Nosferatu by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau is one of the first horror films in cinema history. A true masterpiece of German Expressionism, this adaptation of the Dracula myth celebrated its centenary in 2022. On this occasion, ARFI returned to the very essence of the cine-concert by presenting, in a completely acoustic format, its first string trio on a magnificent restored and digitized version from 2005.
For this creation, Guillaume Grenard composed the music for a string trio: Clémence Cognet on violin, Colin Delzant on cello, and Christophe Gauvert on double bass. The score is based on the emotional or romantic connections between the characters. Each character has its own identifiable musical aesthetic: tonal music is associated with Jonathan Harker (naive and conventional love), music from the Second Viennese School is linked to Mina Harker (non-conformist love), contemporary music to Renfield-Knock (madness), and repetitive music to Dracula-Orlok (hypnotic seduction). The score draws on the antagonistic musical aesthetics of the 20th century to evoke the only true theme of vampire films: love.