Am I the only one that liked the Phillip Glass score?

The first time I saw Dracula was on AMC several years ago and it had the Phillip Glass score, and I thought it went pretty well with the film but at the time I didn't know it was a recent addition. My mother on the other hand who grew up loving the old horror movies said that when she first saw it the film didn't have the music, and she doesn't like the Glass score.

Having got the DVD with both the original version and the Glass score, I think I prefer the Glass score to the original, at least for MOST of the film. For example, during the opening credits I think the score really sets the tone for the film nicely. When Renfield's walking through Dracula's castle, I think it works.

Again, for MOST of the film. Once in awhile the music does come across as a little heavy-handed, especially if there's people talking quietly or having a conversation, then the music seems like it's too loud.

However, when I first saw the original film, it seemed WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too d@mn quiet. One of my few complaints with Dracula is that there's too much of people talking about certain things instead of seeing them happen, but even then there's a lot of scenes with no talking. And even though the original film does have it's own score, it might as well be non-existent because the music is so quiet.

At certain moments, Phillip Glass' score really nails it when it comes to setting the mood and atmosphere as if Dracula were a silent film, but unfortunately it doesn't dial back when people are talking. I will admit that it seems the volume of the music doesn't quite sync to the audio of people talking, like it seems to loud compared to the rest of the audio in the movie.

Overall, I prefer the film with Glass' score. Without the movie seems too quiet and almost puts me to sleep.

Can't be too careful with all those weirdos running around.

i loved the soundtrack, really added to the atmosphere




so many movies, so little time

Here are my thoughts on the Glass score as I wrote them down upon first listening:

I finally got around to watching "Dracula" with the new Phillip Glass score. Horrible -- simply horrible. I've never been a fan of his music, and this is a good example of why. The entire score consists of his usual meager, dissonant, and unimaginative themes (if you can call them that) played over and over again, as though looped, with the string players sawing away like they were trying to cut firewood.

Glass seems to pay little attention to what's happening onscreen -- he can't be bothered to actually try and fit the music to what's going on in the movie, or to develop any motifs for any of the characters. This is musical wallpaper of the worst kind, obtrusive and annoying -- it reminds one of how truly effective the silences are in this movie.

Occasionally Glass will break the cacophony with a brief silence, sometimes allowing us to actually pay attention to a particular line, sometimes merely to catch a breath and start in anew with his atonal nonsense, but never really in conjunction with the events on the screen. It's no better than watching a cheap DVD version of a silent movie in which the background music consists of classical records played at random, with breaks between different musical pieces coming at odd intervals. It's worse, in fact, because the music used on those DVD's is better than anything Glass has written here.

This is one of the worst scores I've ever heard for a movie. What a wasted opportunity -- it would've been interesting to hear what a talented film composer such as Howard Shore, Jerry Goldsmith, or any number of people might have done given the rare chance to score Dracula. I have no idea why Phillip Glass was chosen, but in my opinion it was a huge mistake.