberg film, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The film's failure to attract a widespread audience cannot be solely attributed to box office competition. In truth, the style of the film is quite British in tone and texture. It unfolds at a leisurely pace in an attempt to properly acquaint the audience with the primary characters. The acting style also deviates from the Hollywood school in that it isn't as affected but rather understated, in keeping with the overall mood of the story. Then there's the dark and dreary general setting, plus the fact that the narrative avoids cliched potholes. Dragonslayer is a skeptical, grim film in which characters aren't merely archetypal.

For such a film, the musical underscore would not only have to be appropriate but essential. It too would have to encompass the complex character interactions; the mood of the time period; and the power of the film's chief antagonist -- and accomplish these with subtle compositional techniques. The obvious choice for composer was Alex North, who had a fine reputation for his innovative scoring tendencies (both he and Leonard Rosenman are cited as chief proponents of introducing 20th century modernist styles into the Hollywood film scoring idiom).

North's compositional style, like that of the ever-popular Jerry Goldsmith, deals primarily with the building of separate lines, phrases or motifs on top of each other, thus creating harmony more through counterpoint than through traditional harmonic progressions (a technique sometimes labeled "polyphonic" writing). The more common style (and one that is today in use more than ever) is the more simplistic "homophonic" writing that traditionally relies on melody and accompaniment (one theme supported by chords). The difference between the two methods is important to note since the latter makes for easier identification of key themes. North's preference for heavy counterpoint was complemented by his flagrant disregard for keeping the individual lines in a related key center, thus creating more ambiguity in his music. This approach lends itself perfectly to Dragonslayer.

The result of North's stylistic tendencies makes an indelible impression. In a way it's strange that the musical style chosen would be this complex and emotionally inaccessible for what is ostensibly a kid's film. It's more understandable why Goldsmith would score Alien with a heavily dissonant style since the film contains jarring, violent sequences that call for such settings. However, if one looks at something like The Secret of N.I.M.H, the musical influences are more tonally based, more along the lines of Debussy or Ravel than Bartok or Stravinsky. Even John Williams' music for the Star Wars trilogy has a strong accessibility in that all of the main themes are based in key centers. Sure, Williams modulates during the course of the piece, but he always returns to the home key in conclusion (at least during the theme tracks on the albums). North once said that he always looked for a way of emotionally connecting with a film before scoring it, but he found Dragonslayer difficult to deal with in this way. Thus, Dragonslayer's themes are largely cerebral incarnations of the composer's impressions of the story, resulting in a harmonically complex and rhythmically asymmetrical score.

The most prominent and aesthetically displeasing theme in the score represents Vermithrax the dragon (it's heard right at the opening of the film). French horns present a jagged four-note motif comprised of the notes A-flat, G, B and B-flat. From the start, North injects a large amount of chromaticism. The horns remain on the B-flat (mid-register) and are soon joined by Wagner tubas and lower strings, voicing a shifting low-end cluster (with so many overtones that the key is imperceptible). Piccolos and clarinets (playing in their extreme upper registers) complement the density of the brass and strings with a chromatic cell of their own. North then gets close to tonality with a flat VI chord in brass, but he doesn't remain on it long enough to give the listener any sense of key signature. The effectiveness of the dragon's theme is two-fold. The orchestration calls for two extremes: the lower brass emphasizing the dragon's ominous prowess, and the shrilling woodwinds underscoring its malevolence toward humans. The musical content of the theme, with its harmonic ambiguities, also helps achieve an "alien" effect. Rhythmically, the theme is unstable, with a near-eradication of strong and weak beats (e.g., strong beats or "down"beats in a 4/4 bar would be beats 1 and 3). The lack of discernible meter and tempo makes it harder for the audience to identify with the dragon (as intended).

The "Urlander (villagers)" theme is more plaintive in nature. There's an identifiable melodic line and rhythmic delineation. The audience should feel for the villagers (who are desperate to keep their daughters alive). However, despite leaning more on tonality, North doesn't stray from the film's bleak tone or setting, building this melody on intervals of fourths and fifths (popular during the middle ages). The theme begins on C, moves to the dominant G, up a semi-tone to A-flat, and finally down a fifth to D-flat. From there it moves onward in a series of perfect fourths, from C to F to B-flat. North uses modality for the Urlanders in order to evoke both their suffering and the dank surroundings they live in. Their theme is introduced right after Vermithrax's (in the opening credit sequence), accompanying the villagers journey at the onset of the film. It's voiced by strings, providing an interesting textural contrast to the preceding harsh sonorities for the dragon. North also uses fragments of the Urlander theme later in the film, such as during the sequence where Galen the apprentice is searching around the beast's lair (even when it's a quick xylophone statement as in this case).

The "magic" motif is even more rhythmically simplified than the Urlander theme (which still doesn't adhere to the downbeat theory mentioned earlier). It's in duple meter and involves a four-note descending figure (D, A, C-sharp, G-sharp), again emphasizing fourths. However, because of the chromatic relationship between the two sets of descending figures and the fact that the G-sharp leads to D (a tritone inversion), it lends a bizarre and eerie sound to the theme (which is then ascribed to a "mystical" connotation). This motif is subtly introduced in the opening scene where Ulrich (the sorcerer from whom the villagers seek help, but who perishes before embarking on his journey) is performing spells. It is most prominently restated later in the film when a lottery is called for an upcoming virginal sacrifice. This is the only clear example of North employing a repeated phrase to build upon with other instruments and lines -- the layering adds a terrific sense of tension. The inventive orchestration is again paramount, with woodwinds playing quarter tones that add a "moaning" sound that underlines the young womens' anxiety...

Check back next week for the conclusion of this analysis...

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com