THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN (Moth Sanctuary Productions)*****

  

By Louise

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qll2WqvKgbM 

Available until: Unknown

The Music of Erich Zann is quite a frightening story, but it is very different from a lot of horror stories I have read and heard.

A lot of horror stories tell similar sorts of stories, but I don’t think I’ve read about creepy music before. I love music and I think it is beautiful, but even though a lot of people think of ugliness when it comes to horror stories (especially when they are about zombies), I think beautiful things can be very frightening too. The Picture of Dorian Gray is another really good story which shows this but The Music of Erich Zann is about beautiful, scary sounds.

A student needs to find a place to live and he finds a cheap room. One of the other guests is an elderly musician who is mute. His name is Erich Zann. The student hears him playing music at night and he thinks it’s amazing and beautiful and not like any other composer he has ever heard. He really wants to hear him play properly so he introduces himself and asks to go to his room and listen to him. Erich Zann agrees, but things don’t go as the student is expecting.

I also really like that H. P. Lovecraft has written about a character who is mute. My brother Arran is a selective mute and he also plays the violin, though he’s not really like Erich Zann apart from that (and Erich Zann plays a viol which is most like a cello, even though lots of people assume he’s a violinist). I think it is good that he is different from Arran because not everyone who is mute is the same. I think H. P. Lovecraft has written this in a sensitive way. Erich Zann is an eccentric character and he is involved in horror, but the fact he can’t talk isn’t what makes the story horrific. It makes him more vulnerable.

I also like the way the student who befriends him accepts Erich Zann’s mutism. There are other things he does which the student doesn’t like, but he doesn’t push him to talk and he’s happy to wait while Erich Zann writes what he needs to. It is really good to see someone with a disability treated with respect and understanding even in 1922. Also, the student thinks Erich Zann is a genius. A lot of people think Arran is stupid, but they are wrong. But the student doesn’t think Erich Zann is stupid. He thinks he has amazing abilities.

But it is still a horror story. It is really quite scary and it is beautifully told by Andrew Bate. There is beautiful but haunting cello music in the background as he reads, but Mr Bate’s voice is musical too. He really knows how to make a story scary without doing scary voices when it’s unrealistic for the character to sound scary. He tells the story as the student might have told it. The scary parts are much more subtle. The way Mr Bate emphasises the words makes you imagine all the frightening things that might be going on. It’s also a really exciting story and it’s a sad story too.

I’m not sure which part unsettled me the most because there are so many unsettling things, but the moments where the characters looked at the curtains are always unsettling. Curtains can be quite scary. They’re often hiding something (or someone) and sometimes if you see the shape of the curtains in the dark, it can sometimes look like someone is hiding there even if they’re not.

This is a really good horror story. It’s probably good to read too, but Moth Sanctuary’s version is read really well and the music adds a lot to the atmosphere.