Van Helsing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was composed by Alan Silvestri

Alan Silvestri

Alan Anthony Silvestri is an American film composer and conductor.-Career:Silvestri is best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis, having scored Romancing the Stone , the Back to the Future trilogy , Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Death Becomes Her , Forrest Gump , Contact ,...

 and released on May 4, 2004, by Decca Records

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

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Track listing

#	Track Name	Musical Description	Length
1.	Transylvania 1887	Played over the black-and-white opening of the film, this short track mostly features Count Dracula Dracula Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor... 's theme, a brutally rhythmic idea with powerful brass and choral chanting. It ends in an action theme that segues straight into the next track.	1:26
2.	Burn It Down!	Burn It Down! is an action piece played during the scene, still in black and white, in which the mill is burned and Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The creature is often erroneously referred to as "Frankenstein", but in the novel the creature has no name...  falls into the flames holding his creator's body. It states some of Silvestri's action ideas in choral, orchestral and percussive majesty. These include the theme for Frankenstein's monster and another statement of Dracula's theme.	4:46
3.	Werewolf Trap	Werewolf Trap is a short action piece for the scene in which Velkan and Anna Valerious try to imprison The Wolfman.	1:53
4.	Journey to Transylvania	Journey to Transylvania is the first statement of Van Helsing Van Helsing Van Helsing is a 2004 American action horror film directed by Stephen Sommers. It stars Hugh Jackman as vigilante monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing, and Kate Beckinsale... 's theme, a fast-paced, powerful and percussive motif in 5/4 that features a rambling acoustic guitar under a six-note repeating pattern performed either by strings or choir. The five-note theme itself blasts out over the top, usually on French horn. It is played during Van Helsing and Carl's voyage by sea and land to Transylvania Transylvania Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical... .	1:33
5.	Attacking Brides	Attacking Brides is a lengthy action suite played when Dracula's brides attack the Transylvanian village and are fought off by Van Helsing. It features the brides' own theme, a brassy one over a pounding percussive beat, at about 2:00.	5:02
6.	Dracula's Nursery	Dracula's Nursery, accompanying Van Helsing and Anna's sneak through Castle Dracula, is a piece that switches between suspenseful, ambiental effects and a playfully devious, waltz-like subtheme for Dracula that film score reviewers, such as Christian Clemmenson, have compared to Elliot Goldenthal Elliot Goldenthal Elliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways... 's music for Batman Forever Batman Forever Batman Forever is a 1995 American superhero film directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Tim Burton. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is a sequel to Batman Returns , with Val Kilmer replacing Michael Keaton as Batman... . It ends with another statement of Dracula's main theme.	5:47
7.	Useless Crucifix	Useless Crucifix plays during Van Helsing's first confrontation with Dracula and his ensuing escape with Anna from Castle Dracula. It features the debut of a heroic, swashbuckling theme that stands out from the other, more darkly gothic themes. Some listeners have commented (on Filmtracks.com, for example) that this theme sounds like what Alan Silvestri might have composed for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a 2003 adventure fantasy film based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney theme parks. It was directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer... had he not been replaced by Klaus Badelt Klaus Badelt Klaus Badelt is an award-winning German composer, best known for composing film scores.-Life and career:Badelt was born in Frankfurt, Germany. He started his musical career composing for many successful movies and commercials in his homeland... .	2:35
8.	Transylvanian Horses	Transylvanian Horses is the action piece that is played during Van Helsing's attempted escape by carriage from Transylvania, and his ensuing fight with The Wolfman and Dracula's brides. It opens with Van Helsing's theme, pauses for some suspenseful music before moving into action that expands on the swashbuckling theme from Useless Crucifix.	3:55
9.	All Hallow's Eve Ball	All Hallow's Eve Ball, played during the ball scene in Belgrade Belgrade Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe... , begins with a source cue, a slow, spooky waltz featuring female vocals and cello solos, before expanding into a short, fully orchestral waltz that then segues into more action material.	3:01
10.	Who Are They to Judge?	Who Are They to Judge?, the title taken from one of Van Helsing's lines, plays during Dracula's kidnapping of Frankenstein's monster and features the latter's theme for the first time since Burn It Down!. It ends with a dramatic cue, almost romantic in nature, hinted at in Attacking Brides, that seems to represent Van Helsing's anguish at becoming a werewolf.	2:00
11.	Final Battle	As the title suggests, Final Battle is the film's longest action piece, featuring a lengthy, relentless recap of all the film's action themes, including Dracula's, Frankenstein's, the brides' and the swashbuckling theme.	6:28
12.	Reunited	Reunited, a respite from the action, is the music played as Van Helsing stands on the cliff and sees Anna in heaven, as well as Frankenstein's monster sailing off on his raft. It introduces a new theme, a love theme for Van Helsing and Anna, that is performed on solo horn and strings, with a powerful variation following with some heartbeat-resembling deep percussion. A final statement of Van Helsing's theme completes the album.	4:23

Critical reception

Generally well-received by fans and critics alike, three major score-reviewing websites all rated it at four out of five stars. Movie Music UK's Peter Simons says that Silvestri has delivered "what may be the loudest score of the year", but that he "makes this kind of music sound good...[infusing] the score with a textural richness and compositional quality that is quite rare these days". He does admit that "the score is unbelievably loud and hyperactive with virtually no moments of rest", dryly remarking that "a free bottle of aspirin may have been more appropriate" as a freebie than the offered mini poster.

On Soundtrack.net, Dan Goldwasser calls the score "one heck of an album", saying of Transylvania 1887 especially: "It's grand, it's epic, and it's a great start to the album." He also points out that "the sequencing of the album leaves just a little to be desired", bemoaning the scant treatment of the love theme that "factored so heavily in the film".

Filmtracks.com

Filmtracks.com

Filmtracks.com is a leading modern film score review website created and maintained out of Missoula, Montana by its sole reviewer, Christian Clemmensen...

 editor Christian Clemmenson praises the score for "allowing the force of a full orchestra and adult choir to set a high standard for summer action once again," and particularly enjoyed the cue Reunited, which he describes as "nothing less than lovely". Like the other two reviewers, he points out the lack of softer underscore on the album, but also finds that Van Helsing's guitar-accompanied theme "sounds remarkably strange in context" and that Silvestri broke a fundamental rule of film scoring by giving the title character the weakest theme. His summary is that "Van Helsing is one monumentally bold and wickedly exciting work", however.

Additional credits

Besides Alan Silvestri, who co-produced the album in addition to composing it, these additional credits are given on the back of the CD cover:

Produced by:

• David Bifano

Orchestrated by:

• Mark McKenzie
  Mark McKenzie
  Mark McKenzie is a film composer who studied with, among others, Pierre Boulez, Morten Lauridsen and Witold Lutoslawski. He also has been a highly respected Hollywood orchestrator on many blockbuster films...
  
  
• William Ross
  William Ross
  -Politicians:*William Ross, Baron Ross of Marnock , Secretary of State for Scotland in the 1960s*William Ross , merchant, ship builder and politician in Nova Scotia, Canada...
  
  
• David Slonaker

Special Vocal Performances:

• Deborah Dietrich

Mixed and Recorded by:

• Dennis Sands

Edited by:

• Kenneth Karman

The orchestra used was the Hollywood Studio Orchestra, while the choral sections were provided by the Hollywood Film Chorale.