The Identity of the Monster: Neo-Riemannian Harmony and Musical Dramaturgy in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (Music by Wojciech Kilar)
The Identity of the Monster: Neo-Riemannian Harmony and Musical Dramaturgy in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula
A transformational and dramaturgical analysis of Wojciech Kilar’s score in one of the most psychologically intense scenes of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992).
Introduction
In Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992), Wojciech Kilar’s music plays a central role in the psychological and symbolic construction of the characters. One of the most intense scenes in the film is the moment in which Dracula secretly enters Mina’s room.
After Mina’s declaration of love, Dracula takes her hand and guides it toward his chest, revealing the absence of a heartbeat. Terrified, Mina asks him: “Who are you? Tell me your true identity.” From this moment onward, the music assumes a decisive narrative function.
The scene is articulated into ten dramatic sections, in which Kilar consciously uses Neo-Riemannian operations to structure harmony as a direct reflection of dialogue and of Dracula’s inner revelation.
First Dramatic Section: The Monster Without Tonal Identity
The first musical section accompanies Dracula’s confession. Mortified and filled with shame, the character begins to open himself emotionally. The harmonic progression is built around the repeated use of the Slide operation, which generates ascending and descending chromatic movements.
These chromatic movements already produce a latent tension and a constant sense of danger, perfectly coherent with the nature of the character and with the dramatic situation.
The most brilliant element of Kilar’s musical writing in this scene, however, is the total absence of the third in every chord. The triads are reduced to empty structures, deprived of the essential information that determines whether the sonority is major or minor.
As a result, the listener cannot perceive a clearly defined emotional polarity. This harmonic ambiguity becomes a powerful narrative symbol: chords without a third are chords without identity, “asexual”, deprived of clear emotional direction, exactly as Dracula describes himself — a being without life, without soul, excluded from humanity.
Harmony therefore does not simply accompany the text: it embodies the existential condition of the character.
This sense of alienation is further reinforced by the systematic use of parallel fifths. In the context of a slow andante, almost resembling a funeral march, the movement in parallel fifths creates a perception of structural instability, cancelling any sense of traditional harmonic progress.
The result is music that seems to advance without evolving, suspended in a state of permanent death. It is within this sonic space that Dracula pronounces the decisive phrase: “I am Dracula.” Through its Neo-Riemannian construction, the music makes this revelation not only narrative, but ontological.
Second Dramatic Section: The Love/Dangerous Theme as Emotional Conflict
In the second dramatic section, a theme appears that is already recognizable throughout the film because of the specificity of its melodic line. It may be defined as a love/dangerous mood: a theme that fuses two apparently opposite emotional archetypes, romantic attraction and the premonition of damnation.
From a melodic point of view, the “love” character is immediately recognizable through the use of the octave leap, traditionally associated with lyrical and emotional expansion, and the leap of a sixth, a typical interval of the love theme in the cinematic tradition.
Yet Kilar subverts the conventional model. Instead of a clearly ascending direction or a resolving melodic arc, the intervallic leaps are inserted into a non-teleological context, as if the romantic impulse were immediately denied or corrupted through the descending octave leap.
The descending chromatic movement of the melody reinforces the sense of danger and opens the sound space toward a dangerous mood. This descending chromaticism acts as a force dragging the music downward, symbolizing an inevitable fall and opposing the ascending tension typical of idealized love.
On the harmonic level, the progression preserves the characteristics of the love mood, but places them within a dramatic and unstable dimension. A central element of this section is the systematic use of ascending and descending T transformations, often accompanied by the factor (v), which introduces movement toward the parallel form.
This mechanism deliberately breaks the logic of a diatonic tonal progression, alternating major and minor triads irregularly. The effect is that of an unstable harmonic ascent, one that does not lead to true resolution but rather suggests fragile and ambiguous hope.
In this section Mina weeps desperately: she discovers that Dracula has killed her friend Lucy and hates him for it, yet at the same time she cannot escape the love she feels for him. The music reflects this irresolvable conflict with extraordinary precision.
The love/dangerous theme is brilliant precisely because it simultaneously contains the drama of loss, dreamlike romantic attraction, and the sonic characteristics of danger.
Love here is not a promise of happiness, but a destructive force, a bond that leads to damnation rather than salvation. Kilar expresses all this through a refined synthesis of melody and harmony, where every Neo-Riemannian transformation becomes an integral part of the emotional narration.
Third Dramatic Section: Fantasy Mood and Mina’s Innocence
In the third dramatic section, the emotional point of view shifts toward Mina, who openly expresses the desire to unite with Dracula:
This declaration marks a moment of apparent surrender and fascination, in which the dimension of horror is temporarily suspended in favour of a fantasy imaginary connected to magical powers, transformation and access to another world.
The harmonic sequence is characterized by continuous oscillation between major and minor triads, obtained through Neo-Riemannian operations that privilege structural proximity rather than a defined tonal direction. This controlled instability produces a suspended, almost fairy-tale effect, temporarily detaching the scene from the previous drama.
The alternation between major and minor gives the music the typical characteristics of a fantasy mood, evoking a sense of innocence and wonder. Mina does not yet fully perceive the tragic weight of her choice: her desire to “be like him” arises from an idealized attraction, fuelled by the fascination of immortality and Dracula’s supernatural powers.
In this context, the Neo-Riemannian operations do not generate conflict, but rather a circular movement without directional tension, reflecting the illusion of a painless and magical transformation.
However, the fantasy mood never fully takes over. Above this harmonic structure, the main theme continues to float — the same theme already associated with the love/dangerous mood. It preserves its essential intervallic characteristics: the descending octave leap and the descending chromatic movements.
The superimposition of this thematic material introduces a latent tension that fractures the apparent innocence of the scene. The music therefore suggests that Mina’s desire, although expressed in terms of love and union, is already contaminated by danger and damnation.
Fourth Dramatic Section: Love, Death and Rebirth
In the fourth dramatic section, the dialogue between Dracula and Mina becomes decisive. Dracula reveals that, in order to become like him, she must die to her mortal life and be reborn as a vampire.
Mina’s response — “You are my love and my life” — confirms the acceptance of an extreme choice, in which love and the annihilation of human identity become inseparable.
In this section as well, the emotional dimension is represented by the love/dangerous melodic theme, which remains the expressive core of the entire scene. The line preserves its fundamental characteristics: descending octave leaps and descending chromatic movements.
The central element is the use of Transposition operations, which construct a kind of expanded diatonic progression, continuously destabilized by the alternation between major and minor triads through the factor (v). This alternation breaks traditional tonal linearity while maintaining a perception of almost narrative advancement.
The resulting sound world is fairy-tale-like, dreamlike and innocent, reflecting Mina’s emotional state: she interprets Dracula’s proposal as an act of absolute love, not as a condemnation.
Yet this enchanted dimension is continuously crossed by the melodic line of the love/dangerous mood, which introduces an underground tension and prevents any reassuring interpretation.
The music suggests that what Mina perceives as “life” is in fact symbolic death, while what is presented as rebirth is a form of eternal damnation.
Fifth Dramatic Section: Damnation as a Divine Gift
The fifth dramatic section represents one of the most subtle and disturbing moments of the entire scene. Dracula, now fully open in his seductive role, offers Mina damnation while disguising it as a divine gift.
Dracula’s promise is, however, an absolute lie: what he offers is not life, but eternal damnation. It is precisely within this ambiguity that Kilar’s music reaches one of its highest expressive points.
Harmonic Stasis and Riemannian Parallelism
From a Neo-Riemannian perspective, this section is constructed almost entirely through relations of Parallelism around the triad of A, which functions as an immobile harmonic centre. The melodic line of the love/dangerous theme continues to float unchanged, as if suspended, while the underlying harmony turns around itself.
A m7(♭9)
A Maj7
A m Maj7
A7
A m Maj7(♭9)
A m(13)
A7(♭9)
These are not “pure” chords, but structures constantly contaminated by flattened ninths, major and minor sevenths, and thirteenths. This timbral contamination prevents any perception of tonal stability, while maintaining a fixed pedal on A.
Particularly significant is the presence of the sixth-species chord, characterized by a minor third and a major seventh. This intrinsically ambiguous structure concentrates two irreconcilable emotional polarities, amplifying the sense of danger and instability.
The continuous alternation between major and minor through Parallelism creates an almost hypnotic effect, similar to an enchantment. The pedal on A keeps the perceptual focus on Dracula’s words, as if musical time had been suspended, while the harmony obsessively revolves around a single corrupted identity.
Biblical Symbolism: The Serpent and the Forbidden Fruit
This section allows for a strong symbolic connection with the Book of Genesis: just as the serpent tempts Eve by offering the forbidden fruit as a path toward knowledge and divine power, Dracula seduces Mina by promising eternity, love and dominion over nature.
In both cases, the gift is deception. Kilar’s music makes this truth perfectly perceptible: what sounds like divine revelation is in fact a fall. Harmonic stasis, modal ambiguity and obsessive melody transform the promise into a sonic trap.
Sixth Dramatic Section: Profanation and Union in Blood
In the sixth dramatic section, the previous thematic material returns in full: the same love/dangerous melodic theme, supported by the same diatonic progression built on the alternation of major and minor triads. Yet while nothing appears to change dramatically on the musical surface, the irreversible action takes place on the narrative level.
Dracula embraces Mina, bites her neck, exposes his chest, cuts himself and offers her his blood so that she may join him in eternal life. This is the moment of bodily profanation and of the inverted sacrament, in which love becomes a vampiric act.
Kilar’s choice is highly significant: he does not introduce new thematic material, but allows the same melody to continue floating above the harmony, as if the music refused to comment morally on the act.
This musical continuity produces a disturbing effect: an act of violence and damnation is described through the same sonic language that had previously represented dreamlike love. The listener is drawn into a grey zone where eros and death become indistinguishable.
Musically, this section functions as an initiation rite. The blood, central element of vampirism, symbolically replaces the wine of the Eucharist, human life and moral choice.
Through thematic stasis and reiterated harmonic progression, Kilar transforms the gesture into a dark liturgy, in which love is definitively absorbed by damnation.
The radical power of this section lies in the absence of musical rupture. Evil does not enter violently; it slips in gently, using the same language as love. Damnation arrives without changing the music.
Seventh Dramatic Section: Word as Deception and the Apex of Dissonance
In the seventh dramatic section, action is completely replaced by the word. The language of deception returns with force: Dracula does not act, but commands through speech, pronouncing the definitive phrase:
The word assumes a performative and ritual function, becoming a true incantation.
Musically, Kilar reintroduces the same structural solution of the previous sections: a fixed pedal on A, upon which the major/minor Parallelism of the A triad is placed. Compared to the earlier sections, however, the harmonic writing becomes even more unstable and dissonant, as if the deception were beginning to reveal its corrosive nature.
A m7(♭9, ♭11)
A Maj7
A m(Maj7, 13)
A7(9)
C+ (9, 13)
A m(13)
C m7(♭9)
The inner tensions — major and minor sevenths, flattened ninths, elevenths and thirteenths — make the major/minor Parallelism even more ambiguous and disturbing. The harmony now seems irreversibly contaminated.
The moment of maximum dramatic intensity is marked by the movement, through the R operation, toward the Weitzmann augmented chord C+. This chord, by virtue of its symmetrical and unstable nature, suspends any tonal reference and dramatically increases expressive tension.
From C+, the music returns through R to A minor, and then moves again, through RP, toward C minor 7(♭9). This continuous slippage between triads, augmented chords and extended structures creates a sense of harmonic disorientation that perfectly mirrors Dracula’s deception: what is presented as eternity is in fact a loss of orientation.
The melodic line of the love/dangerous theme continues to float detached from the harmony, as if it no longer belonged to the same sonic space. This separation between melody and harmony amplifies the sense of falsity and manipulation: the melody seduces, while the harmony betrays.
At the end of this section, the narrative and musical turning point occurs: through a T+1 transformation, the harmony shifts toward C-sharp minor, introducing the eighth dramatic section. This sudden and surprising passage prepares the listener for a new phase in which the consequences of deception finally begin to manifest.
Eighth Dramatic Section: The Repentance of Evil and the Revelation of Authentic Love
In the eighth dramatic section, the unthinkable occurs: Evil repents. Dracula interrupts the ritual, stops Mina and, for the first time, renounces the power that defines him. In this gesture, his residual humanity is revealed — the humanity that survives beneath the mask of the monster.
This is the moment in which deception is exposed and named as such.
Musically, Kilar makes a choice of extraordinary subtlety: he does not change the thematic material. The same love/dangerous melodic theme remains, supported by the same diatonic progression based on the alternation of major and minor triads.
Yet what changes radically is the meaning. The same music that until now has conveyed seduction, ambiguity and damnation now becomes the vehicle of true, honest and self-sacrificing love.
This is the clearest demonstration that, in this scene, meaning is not determined by musical material alone, but by dramaturgical context.
The alternation between major and minor no longer generates instability or deception, but assumes a painfully human, fragile and exposed character. The harmonic transformation no longer pushes toward dissonant contamination or the augmented chord; instead, it seems to stop, as if the music itself chose not to cross the limit.
The melodic line, while preserving its descending octave leaps and chromatic movements, is no longer perceived as threatening. The same intervals that previously suggested danger now assume the value of renunciation. Chromaticism no longer drags the music toward a fall, but toward awareness.
It is here that the love/dangerous theme reveals its deepest nature: it is not simply a theme of love or danger, but a theme of moral choice.
Ninth Dramatic Section: Supreme Climax and Transfiguration of the Love/Dangerous Theme
In the ninth dramatic section, Mina reaches full awareness. There is no longer fear or ambiguity: she understands the nature of the choice and, precisely for this reason, decides to make it.
She definitively consecrates herself to Dracula as his eternal bride. The decision no longer arises from deception or seduction, but from a lucid and radical act of will.
Musically, this section represents the supreme climax of the entire scene. The music explodes into a hopeful mood of dramatic joy, in which the tension accumulated in the previous sections finally finds a clear and ascending direction.
A decisive element is that the melody remains the same: the love/dangerous theme, now recognizable as the true leitmotif of the scene. Yet, for the first time, this melody joins an ascending harmony, no longer oriented toward danger or descent.
The recognizability of the theme is preserved, but its meaning is transfigured: what previously evoked danger now becomes a vehicle of total hope.
Identity (I) → D+ (Weitzmann)
P → D−(13)
I → D−7
N → A
PR → C
RP → A
PR → C
The harmonic centre stabilizes on a pedal of D, which definitively replaces the previous pedal on A. This passage has a precise symbolic value: if A was associated with deception, moral suspension and seduction, D becomes the centre of affirmation and decision.
The triads are now clearer, less contaminated and marked by a stronger prevalence of major sonorities. The chromaticism of the Weitzmann augmented fifth no longer produces descending instability, but ascending tension oriented toward hope.
The final oscillation between A and C, obtained through PR and RP relations, assumes an affective and bodily meaning: the embrace, the fusion, the love that overcomes every opposition.
The ninth section represents the emotional and symbolic summit of the entire scene. The music does not deny damnation, but sublimates it. Love does not redeem Evil: it transcends it.
Tenth Dramatic Section: The Tritone, Transfiguration and Fulfilled Hope
In the tenth dramatic section, a radical transformation of the musical language takes place. The passage through the tritone leap toward F-sharp major marks a clear rupture from all previous sections: we are projected into an entirely new sonic space.
The tritone, historically associated with instability, the diabolus and transgression, is here refunctionalized. It does not introduce danger, but opens onto another, conclusive and almost metaphysical dimension. It is the sign of a definitive passage.
In this section, the melody disappears. The love/dangerous theme, which has crossed the entire scene as a leitmotif, is no longer necessary. In its place emerges a melodic harmony: a harmonic progression that itself assumes narrative function.
The music no longer narrates an inner conflict, but describes a completed process.
The central element of this section is the ascending motion of the bass, built on the alternation of major and minor triads. This procedure, typical of a dramatic/hopeful mood, generates a tension that is no longer ambiguous or unstable, but clearly oriented upward.
Unlike the previous sections, there are no more descending chromaticisms, no more deception, and no more moral oscillation. The harmonic ascent becomes the symbol of fulfilled hope — not naive hope, but hope conquered through pain, choice and sacrifice.
The conclusion in the major mode does not represent moral redemption, nor does it deny damnation. Rather, it represents the fulfilled meaning of hope: what was fragmented, ambiguous and conflicted finally finds a stable form.
Hope does not arise from the victory of Good over Evil, but from their definitive integration. After the climax of choice, there is nothing left to say: the music can only rise and conclude.
This final section closes the entire narrative arc of the scene: from deception to awareness, from sacrifice to final transfiguration. The tritone leap toward F-sharp major is not a deviation, but a threshold.
Once this threshold has been crossed, the music no longer needs themes or symbols. What remains is only the ascending movement, as a final gesture of affirmation.
The scene therefore closes not in peace, but in absolute, dramatic, irrevocable and definitive hope.
