“Nosferatu” composer on using 60 strings for a confusing score

The score for Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” (now in cinemas) gets under your skin, and that’s exactly what composer Robin Carolan wanted to achieve.

Carolan gathered 60 strings to play a “spiral effect sound that is meant to feel really disorienting and hit you in the gut.”

Eggers reimagines FW Murnau’s 1922 German Expressionist silent film, starring Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen, a young woman who becomes the object of desire of the fearsome vampire Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård). The supporting cast includes Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney and Willem Dafoe.

Eggers did not want Carolan to use electronic devices or synthesizers. “That wasn’t an option,” says the composer, knowing that Eggers wanted every detail of the film to be contemporary, including the score. In addition to the strings, drums, horn and woodwinds were added to layer the music.

One of the first themes Carolan wrote was Ellen’s theme, which was written as a demo version. Carolan explains: “Rob wanted to play something before they made the film.”

As experimental as the score was, it still had to have a lush and melodic sound. “I wanted to lean into the tragedy and the melancholy of the story, and a lot of that is thanks to Ellen’s character.”

Ellen’s motif begins as a baroque quintet sound assembled with contemporary strings.

According to Carolan, her early motifs sound “small” to reflect her inner feelings – Ellen, a newly married woman, once turned to a guardian angel seeking comfort. Enter Count Orlok, who becomes obsessed with her and continues to pursue her.

Carolan had to create fear when it came to Skarsgård’s Count Orlok. But it posed a challenge: “Orlok is essentially Dracula, and Dracula is such an iconic literary film character, and so many people have written themes for the character or music for these films.”

Carolan felt the pressure to create something memorable. Although the character is the film’s villain, Eggers and Caroloan wanted to try to humanize him at times, so that his subjects are “big, stormy and thunderous, but at certain points take a turn toward melancholy.”

In addition to string instruments and percussion, Carolan used a toaca, a traditional Romanian instrument used primarily in monasteries in this region. “It’s a huge wooden board that you hit with mallets to create different sounds. It gave certain scenes their own character,” he explains.

When it came to the film’s finale, Orlok and Ellen’s themes merged into a magnificent 10-minute score. Carolan says: “I wanted it to sound as big and emotional as possible.” He adds: “I wanted to write it almost like a crappy sounding wedding. It’s almost romantic, but there’s also something spooky about it.”

Listen to the score below.