# Advice for Bela Lugosi music



## Editor (Mar 20, 2010)

Hi there! I know nothing about classical music, and I could use some advice for a project I plan to work on:

I would like to create a "fan-edit" of Bela Lugosi's _Dracula_. A fan-edit is where you re-edit a film you either love or hate, in order to put a different twist on the story. A good example would be editing the _Lord of the Rings_ Trilogy to match the chronology of the books, or simply cutting out all Jar Jar Binks scenes from the_ Star Wars_ movies.

I have watched Lugosi play Dracula in the 1931 horror film many times, and I was curious if I could make a _Dracula _with a musical score since _Dracula _had no music. I'm not sure if I can accomplish this, but I'm willing to sift through scores to see what works.

If there is anyone who can direct me to appropriate composers or individual works that would be very helpful. I would prefer to add some authenticity to _Dracula _by using Transylvanian/Romanian music, but what I have found so far is mostly upbeat folk music which is inappropriate for 90% of the movie. But I really want whatever works best, if it is Mozart's _Requiem_, that would be great!

If you need inspiration, check out the movie here:


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## sistergrimm (Mar 20, 2010)

Philip Glass composed a new score for _Dracula_ performed by the Kronos Quartet in 1999, but fans of the film (and not of Mr. Glass' minimalist style) were on the fence about its effectiveness as a score. So far as conveying the dark power and strength of the vampire, I've always thought Cesar Frank's work for organ "*Piece Heroique*" could effectively augment much of the film, as it includes an idyllic little passage for the heroine and beau and a transcendant conclusion when Good conquers Evil.

(I signed up just to respond to your query and follow this thread -- I, too, am woefully undereducated about classical music, but just had to put my 2 cents worth in about this)

Good luck, and as a longtime fan of the film, consider leaving "Swan Lake" for the opening title -- it just doesn't seem like _Dracula_ without it.


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

Richard Wagner's music was used very effectively in the Werner Herzog remake of Nosferatu. This scene shows Jonathan Harker arriving at Nosferatu's castle. The first two minutes is music written for the soundtrack by Popol Vuh; then it changes to Wagner's Das Rheingold prelude:

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*


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## sistergrimm (Mar 20, 2010)

Sorry -- the composer of "Piece Heroique" was Cesar Franck -- there's a nice performance of it by Marcel Dupre on YouTube at:


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

What an interesting project. Plus, I love the film Dracula!

I will think about this...


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Bauhaus

or

Bartok


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Bartok is an excellent choice for "horror music." What Bartok piece was it that Los Angeles horror host (and star of Plan 9 from Outer Space [which also had Bela Lugosi]) Vampira used as the intro to her show...?

Maybe for the scene in Dracula toward the beginning of the film where Dracula and his wives rise from their coffins to meet Dwight Frye's Renfield you could use the opening bars from Sibelius's Pohjola's Daughter.


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