Lights out for horror tale at the town hall

Organist Aaron Hawthorne provided the soundtrack for a screening of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

‘Twas the week of Halloween… and Rochdale Town Hall as you have never seen it before. The newly renovated town hall has striking gothic architecture and the inside was turned into an old style picture house for a horror film show on Saturday 2 November.

The Great Hall upstairs was in darkness apart from coloured uplighters on the organ pipes and enormous twin TV screens and, of course, ushers with torches. The screens could perhaps have been placed higher, so that the English subtitles could be read by more of the audience, but the atmosphere was tremendous and compelling.

‘Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror’ (1922) is Murnau’s German silent movie adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a classic of its genre. More than one hundred years on, the original tale still causes a tingle down the spine. The dozens of imitators of the Dracula archetype have almost become figures of fun – Hammer films to Ghostbusters, Casper to Shrek, is this nervous laughter to cover a deep-seated fear?

Following the tradition of silent movies, award-winning Scottish organist Aaron Hawthorne gave a virtuoso performance of improvised accompaniment. He ran the gamut of combinations of stops and made full use of the instrument. From a literal wall of sound to mysterious flutes and strings he followed or led by turns the unfolding story on the screens – creating an ominous musical subtext. This meant a constant stream of extempore characterful music for almost an hour and a half.

In his hands, Rochdale’s JJ Binns instrument, proved to be not an evil monster but a glorious beast of the organ world, and undoubtedly the star of the show. The spontaneous thunderous applause and cheers from the audience at the end said it all. Aaron’s cheeky encore of Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera certainly struck the right chord.

What about a Chaplin, Harry Lloyd or Buster Keaton comedy fest next time?

Dr Joe Dawson