Four Scary Classical Music Favorites for Halloween
Orchestral music, commonly called classical music, is interwoven in to our society. Although many people claim to have no interest in classical music, they often fail to realize that they listen to it more than they know. It’s October so let’s look at Halloween. Known as the scariest holiday of the year, the fear is often created as a result of scary classical music. Here are a few pieces you most likely know but didn’t know the title.
Bach – Toccata and Fugue in d minor, BWV 565
Arguably the most well-known piece in the organ repertoire, the beginning is well known by people far separated from the world of classical music. Although one of Bach’s best known pieces, not all music scholars believe that Back wrote it. Since there is no original manuscript known to exist, analysis of the original isn’t possible but scholars point out numerous compositional devices that weren’t commonly used by Bach.
Regardless, not only was the music used in Disney’s Fantasia, it’s commonly used on TV, movies, ringtones, and rearranged to fit in to styles from Jazz to punk rock.
Bartok – Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (mvmt. 3, adagio)
Don’t listen to this piece by yourself with the lights out. Movie buffs will remember this as part of the soundtrack to the 1980 movie, “The Shining”. This movement of Bartok’s famous masterpiece was used nearly uncut in what some movie critics is the scariest scene in the movie.
Bela Bartok, 1880-1945, was one of Hungary’s most accomplished composers as well as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. Along with this piece, his “Concerto for Orchestra” is well known to classical music buffs.
Mussorgsky – A Night on Bald Mountain
Modest Mussorgsky was a Russian composer living from 1839 to 1881. He was proudly Russian and credited with pioneering Russian style romantic music. Although Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain” is well known to most people, Mussorgsky’s original composition wasn’t performed until after his death. The music that listeners now call “A Night on Bald Mountain” is actually a piece arranged by fellow Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The piece became famous after its use in Disney’s “Fantasia.”
Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer who lived from 1843-1907. This well-known piece is only about 3 minutes in length but it’s part of a larger, 3 hour play titled, “Peer Gynt”. Although now famous, Grieg didn’t speak highly of his composition noting that “I wrote something that so reeks of cowpats…that I can’t bear to hear it.”
Finally…
If you’re looking for something scary to play as the soundtrack to your haunted house, any of these four well known classical music staples will help to make a creepy atmosphere. Other pieces include:
• Ives – Robert Browning Overture
• Webern – Variations Op. 27 – Ruhig fliessend
• Brahms – Hungarian Dance No. 5 in g minor
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