NOSFERATU Turns 100! Musical Score on Pipe Organ by Dennis James

Celebrate the centennial anniversary of the most iconic cinematic vampire this Halloween season with an unforgetable film-concert experience in our haunted Sanctuary! A screening of silent horror masterpiece NOSFERATU (1922) featuring a phenomenal live soundtrack performed by Dennis James on our Historic Estey pipe organ!

A cornerstone of German Expressionist silent films, W. Murnau’s immortal NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR first premiered at Berlin, Germany’s zoological gardens in 1922. With the famed actor Max Schreck delivering a truly remarkable ghoulish performance the film instantly became a cultural and artistic watermark, but not without controversy. The estate of Bram Stoker, author of the book “Dracula,” sued the studio that produced “Nosferatu” over copyright claims. Asserting that the film's antagonist was a metaphor for the first World War rather than a direct adaptation, the filmmakers made some changes, including character names — for example Count Dracula became Count Orlok (which means "war" in Dutch) — to try and bypass any direct links to "Dracula" but that didn’t stop a court ordering all copies of the film be destroyed in the legal case won by Stoker’s estate. 

Luckily for future audiences, some prints of the visionary masterpiece survived and still continue to frighten and inspire...

Enjoy this excellent NYTimes article about the history of this iconic horror classic!

100 Years of 'Nosferatu', the Vampire Film That Won't Die: F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film continues to live on in the popular imagination, as a fairy tale, a meme and a cinematic revenant.

About the Live Musical Score on Our Historic Estey Pipe Organ:

Dennis James began formal organ training at the age of 12. He began performing for silent films in 1969 and began working with symphony orchestras in 1971. For over 40 years, the renowned organist has played a pivotal role in the international revival of silent films paired with live music. He has been resident organist at various venues including the El Capitan in Hollywood and Paramount Theatre in Seattle, where he specialized in period-authentic music. Along with organ, James plays the Franklin glass armonica and the theremin. In the 1980s, James toured with silent stars Lillian Gish and Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, providing musical accompaniment. His research and experiences have led him to develop performance practices utilizing the surviving musical source materials from the silent film era with unwavering commitment to stylistic integrity in performance. His production company, Silent Film Concerts have amassed one of the largest private libraries of authentic silent film music in existence today, acquired via film musicians, film music collectors and from historic theatres throughout the world. It includes complete original film scores plus hundreds of published generic silent film music compositions that are used to create historically accurate new musical scores where the originals do not survive. The resulting accompaniment performances are presented as historical recreations faithful to scoring practices of the period of each individual film’s original release.

“Silent films are a rare and precious art form of tremendous historical importance, and the art of live musical accompaniment to a silent film is a discipline of equally important historic value. Dennis James is both a musician of tremendous artistic scope and range, and a scholar who strives to preserve and restore this unique 20th century musical practice. To witness a contemporary audience experience the beauty and power of silent film through the overwhelming symphonic dynamism that Dennis James unleashes with unerring skill on the theatre organ is an absolute revelation. He’s a national treasure.” — Stephen Salmons, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival