CONTEMPORARY TOPICS
Cultured Killers, or Terminal Bach
Kristi Brown’s essay ’Cultured Killers,
or Terminal Bach’ studies the role of Johann Sebastian
Bach’s music in horror and psychological movies, and movies
prevailed by violence and technology. The author’s framework
is the character of dr. Hannibal Lecter from Thomas Harris’
novel and movies Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal.
She points out that dr. Lecter would not appear so aristocratic
if it had not been for his love of Bach’s Goldberg variations.
Following
the streak of Bach’s music, Kristi Brown finds it in films
generically similar to Hannibal like Seven, Kiss
the Girls and Virtuosity. Bach’s music also
appears in the book by Douglas Hofstadter Godel, Escher,
Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, and the book by Richard
Powers The Gold Bug Variations. The basis of the
author’s research is the intertwinement of music with literature
and films, and its extraordinary impact on the piano player
Glenn Gould, Hannibal’s favourite performer.
Kristi Brown |
