Track Teardown of Night Stalking - Charles Bernstein

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Night Stalking - Charles Bernstein (from Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street Original Soundtrack)

Format: Vinyl, LP

Label: Colosseum Schallplatten GmbH ‎– STV 81236

Country: Germany

Genre: Stage & Screen

Style: Soundtrack, Score

Released: 1984

Background Information

Night Stalking is the second part of the Rod Hanged/Night Stalking track in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street Soundtrack composed by Charles Bernstein. Charles Bernstein is a famous film and TV score composer who has composed over 100 motion pictures (Bernstein, 2005). From an interview with Man is the Warmest Place to Hide, Bernstein stated that his influences for producing the soundtrack were Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and many local musicians (Man is the Warmest Place to Hide, 2012). The soundtrack was released in 1984 alongside the very famous American slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street. Like the other tracks in the soundtracks, Night Stalking features a large range of eerie analog synth sounds to represent the dark ambience that the film portrays.

Arrangement

Time Signature: 4/4 BPM: Approx. 119.47

In total, this track has 78 bars with a structure consisting of an intro, bridges, pre-verses, verses, choruses, and an outro. As this track is for a film, there were no lyrics as the song doesn't have a typical ABA or AABA structure like most songs do. The beat of the song is the main element of the track as it keeps the audience on edge and it drives the song. The use of synths are prominent throughout as at the time the soundtrack was released, analog synths were the main instruments used in the 80s.

The track begins with strings playing an A note which then descends for the first 4.5 bars, to set an uneasy tone for the song. The haunting reverberative beat is then introduced as the first bridge in bar 5 (0:08) and plays consistently for the entire track.

The strings synth and soft pad can be heard at the first pre-verse in the 9th bar (0:12) accompanied later in verse 1 by eerie vocals, and a piano playing together with some high bells.The Pre-verse's job is to build tension as instruments are slowly introduced to prepare for the verse as well as the chorus. An echo-descending effect is played in Verse 1 halfway through bar 16 (0:31) and it helps with creating an uneasy feeling, as it is played on an unexpected beat and the sound itself doesn't sound as melodic as the other instruments.

Chorus 1 begins at bar 23 (0:44) where the strings synth, soft pad, fuzz synth, echo descending effect and an underlying low synth play at the same time, with vocals playing 2 bars later. The echo descending effect closes the chorus at bar 29 (0:56) which fades into the bridge.

The bridge at bar 31 (1:00) is played only by the haunting beat and it is the same for the other bridges in the track, and its job is to create, again, an uneasy mood but using silence by only having one instrument play, with no melodic backing.

The second Pre-Verse begins at bar 25 (1:08) with the strings synth, soft pad being introduced again. At bar 37 of the Pre-Verse (1:12) the vocals, piano, fuzz synth, echo descending effect and the underlying low synth play an unsettling key at the same time. This brings the tension back to prepare for Verse 2.

Verse 2 is introduced by the high bells and piano playing together at bar 41 (1:20) and also at bar 45 of the verse (1:28).

We enter Chorus 2 at bar 51 (1:40) with two new instruments. This chorus is labelled differently to Chorus 1 as it is slightly different due to the high bells and the low bells being introduced. Chorus 2 creates more tension than the previous chorus, but has the same length and similar characteristics to Chorus 1.These two instruments including the strings synth and soft pad play for the whole 8 bars of the chorus except the high bells and low bell which fade out about 1 bar before the end.

The bridge is welcomed again at bar 59 (1:56) with the haunting beat and a clearer vocal is heard at bar 61 (2:00). This again drops the high tension to bring the mood to a low uneasy state, with the vocals adding that sprinkle bit of fear.

The 3rd Pre-Verse at bar 63 (2:04) is introduced by the strings synth and soft pad once again with the echo descending effect going at bar 64 (2:06). The vocals get introduced for the last time at the last bar of the Pre-Verse, bar 65 (2:08) which leads into Chorus 2.

Chorus 2 (bar 67, 2:12) is the last main section which is only played by the underlying strings synth, soft pad, vocals and the low bell. As the texture of this chorus isn't as thick as the previous choruses, it lets the audience know that the tension is drawing to a close but manages to give that small bit of anxiety to listeners that something (Freddy Krueger in this case) is still out there. The low bell introduces the chorus with slow, yet haunting hits and ends a bar before the chorus ends.

The outro helps to fade the the rest of the instruments that are playing (strings synth and soft pad) to give the audience a slow finish to the track, but to still leave them with an uneasy mood.

Breakdown of Instruments

Because the 80's was an ear for analog synths, Night Stalking as well as the whole soundtrack for A Nightmare on Elm Street capitalised on synths. From a review from forestpunk, the list of instruments used for the soundtrack were:

- Yamaha DX-7 (used for the bell-like melody textures)

- Oberheim OB-SX

- Roland Juno-106

- ARP 2600 (mk I - 1971/72 model)

- A small Casio keyboard

- A Roland drum machine

- Acoustic Piano

(Source: forestpunk, 2015)

The instruments that are the key focus of this track is the main beat, vocals, the high bell, and low bell. They each have unique tones to them which heightens the eerie mood of the track. Playing in a minor key (D Minor) also helps with creating fear and the untuned low bells for example, help to create uneasiness. In terms of the spatial properties of the mix, the beat sits towards the back centre with the reverb effect bouncing slightly left and right, the vocals has a similar sound stage but is positioned more to the front, the low bell has about a 15-20% pan to the left in the Chorus 2 and is panned right with the same percentage at the last chorus 2 and the high bell is towards the front of the mix with a slight 10% pan to the left.

The main beat, which is played throughout the track, has a heavy reverb effect with a long decay on all elements in the beat: the kick, hat and the clap effect. It gives the entire mix a large space to work with and also gives the effect of being in a dark tunnel/drain, representing fear. There seems to be a slight low pass filter around the 3-4k area as the elements in the belonging to that high range (hat & the clap effect) don't sound to be as bright as they should be. Because the beat acts to drive the song and is a main focus, the dynamics, pitch, nor does the sound quality change throughout the track.

The vocals are affected heavily with reverb and makes it difficult for the audience to discern what the vocalist is saying, which gives the feeling of uncertainty. The vocalist sounds to be a male so there would be a high pass filter around the 150Hz range to remove floor noise, to clear up muddiness as well as to reduce the proximity effect (Talkin Music, 2014). With dynamics, the vocals rises during the pre-verses and just before the choruses, to build up tension.

The high bell heard in the verses plays the main melody of the song and also lifts the track as majority of the instruments being played are at a mid-low range. The high bells imitate the glockenspiel sound and it associates with children and toys, which together with a minor key, portrays a creepy mood. This instrument is affected with reverb but not heavily due to the high bells serving as a focus point of the track and needs to be heard clearly.

The low bell is a unique to the others as it is different in tone and has harmonics within the bell that aren't tuned to the main key of the song, which helps a lot with setting that odd feeling. The dynamics and texture change as in the last Chorus 2, it is quieter and has only one bell playing. It is also affected with reverb to sustain that haunting bell sound as well as to mix well with the other instruments.

Summary of Track Teardown

In summary, Night Stalking by Charles Bernstein is a great simple horror/thriller track that has excellent use of synths and chords that helped to represent the film. It's use of experimental sounds is also a great technique to portray fear and uneasiness. This will be a great reference track for my main project as it has excellent use of synths (which are required for this project) and it has helped me gather ideas of how to create dark and unsettling moods.

References

Bernstein, C. (2005). A Remarkable Musical Background. Retrieved from http://www.charlesbernstein.com/bio.htm

Discogs. (2018). Charles Bernstein ‎– Wes Craven's A Nightmare On Elm Street (Original Soundtrack). Retrieved from https://www.discogs.com/Charles-Bernstein-Wes-Cravens-A-Nightmare-On-Elm-Street-Original-Soundtrack/release/1387900

forestpunk. (2015). Horrorscores: A Nightmare On Elm Street OST – Charles Bernstein (1984). Retrieved from https://forestpunk.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/horrorscores-a-nightmare-on-elm-street-ost-charles-bernstein-1984/

Man is Warmest Place to Hide, (2012). INTERVIEW: CHARLES BERNSTEIN ON HIS SCORE FOR "A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET". Retrieved from http://manisthewarmestplacetohide.com/blog/interview-charles-bernstein-his-score-nightmare-elm-street

Talkin Music. (2014). HOW TO EQ VOCALS. Retrieved from https://talkinmusic.com/musicproduction/how-to-eq-vocals/