Search results
James Michael Bernard (20 September 1925 – 12 July 2001) was a British film composer, particularly associated with horror films produced by Hammer Film Productions. Beginning with The Quatermass Xperiment, he scored such films as The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula.
James Bernard. Composer: Horror of Dracula. Bernard was born in India, the son of a British army officer, but was moved to England as a small child for his health. He was educated at Wellington College, where the future actor Christopher Lee was a classmate.
- January 1, 1
- India
- January 1, 1
- London, England, UK
James Bernard was a composer who created scores for Hammer horror movies such as Dracula, The Devil Rides Out and The Quatermass Xperiment.
James Bernard. Composer: Horror of Dracula. Bernard was born in India, the son of a British army officer, but was moved to England as a small child for his health. He was educated at Wellington College, where the future actor Christopher Lee was a classmate.
- September 20, 1925
- July 12, 2001
- Synopsis
- Music Played in Today's Program
- On This Day
The life of British composer James Bernard reads like a PBS mini-series: as a schoolboy, he meets Benjamin Britten, who encourages his interest in music; during WWII he joins the R.A.F., works with the team breaking the German Enigma code, and takes occasional breaks from this top-secret work to turn pages for Britten at London recitals during the ...
James Bernard (1925-2001): “Opening Credits” & “Dracula’s Blood,” from “Taste the Blood of Dracula” (Studio orchestra; Philip Martell, cond.) GDI GRICD-010
Births
1. 1887 - Nicaraguan composer Luis Delgadillio, in Managua; 2. 1915 - British composer Humphrey Searle, in Oxford;
Deaths
1. 1958 - British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, age 85, in London;
Premieres
1. 1815 - Weber: Clarinet Quintet in Bb, Op. 34, in Munich, featuring clarinetist Heinrich Bärmann; 2. 1846 - Mendelssohn: oratorio "Elijah," at Birmingham Festival in England, with composer conducting; 3. 1954 - Alan Rawsthorne: "Practical Cats" (after T.S. Eliot), for speaker and orchestra, at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland 4. 1956 - Martinu: "Frescoes of Piero della Francesca," for orchestra, at the Salzburg Festival in Austria 5. 1957 - Panufnik: "Rhapsody" for orchestra, in London 6....
Jul 18, 2001 · James Bernard, who composed the eerie musical scores for some of Britain's most famous horror films, died on Thursday in a London hospital, his family said. He was 75. The cause was not...
Aug 26, 2024 · Unlike most film composers, Bernard orchestrated his own work, and helped establish the “Hammer sound,” lushly romantic or frantically hair-raising as needed. After his death in 2001, a biography was titled James Bernard – Composer to Count Dracula.
