For this soundtrack spotlight in celebration of women in horror month I would like to take a listen to the 1965 anthology horror ‘Dr Terror’s house of horror’ composed by the ‘Horror Queen’ Elisabeth Lutyens.
Lutyens was a well-established classical composer, working on chamber music, orchestral scores, choral pieces and operas, with a musical leaning to the avant-garde. Lutyens was not only a pioneer amongst female composers, but a pioneer in bringing the twelve-tone serial technique to Britain. This technique lends itself perfectly to horror soundtracks with its discordant, a-tonal textures, which Lutyens was more than capable of exploiting.
The opening scene of Dr Terror’s house of horror starts with a cacophonous burst of instrumentation, immediately putting the audience on edge for what is to come. This then changes to a minimalist single instrumental melody sparsely set to the introductory conversation.
For the first story in this anthology horror, titled ‘Werewolf’, the music begins in a more traditional ‘tuneful’ way, but soon descends into discordance to create the feel of unease. As this trend continues, there are quick crescendos leading to sharp pauses in the music and intermittent percussion.
When the coffin of Count Cosmo Valdemar is found in the cellar, a high pitched drone sounds while a serial sequence is played on a piano, again stopping suddenly. The music continues to move further into discordance until Valda’s body is found, at which point the music reaches a loud repeated melody, and keeps to this motif until it’s conclusion.
The next segment, ‘Creeping Vine’, starts with a light hearted piece of music in a similar way to the previous story, other than this first melodic piece the music is again sparse, sudden to begin and end without resolving. To begin with the music is comprised of more staccato percussive hits of strings in single tones, and brief repeated melodies, but again builds into a crescendo of the repeated string melody accompanied by a serial piano sequence.
In the third instalment ‘Voodoo’, the music begins with a jazz band practicing, with music becoming a main focus of the story. The band gets a gig in the West Indies and in the next scene are greeted by a ‘calypso’ piece from the resorts resident band.
After being warned against attending the local voodoo ceremonies, the band leader, Biff, immediately does exactly the opposite and begins to transcribe the ceremonial music. He is then warned not to steal the music as it belongs to the voodoo God , so of course he again ignores the warnings and steals the music for his own band once they return home to London. As the band performs the ceremonial music strange things begin to happen around them.
The previous stories comprised of non-diegetic a-tonal minimalist music but this instalment showcases almost entirely diegetic music, with the band providing the soundtrack.
The fourth segment, ‘Disembodied Hand’, does not begin with any music like the previous entries, the first piece of music only begins when Landor wakes up in the hospital to realize he has lost his hand, with a single, intense violin melody playing. A descending melody is then presented while Landor looks at his artwork and is then picked up by a horn section leading to Landor shooting himself.
Another sudden burst of strings, horns and percussion begins when Franklyn is attacked by Landors hand in his home, this same percussive cacophony is played when Franklyn is again attacked, this time at his office, and eventually coming to a head when Franklyn crashes his car.
The final segment, ‘Vampire’, begins with no soundtrack again, until Nicolle sees Bob bleeding from a cut on his finger, at which point a single woodwind melody is played, until the scene changes to the next morning.
The simple melody is a repeating motif throughout this segment without deviating in dynamics too much, remaining subdued with little in the way of crescendos, creating a more melancholic mood rather than one of unease.
In the final scene a return to multi-instrumental serial sequences is brought to a cacophonous climax with Dr Schreck’s revalation.
Though the serial technique is utilized throughout most of the stories, due to its non-repetitive nature, no two soundtracks are alike.
With Lutyens pioneering of the twelve-tone serial technique in horror soundtracks, she paved the way for the experimentation and common use of this technique in horror ever since.
