King Kong / Monster Music Special Edition Naxos 8.557949–50
King Kong:
- Composer(s):
Steiner, Max
- Arranger(s):
Morgan, John
- Conductor(s):
Stromberg, William
- Orchestra(s):
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Monster Music:
- Composer(s):
Salter, Hans J.; Skinner, Frank
- Arranger(s):
Morgan, John
- Conductor(s):
Stromberg, William
- Orchestra(s):
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
If ever a genre needed musical assistance in creating a sufficient amount of atmosphere, it was the horror film of the 1930s and 1940s. Today, early Universal horror classics such as Dracula and even Frankenstein (both 1931) occasionally come off as stilted, partially because they lack full music scores. Even later films such as Werewolf of London (1935) and Dracula's Daughter (1936) pale partially because of their tepid music. Happily, Franz Waxman's wizardly score to James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) not only added punch to that film's overall impact, it also gave Universal's more attentive filmmakers a vivid idea of how fundamental film music was in this particular genre. Subsequently, when director Rowland V. Lee proceeded with Son of Frankenstein in 1938, he engaged staff composer Frank Skinner to compose a wholly new score for the picture. It was this music, orchestrated by Skinner's soon-to-be frequent partner Hans J. Salter, that set the tone, literally and figuratively, for all horror film scores to come from Universal.