DS & Musical Score

Was Dark Shadows the first soap opera to not have organ music?

I went to a site called www.wost.com and was surprised that shows like Somerset and Another World still had organ music going to the mid 70's.

I can't point to an exact source, but I recall several years ago reading or hearing that the use of a full orchestral score was an innovation that DS introduced to daytime dramas.  The haunting quality of the score was one of the things that initially got me hooked on the series in 1969, and those familiar musical strains have continued to reverberate in my mind through the decades.

Ben

Ben!!!     

It's great to see you!

While we were on this topic of Dark Shadows music, I was very curious to see what types of instruments Cobert used for the theme.  They are not your typical run of the mill choices in orchestration to be sure.  I finally came upon it when I picked up my Dark Shadows Almanac.  (Naturally, the last place I looked.)  Cobert uses an alto flute, double bass, vibes, harp and a theremin.  He doubles the alto flute with the theremin in the theme line to give it a particular eeriness.  Like what instrument is that creepy thing?  Well it's two things.  Now what is a theremin you may ask.

Here are some facts about the theremin.  The theremin is the first electronic instrument invented in 1918 by Leon Termin, a Russian physicist and cellist, while he was experimenting on creating sounds using electrical current.  The instrument has no keys (in other words, you don't touch it), is monophonic (plays one note), and pitch is made by waving one's hand in the space of the antenna.  The volume is attained by using the other hand over the other antenna.  Don't move or you'll miss the pitch!

Sounds like "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and you'd be right.  The theremin was widely used in old sci-fi/horror movies of the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s as well as many TV show themes, "Star Trek" (it's the thing that sounds like a wailing woman), "My Favorite Martian", "Lost in Space" and many others including Dark Shadows.  It was also used by "serious" film composers such as Bernard Herrmann, Miklƒ³s Rƒ³zsa in Spellbound and many others.  It's still in use today.

It also made the concert hall by composers Ives, Varese, Cage, Grainger, Schillenger, etc. and the rock music of Led Zeppelin, Bee Gees, Beach Boys (they used the Mogg electronic one in Good Vibration, naturally), Flaming Lips, etc.

Termin did live in NY for a time and managed to get a patent on his instrument.  RCA was granted manufacturing rights to RCA in 1929. Later, Robert Mogg manufactured the electro-theremin.  (Yes, the same guy of the Mogg synthetizer.  He found the blueprints while in high school and built his own.)

Unfortunately, he was stolen from his New York apartment in 1938 by the NKVD (precursor of the KGB) and was sent to Siberia to a forced labor camp, then a camp of scientists.  Termin invented one of the first Color TVs and the "Buran" aka bug or small listing devices listening in at the U.S. Embassy.  Yes, that bug, bugging the telephones at Collinwood was his..... LOL!

Thus, another first by Cobert, the use of the theremin in a daytime soap.  I also note the use of it occurred long before the appearance of any supernatural themes in the show.

The Almanac also states that the biggest orchestra Cobert used gets up to 35 folks.  Huge for TV.  Unfortunately, most of the recordings from the original show were in monaural, so we audiophiles wail and moan our fate...

The other thing I note is that Robert Cobert has avoided the Dark Shadows internet radar and not much is said about him, like where did he get his music training, who were his musical influences, does he teach theory and composition, what instrument does he play?  These and burning questions remain unanswered.  He does not pop up in the Grove either.  However, Grove is still playing catch up on the 20th Century so not surprised there.

Any thought from you librarians on this subject?

Sources for this post:  The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The Dark Shadows Almanac, ThereminVox and ThereminInfo [/size][/color][/FONT]

Good stuff, Victoria...I did want to point out that it's actually 'Moog' not 'Mogg.' Moog's more fun to say, anyway...

I don't remember much theremin in Plan 9...just lots of bad library music, though some may have slipped in there somewhere...'Ed Wood' used it exquisitely, though.

The 'Dark Shadows' music tracks like most were all recorded in multi-track recordings (4, 8 etc. depending on the size) and then mixed down to mono for use in the episodes and films...Unfortunately, all the original DS music, apart from a track or two used in another project, had their multi-track masters dumped in the intervening years...Such a crime.

I would love to do a full 6.1 surround mix for HODS or NODS. Can you imagine the finale of HODS in surround? 'Clark! Clark! I command you to come to me!' etc...The richness of the recordings would be wonderful recapturing the original recording space and environment...

Never to be, sadly.

When I was working at an art museum, we were having a small "chamber"-type orchestra provide background music for a show's opening.  They had set up their instruments the evening previous, and among them was a theremin.  When the place closed for the night, we on the staff probably stayed for over an hour just playing with that thing.  It's addictive!

Gerard

That is an excellent and well-researched overview of the theremin and its creator, Victoriawinters.  Thanks! Not being an expert on the subject, I have little else to add but that there is a book here at my library, "Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage" by Albert Glinsky, with a foreword by Robert Moog.  I have not read it but the book does sound interesting, apparently linking Theremin's creation to the tense Cold War era.

As for Cobert, I always felt that he is an unsung DS hero that has not been getting nearly the attention he deserves.  Cobert's music for DS is so haunting and compelling that I remembered it clearly after more than 30 years of not seeing the show.  A gifted man!

Sorta a side note, but the DVD of "Ed Wood" has a neat little featurette on the theramin, with a visual demonstation and other info - it's well worth checking out if you're interested in this stuff.

It would be fantastic to have a stereo re-mix of the HODS, NODS sound tracks.  The surround would be so damn erie too.  I can see my sub-woofer skipping across the floor in delight!

There is also a DVD available on Termin.  His life did make it to the documentary stage.  Sounds like an interesting rental that I'm going to put on my agenda of items to watch.

Now, if there were only more on Cobert.  *sigh......  But suppose on the totem pole of musicological items to be researched, he would be low on the list since he was primarily a TV composer.  It has only been in recent years that musicologist have been interested in film score composition.

It would be an interesting musicological project to take on if he would be a willing subject for such research.

The THEREMIN documentary is terrific. Some great surprises within. Highly recommended.

I think it was back on vantagenet...but...this topic strikes a 'bell' in me.

There's a scene, upstairs in the hallway; I was watching, and it sounded sorta like "Tubular (sp) Bells" by I believe Mike Oldfield. Again, sounded like, don't think it was.

Does anyone know what I'm referring to?

Have a good weekend!!

Patti

Miklƒ³s Rƒ³zsa in Spellbound

VictoriaWinters!!!!!! I love this movie.

Thanks for the happy thought!!

 

Patti

There's a scene, upstairs in the hallway; I was watching, and it sounded sorta like "Tubular (sp) Bells" by I believe Mike Oldfield. Again, sounded like, don't think it was.

The Almanac stated that pretty much without exception, Robert Cobert, was the composer of all Dark Shadows music.  The exceptions noted were some Hungarian folk tunes used in 1897 and Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachmusik" used in the Adam story line.  You know the one Adam listens to all the time on Dr. Lang's tape recorder?   While not mentioned in the Almanac, I did recognize the 4th Movement of the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique.  That was played on the tape recorder after Angelique got her mits on it.  Very brief to be sure.

I googled Mike Oldfield and he did not record Tubular Bells until 1972.  So, can't be him.  But, his song did make "The Excorist."  Click me

Cobert does use the vibraphone a great deal.  Thus what you may be hearing as "bells" could be that.  They sound a lot like bells if you haven't heard them too much.

Here is a site with a sound file of what the vibrophone sounds like.  It's under the name 'Waltz in Ab" by Johannes Brahms' at this site.  Also, lest we forget the greatest vibraphonist of all time, Lionel Hampton.

Again, it's one of Colbert's electronic instruments he is fond of using.   Because of the pedal and various effects you can do with the instrument, it's a great addition to the aural creepiness that is Dark Shadows.  He goes to town with it in the 1991 DS.

Got episode number?  I'll listen if I have and see if I recognize it as something else.