Synopsis

The life of British composer James Bernard reads like a PBS mini-series: as a schoolboy, he meets Benjamin Britten, who encourages his interest in music; during WWII he joins the R.A.F., works with the team breaking the German Enigma code, and takes occasional breaks from this top-secret work to turn pages for Britten at London recitals during the Blitz; after postwar study at the Royal College of Music, he starts writing music for radio and stage plays.

Then by chance another composer booked to score a British science-fiction movie falls ill, and Bernard is asked to step in. The film The Quatermass Xperiment, was released on today’s date in 1955, proved a hit, and was even shown in the U.S., retitled The Creeping Unknown.

The Creeping Unknown would become James Bernard’s bread and butter, since the Hammer Film studio, who made The Quatermass Xperiment, kept Bernard on to score their horror films starring Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein. Unlike most film composers, Bernard orchestrated his own work, and helped establish the “Hammer sound,” lushly romantic or frantically hair-raising as needed. After his death in 2001, a biography was titled James Bernard – Composer to Count Dracula.

Music Played in Today's Program

James Bernard (1925-2001): Opening Credits and Dracula’s Blood, from Taste the Blood of Dracula; Studio orchestra; Philip Martell, conductor; GDI GRICD-010