If you study the history of film, sooner or later you will come across the early works. In black and white, without sound, with intertitles on the screen. In the past, someone would sit at the piano in small cinemas and accompany the moving images with their compositions, but in large cinemas you could find orchestras. Images and music, often the film lived from the musical works that accompanied the action, created tension or made the mood clear.
This is also the case in the 1922 German silent film “Nosferatu – A Symphony of Horror” by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. The story of this film is at least as exciting as the work itself. It is an unauthorized version of the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker and tells the story of Count Orlok (Nosferatu), a vampire from the Carpathians who falls in love with the beautiful Ellen and brings terror to her hometown. This film is considered one of the first horror films and had a major influence on the genre. At the same time, however, it shows the tormented mental state of the main character. After losing a copyright dispute, the film was to be destroyed in 1925, but it has survived in countless edited versions to this day.
Fascination with silent films
And it is precisely this film that Udo Langer (Klangfeder) from Burgkunstadt, known for his work on “Die Reise ins Grünbergland” and “Jules Verne’s Adventures”, has taken on in his new project. Together with Markus Spiethaler from Bad Staffelstein, he spent over a year composing, rehearsing, discarding and recomposing, and watching the film countless times. But why a horror film? And how did he come up with this idea?
Udo Langer smiles mischievously. “I’ve always wanted to do the soundtrack for a silent film and I talked about it with my friend Markus Häggberg. And then he came up with Nosferatu.” At first, says Udo, he thought it was crazy. “Of all things, a horror film. But once you’ve got it in your head, you don’t give up,” says Langer. “Finally, I got a copy and watched it naked, without the accompanying music. As I delved deeper into the plot, I realized that Nosferatu isn’t a horror film at all without the music that was composed for it back then.”
This just cries out for an explanation, which the award-winning composer and musician also delivers. “It’s more of a drama, it’s actually about the tortured soul of a child in the body of a man who is looking for closeness and love.” And that, Langer continues, is what he wants to show with the new music.
But when Langer started composing, he realised he needed a comrade-in-arms. Someone who thinks exactly like him. And, as Udo Langer describes it, another coincidence came along. “While I was looking for an instrument, I suddenly found Markus Spiethaler’s advert on the internet. “I thought that couldn’t be right. But when I arrived at his studio here in Bad Staffelstein, it really was the Markus Spiethaler I hadn’t seen for 18 years.” And the spark jumped over again, as if they had last seen each other the day before.
He told Markus about the project, and he was immediately enthusiastic. “We threw ourselves into the work together,” says Spiethaler. Together they put together the music and the appropriate sequences. “But if you think that’s all, you’re wrong,” says Spiethaler. And Udo adds: “We looked at the original, if you can still call it that. There are some tablets in the film. And they were in Sütterlin. We couldn’t decipher it.” But they wanted the audience to understand everything exactly. Then they found an English version and in Katja Jungkunz someone who translated this old English and the cryptic tablets appropriately. “And that just makes the whole thing complete,” says Udo.
Time travel with live music
But how should we imagine a performance now? “Well,” they both say with a smile, “that’s exactly the point. We travel back in time and play the music live.” To do this, the two then set up a huge battery of instruments. Eight synthesizers, four guitars, seven singing bowls, and a self-forged gong. “You can’t buy that, I made it by hand,” Udo Langer emphasizes with a smile. “It will be extraordinary with sounds that you’ve never heard before.” There are also various percussion instruments and much more. So there’s a lot of equipment on the stage.
Suddenly Udo Langer seems a little pensive. “To be honest, the more often I’ve seen the film, the more parallels I’ve noticed with today.” At first glance, the film seems to be all black and white, good and evil. “Anyone who isn’t for me is against me. And anyone who doesn’t agree with me is put down, ostracized, hunted, killed.” So is the project also a political statement? “Like in the film, there is no room for tolerance these days. We want to use music to show the human facets, to manifest them, to create space for interpersonal relationships,” explains Udo Langer. And Markus Spiethaler adds thoughtfully: “There is a lot of love in the film, it’s just hidden. And if at the end just one person sheds a tear after the final chord, then we have achieved our goal.”
It’s exciting. The premiere and a Halloween special are fast approaching (see info box). Two 50-minute shows of excitement, music and emotion await visitors. And of course two exceptional musicians from the Franconian region who will be available to answer questions afterwards.
The performances
The premiere is on October 4th in the district cultural space in Kronach. Tickets are still available from the district cultural department in the Kronach cultural space, Tel. (09261) 678300. The performance begins at 7.30 p.m.
On October 27th, at 6 p.m., another performance will take place on the open-air stage in Trebgast. Tickets are available at the usual ticket offices or at www.dienaturbuehne.de
Always looking for perfection: Markus Spiethaler controls and mixes what Udo Langer (right) plays. Photo: Werner Diefenthal
Working on the sounds: Udo Langer (left) in the recording studio, Markus Spiethaler at the mixing desk. Photo: Werner Diefenthal
