NosferaKTu

[IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA]

Small world, eh, Fu-Sheng? Well, perhaps you're right
that IED's enthusiasm for KT borders on the lunatical
in comparison with that of other L-Hs; he will try to
keep that in mind in future.
Since you ask, here is what IED knows about the Nosferatu
connection:
In between the verses of "Hello Earth",
Kate interstitched an uncanny duplication of the men's choral
passage from the surreal "drink-and-be-merry-for-tomorrow-we-may-die"
scene from the end of Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu", although altering
the sound somewhat, and adding other instrumental tracks, either
acoustic strings or a Fairlight imitation.
In the liner notes to Hounds of Love Kate "thanks" Werner Herzog,
not specifying what for. Then, in Tony Myatt's Capital Radio interview,
which was conducted for the Romford Convention last October or November,
Kate said that she had got the men's choral section of "Hello Earth"
"from" Herzog's "Nosferatu". She first identified the origin of this
music as "Czech or Russian", then corrected herself by stating
flatly that it was "Czech", adding that the music had sounded "truly
holy" to her. (I don't remember the words exactly, but
I have them on audio tape somewhere, and they are now in print
somewhere in a recent "Homeground", which has been printing a
transcription of the interview over the past two issues.)
At the beginning of the movie credit is given to Popol Vuh for the
main score (IED foolishly paid $10.00 plus for the soundtrack LP
in Europe last November, naively assuming that all the music from the
film would be included). Below Popol Vuh's credit, two additional
musical credits were listed, one for a passage from some Wagner opera
or other (didn't have time to read it) and the third for "folk music"
by some group (?) known as "Zinzcaro". This is almost certainly the
credit for the bit of choral music in the penultimate scene which
Kate used in "Hello Earth". However, Kate's version is sung by
a British choral group known as the "Richard Hickox Singers".
In neither case are the words intelligible to IED, since he knows
neither Czech nor Russian. He would be very interested to know what
the words mean, or even if the same words are sung in both versions,
even though it is admittedly highly unlikely that the lyrics' content
bears any relation to Kate's theme in The Ninth Wave, or even that
she ever bothered to find out what the words meant. It was clearly
the sound that interested her, not the meaning of the words.
This has nothing to do with the line spoken in German from the
same part of The Ninth Wave: "Tiefer, tiefer, ergendwo in der Tiefe
gibt es ein licht." If you notice, that line, spoken by Gabi Zangerl,
is accompanied by the sounds of a submarine's sonar signal. It is
IED's theory that this is meant to evoke images of U-boat activity
during WWII, and possibly to create the feeling of claustrophobia
that must have existed within the confined spaces of a submarine,
which is a big part of the movie "Das Boot". Kate has several times
referred to old war movies as a primary inspiration for The Ninth Wave.