Anatomy of horror soundtrack

The first three bars of toccata from Toccata and Fugue in D-minor by J.S. Bach are probably the most recognizable fragment of all horror music clichés. First used in 1931 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Rouben Mamoulian and three years later in adaptation of E.A. Poe novel The Black Cat, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. But what makes this piece so dark and distressing?

Toccata and Fugue was originally written for church organs (there is a theory according to which the composition was originally written for a violin) and the sound of the organs perfectly reflects the atmosphere of the gothic story. Arpeggios goes down in the second bar and diminished seventh chord causes chills. Ascending motion at the end of second bar builds the tension, also D-minor scale is often considered as dark or demonic (however, it is debatable if scales are really related to specific emotions). These elements even today are great building blocks for horror soundtrack, but there is more. The use of groups of instruments lets us enrich timbres and build contrasts by altering between solo instruments and orchestral parts. Altering pulse or changing tonation at the very end of movement introduces an element of surprise and makes music more disturbing. This is exactly what John Carpenter did in his soundtrack for Halloween (yes, he actually composed the music to his own film, but contrast was build by altering piano and synth motifs). Sustaining chords are another element borrowed by modern film score composers from J.S. Bach, just listen to In heaven everything is fine from David Lynch’s Erasehead, you’ll hear long sustained organ chords.

Another great example of contrast is theme composed by Philip Glass for classic horror Candyman. This one is nice and fairly simple tune, first played when Helen will go over press titles. Calm, melodic line contrasts with press headlines informing about brutal murders. This is an example of so called audio-visual polirythm. Clearer example of using this technique is scene from The Bride of Frankenstein by James Whale (music by Franz Waxman), where dramatic action was combined with joyful music.

If you are interested in a more detailed analysis of soundtracks from classic horrors - I recommend the article by William H. Rossar Music for the monsters Universal Pictures' Horror Film Scores of the Thirties.