a r t i s t : Marc Wilkinson
t i t l e : Blood on Satan's Claw
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : Trunk (JBH023CD)
g e n r e : Soundtrack
r l s. d a t e : 11/2007
t r a c k s : 26
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 61,8 MB
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This is the first ever release of this film music. I could
stop there but I'll carry on a bit longer.
Yes, right, I'll tell you what I know. This is a classic Tigon
release directed by Peter Haggard and is often seen as a
companion piece to Witchfinder General. The story here is
simple, a village in 17th Century Great Britain is overcome by
a Satanic plague, manifesting itself as a dark, hairy patch on
the skin. I've got one in fact. Anyway, the children and
village youth fall quickly under the devil's spell and soon
Satanic rituals, witchcraft, sacrifice and sorts of weird
hanky panky is everywhere. The film is notable for many
reason, the music of course, that bloke "Fred" from Ragtime,
and the kinky Linda Hayden, playing the part of Angel, the
sexually driven teenager of evil. Or something like that. She
gets her kit off, which may well have added heavily to the
cult status of the movie. I believe Linda Hayden has a bit of
a fan base.
Musically it is totally beautiful, the score written by Marc
Wilkinson. He had spent a considerable time as music director
of the National Theatre and also went on to score for many TV
productions and films including Tales Of The Unexpected and
Quatermass.
Here are his brief sleevenotes for Blood On Satan's Claw: I
first met Piers Haggard at the National Theatre. At the time I
was Director of Music there and Piers was an assistant
director. It was the first feature filmwe collaborated on but
later we worked often together. The film was made on a very
tight budget, and I was rather proud that I managed to record
everything just 5/3/0 pounds under budget! The orchestra was
pretty classical in line-up, except for the two unusual
instruments which were 1) the Ondes Martenot which provides
the big swoops and many other unusual tone colours of various
fiendish types. It was without doubt the first really
successful electronic instrument; it was developed before the
last world war. 2) the cimbalom, an east European instruments
a bit like a piano, but played with various types of mallet,
provides very pungent sounds. It is sometimes associated with
the devil, thereabouts. The descending chromatic scale which
features throughout the music omits the perfect fifth (the
only true consonant in the chromatic scale) and therefor
highlight the diminished fifth, which ever since the middle
ages in Europe has been known as the Devil's Interval!! The
principal melody (which sounds like an English folk song, but
is not) was added later by me because the producer considered
that the music was too austere. In hindsight, I agree with
him. It was great fun writing the score.
After a long search for stills from this film, I stumbled
across these images, which are ruder than most of the other
images I found and are also way better than the original
poster, which is absolutely rubbish and features a very poor
drawing of the devil who, incidentally in the film, was played
by the director wearing a mask and cloak.
Over many years the film has slowly gained a cultish
reputation, and there are rumours that good old Tim Burton is
a very big fan and used it as an influence for his Sleepy
Hollow production. Over the last few years several people have
mentioned this film and score to me - Whitaker Malem (groovy
film collectors and film fashion designers) and Joel Martin,
that loony who brought Dawn of the Dead to my attention. I'd
come across Marc Wilkinson before, as I'd found his score for
Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and thought it
was full of pastoral surprises. This score has taken bloody
ages to sort out, and special thanks must go to Marc Wilkinson
for his help and patience, and Newyattsounds for remastering
the reels with enthusiasm and style.
There will be a CD issue of this soundtrack and a limited run
of 500 vinyl only. Hopefully with a bum on the front.
http://www.trunkrecords.com/turntable/claw.shtml
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01-Fiend discovered and titles [02:38]
02-Peter and Rosalind in attic [01:04]
03-Rosalind's madness [02:05]
04-Angel's claw [03:27]
05-Claw in classroom [00:43]
06-Judge by fireside [03:13]
07-Peter fights devil, severs hand [02:50]
08-Judge drives off [01:29]
09-Mark alone [01:22]
10-Death of Mark [00:55]
11-Angel naked [02:06]
12-Angel's first curse [00:30]
13-Angel's second curse [00:35]
14-Return from the graveyard [01:58]
15-Return from the graveyard [00:23]
16-Kathy crowned [01:15]
17-Children into church [01:15]
18-Kathy's ceremony [01:19]
19-Kathy's rape and death [03:42]
20-Peter's ride [00:42]
21-Ralph chops tree [00:40]
22-Ralph saves Margaret [02:08]
23-Margaret escapes [02:13]
24-Ralph's wound [01:23]
25-Ralph bewitched [02:17]
26-Finale and credits [06:20]
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48:32 min