ALIEN 3 - growling menace and cataclysmic crescendos with the only respite coming from the boys choir that seems to give voice to hopelessness and despair. I also found playing it would remove unwanted relatives from the house.
When I think of HP Lovecraft, I thinking of massive creatures lurking in the depths of giant chasms of mountain or ocean. So something large, deep and bassy:
Aliens, 4:12 into the song:
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver game soundtrack:
Silent Hill:
Something that suggests a larger, deeper, supernatural force at work.
One more - Schnittke's Concerto Grosso #1. Creepy and with a harpsichord no less!
Since he was a film composer as well, not too surprising that his absolute music has the same kind of direct gestures as film music. If you can stand it, hang on until (or just forward to) around 18:55 for the apotheosis of the Whately family.
Sean, I really liked the Artyomov piece you directed us to, but this one from Schnittke was my favourite. Yes, it could fit one of Lovecraft's "something nasty in the family barn" stories. I actually had no problem listening to it all, in fact it was riveting from start to finish, although possibly the part you mention (the Rondo) is the bit that will please "everyone". I know that he touches on Vivaldi and many other composers throughout - with a nudge and a wink - but, for all you film music fans out there, I think the Rondo has its roots in the very same Bach piece(s) which Goldsmith jazzed up for the demented chases towards the climax of THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BELL.
I was reading the hundreds of comments about the Schnittke Concerto on YouTube as I listened. YouTube is more of a cesspool than even the FSM Board! I imagine that if people are going to even click on a Schnittke link, then they have at least got some kind of broad musical interest, but the comments are full of stuff like, "Is this music?", "WTF was that?", "That was complete shit", "Sounds like a children's orchestra rehearsal", "I'd much rather listen to music with notes that make sense", "Real composers such as Bach and Vivaldi could write tunes, not like this shit", and "Seems like today you can just make any noise and people call it music".
Not a film score, but the concert work "Angels and Visitations" by Einojuhani Rautavaara, to me, could work as background score for Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness."
Thanks for bringing attention to this piece. I'd not heard it before but just listened and love it!
Not a film score, but the concert work "Angels and Visitations" by Einojuhani Rautavaara, to me, could work as background score for Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness."
Thanks for bringing attention to this piece. I'd not heard it before but just listened and love it!
You're welcome!
I love Cantus Articus and actually pretty much everything I've heard from Rautavaara.
Certain parts of Bob Cobert's DARK SHADOWS music have that creepy vibe, while others may be a bit too "on the nose". And then there is THE DUNWICH HORROR, not all of which is great, but parts are very good.
I'm thinking of a Ralph Vaughn Williams score I think it's called Sinfonia Antarctica. It's grand and imposing and chilling in parts. The Opening few minutes in particular where it hits a crescendo is amazing.
I'm thinking of a Ralph Vaughn Williams score I think it's called Sinfonia Antarctica. It's grand and imposing and chilling in parts. The Opening few minutes in particular where it hits a crescendo is amazing.
Yeah, Wanderer. Sinfonia Antarctica/ SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC always made me think of specifically "At the Mountains of Madness". It's the vastness and chilliness of it all. I'd also add Humphrey Searle's magnificent score for THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN. Again, more specifically the HPL "Mountains" story rather than the wider HPL universe.
I always think about Lovecraft when I listen those suites from Goldsmith "Thriller" - "The Grim Reaper", "The Poisoner", and especially "The Weird Tailor".
Did anyone ever read the screenplay for the At the Mountains of Madness Del Toro film? I really thought it was rather good, though the wraparound sequence basically told you who lived and died which took a lot of suspense out of absolutely everything. It was like The Thing x100. But had some sequences i thought could be visually stunning and haunting. One just involving giant weird luminous penguins on the icy land viewed by scientists from a passing ship. Del Toro said he could make it as a PG13 which is utterly bizarre as you really couldn't and shouldn't.
Ligeti's Atmospheres and music that sounds like that evokes Lovecraftian foreboding, for me. Maybe there's some Philip Glass that would fit too, i just can't think of what just now. But i think organ music and also a mix of alien synths and experimental orchestra would lend itself to the tone of his work.
Did anyone ever read the screenplay for the At the Mountains of Madness Del Toro film? I really thought it was rather good, though the wraparound sequence basically told you who lived and died which took a lot of suspense out of absolutely everything. It was like The Thing x100. But had some sequences i thought could be visually stunning and haunting. One just involving giant weird luminous penguins on the icy land viewed by scientists from a passing ship. Del Toro said he could make it as a PG13 which is utterly bizarre as you really couldn't and shouldn't.
I never saw the screenplay, Wanderer, but the idea of the sight of the giant weird luminous penguins could be strikingly bizarre and effective, or utterly ridiculous. Ever since I heard about the prospect of making the film, I had some serious doubts about how Lovecraft could be rendered visually effective. I basically think he's unfilmable, which is why none of the films based on his stories have worked at all. Some of then have been quite effective little horror movies, but none of them came close to capturing the spirit of Lovecraft's unique universe.
I know that a lot of people think that today, with technology as it is, you can create virtually anything. But that's not the problem. The problem is exactly how do you design the look of something which is so much in the reader's imagination? I'd hate to see a Lovecraft adaptation which looks like a 10 billion dollar CGI Dungeons and Dragons.
Come to think of it, I believe that the most effective Lovecraft adaptations have been done by the H.P. Lovecraft Society. Very small budgets, sometimes just using crude animation, but I think they get to the essence of the author better than anything else has done up to now, or will do in the future..
I like the atmosphere of the Darabont adaptation of Stephen King's THE MIST. The half glimpsed shadows or sections of the stomping beasts, amongst the mist, are very effective and capture the spirit of old HP quite well. To be able to do what Graham describes on film, this would be the way to go. Like the early parts of the original ALIEN film, only show glimpses and fragments of the monsters and beasts and let the audience use their imaginations. Although I don't really like the Isham score, it is effective in scoring the scenes and atmosphere of the film.
Agreed on the "glimpses only" approach, Kev - but would any director (or rather, producer) today be able to resist putting in a fifteen-minute action scene of billions of ten-foot tall mutant penguins battling it out in glorious CGI "WTF's going on now?" crappovision?
....I'd also add Humphrey Searle's magnificent score for THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN. Again, more specifically the HPL "Mountains" story rather than the wider HPL universe.
I was thinking of adding some Searle recommendations to this thread, Graham - and this is the score that got me interested in him (more than The Haunting, funnily enough, though I love it too). {And of course you got through all the Schnittke - given your love of Basil K, it's a walk in the park!}
I'm going to keep to concert music call outs, leave scores to others. Here's a good 'un.
We'll see where this one goes. I'm not looking for scores that necessarily come from films based upon the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Just scores that feel like they fit the horrifying, universe-sundering world he wrote about.
Scores that are eerie, foreboding, apocalyptically dark, perhaps alien or mystical, perhaps conveying a sense of the old world or of ancient times or of another world entirely.
Because your quest for eerie, apocalyptic, other-worldly, etc. music scores expands beyond film scores derived from Lovecraft material, this thread can enter (rather easily) into the realm of abstract composition. Most of my 'classical' music collection consists of 20th-century concert music of the 'contemporary' or 'modern' variety. Herein, not only can one find a surfeit of eerie/mystical/other-worldly works but also some composers whose entire oeuvre communicates idiosyncratic compositions that sound as though emanating from other dimensions. Consider the output of Iannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman or Friedrich Cerha, to cite only a mere few.
… whose title, I understand, translates into ‘book of wondrous monsters’.
Considering that Toru Takemitsu composed concert works as well as film scores, he & his unique sound world might bear exploration in this regard.
Some (non-horror/non-sci-fi) soundtrack examples include Danton by Jean Prodromides, L’Imprecateur by Richard Rodney Bennett plus Piero Piccioni’s Il Demonio.
Agreed on the "glimpses only" approach, Kev - but would any director (or rather, producer) today be able to resist putting in a fifteen-minute action scene of billions of ten-foot tall mutant penguins battling it out in glorious CGI "WTF's going on now?" crappovision?
Del Toro's script had loads of CGI needed. At one stage I think there's is like almost a wave of transforming weirdness and people bearing down on some guy.
I really liked the production if The Terror. It's weakest part was the CGI mônster. It was great at atmosphere and impending doom though and even though some of the sets looked a bit fake it did well enough not to break the illusion but also gave cast expanses a claustrophobic feel. The music was very good in that regard too. They'd be a decent bet for a smart TV adaption.
Evry recorded and available symphony of Gloria Coats fits the vision of cosmic Horror with al the loops and glissandi. The fear of unknown strange dimensions could not better come to life by the dark music of Krystof Penderezcki´s Kosmogoria.
....I'd also add Humphrey Searle's magnificent score for THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN. Again, more specifically the HPL "Mountains" story rather than the wider HPL universe.
I was thinking of adding some Searle recommendations to this thread, Graham - and this is the score that got me interested in him (more than The Haunting, funnily enough, though I love it too). {And of course you got through all the Schnittke - given your love of Basil K, it's a walk in the park!}
I'm going to keep to concert music call outs, leave scores to others. Here's a good 'un.
Searle Night Music
Nice piece. Reminds me of Bartok's harmonic scheme with its shifting key centre and chromatic lines. I'm also a big fan of Searle's Abominable Snowman music too. Great stuff
