The Bride of Frankenstein

Music by Franz Waxman

 

 

 

 

 

 

After King Kong (1933) by Max Steiner, the soundtrack of Bride of Frankenstein (1935) was one of the most important in the foundation of sound language for movies.

Franz Waxman explored such amount of musical effects, for dramatic purposes, humor, fantasy and macabre that this score can be considered a catalog of musical possibilities for a movie. Its main theme, for instance, with female voice adding lyricism and beauty in a track filled of humor and the macabre, is a clear exemple of the sound experiment proposed for Waxman. Other remarkable exemples: the minuet in Prologue and the funny Bottle Sequence to the scene of the homunculus in bottles. Strings motifs in Pastorale anticipated much of what Waxman, and cinema in general, would eventually establish as romantic soundtrack. The profusion of passages that use diverse forms such as marches, waltzes, polkas, scherzos, arias, rhapsodies, and the use of the leit-motif – specific themes for each character – functioned as a kind of musical seed ground from where sprouted countless ways to soundtracks. Other great moments are suites, as Female Monster Music and The Creation, the latter a fantastic sequence of variations over the main theme supported by an endless ostinato of timpani, and growing construction to the majestic climax. The influence of the track was so great and so enduring that the colorful arrangements and instrumental designs has a strong parallel with what, for instance, John Williams did in his Star Wars years (check Monster Breaks Out). This new recording (of 1993) worked with an expanded orchestra increasing the expressiveness of the original score without transform it and, best of all, not affecting his subtle touch of humor. The Silva Screen CD also features a six minute suite with the The Invisible Ray music (1936) that stablished the african-Hollywood cliché followed in several jungle adventures.