Davka - The Golem (2003)

This entry in Tzadik's Radical Jewish Culture series consists of the San Francisco-based chamber group Davka performing violinist Daniel Hoffman's score to Paul Wegener and Carl Boese's pioneering 1920 horror film Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam. In this silent German feature, sixteenth century Rabbi Loew instills the breath of life into a clay statue (The Golem) with the hopes that it will help protect Jews from persecution in the Prague ghetto. As these sorts of things usually go, the Golem eventually runs amok and starts destroying things until an innocent little girl unwittingly decommissions the monster from service. Wegener and Boese's movie is the great-granddaddy of most monster flicks, and Davka does it proud, providing music that both follows the action (as in a modern film score) and sets a dignified mood for the proceedings (as in a typical silent film score). The Davka score is performed by Hoffman on violin, Paul Hanson on bassoon and clarinet, Moses Sedler on cello, and Kevin Mummey on percussion. The original film runs 86 minutes, a bit long for a single CD, so this score has been condensed to 32 cues lasting 49 minutes. Some of these very short cues have been bound together in mini-suites, whereas other, longer pieces stand alone. It is an eminently listenable CD, by turns rich in Hebraic melody, klezmer stylings, and blues and atmospheric touches. You don't need the movie to enjoy The Golem, but in the mind's eye it appears that Davka's music would match the flavor of the film quite well, in addition to being an enjoyable musical experience in its own right, which The Golem certainly is.