# Classical "Halloween Music"



## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

Post your favorite "scary" Halloween Music.

Here are three of my favorites:

Of course, there's this evergreen by Saint-Saëns:




Chopin's famous funeral dirge:




and an obscure one by Goossens:


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

P.S. I'd prefer examples more on the "fun" side of things.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

Night on Bald Mountain is a great one for Halloween.


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

Oh yeah, that's a seasonal favorite as well. BTW, have you heard Mussorgsky's original version? It's rather interesting.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

I have not heard the original version. I am only familiar with Rimsky-Korsakov and Stokowski arrangements of the piece. Do you have a link to a good rendition of the original?


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

I forgot - there are actually TWO versions by Mussorgsky, one with chorus and one without which are both quite different:


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Funeral March of a Marionette - Gounod


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

The Scherzo of Mahler's 7th.


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

It's Mahler's entry in the "Danse macabre" genre, and one of the best. The Mahler Symphony 4 scherzo is also a "danse macabre" of sorts.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Ah.... its got to be Macmillan's Confession of Isobel Gowdie


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

christomacin said:


> It's Mahler's entry in the "Danse macabre" genre, and one of the best. The Mahler Symphony 4 scherzo is also a "danse macabre" of sorts.


Not to mention "Freund Hein," and the Huntsman's Funeral woodcut by von Schwind "after the manner of Callot," which informs the atmosphere of the third movement of the First Symphony. I see those as comparatively gentle Wunderhorn fantasies of death, whereas the 7th Scherzo is intended to be a fully adult and aware satirical nightmare.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

In addition to some of the above, these always show up on my Halloween playlist:

Liadov: Baba Yaga and Kikimora
Balakirev: Tamara
Rimsky-Korsakov: Night on Mt. Triglav (amazingly underrated and not well-known)
Charles Ives: Halloween
Rachmaninoff: Isle of the Dead
Berlioz: Dream of the Witches Sabbath (from Symphonie Fantastique)
Gliere: 2nd movement of Symphony No. 3 (Ilya Murometz)
Franck: The Accursed Huntsman
Liszt: Totentanz

and any of the symphonies of Humphrey Searle - who wrote the scariest movie score ever, The Haunting.
Dvorak: The Noonday Witch


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Grieg: Hall of the Mountain King


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

QuietGuy said:


> Grieg: Hall of the Mountain King


You can hear this whenever Orson's brothers appear in the U.S. Acres cartoons that aired with Garfield and Friends. If you want to dress as a scary pig for Halloween, this would be great theme music to have with you.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

The opening and closing movements of Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antarctica. It scares the bejeesus out of me.


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## vsm (Aug 26, 2017)

What do you think about this piece I composed a while ago (the video was made by a professional, the music is computer simulated but the composition is mine):

Halloween Night for violin and piano





Wanted to create a "scary" and "grotesque" atmosphere...


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

Not bad, the music does the job and the editing is good. My situation is the opposite of yours - I edit my videos but don't do the music I have a video you might like as, called Symphony No. 15 "Black Halloween" (for MIDI) by Michel Rondeau.


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

Let me know what you think. The thumbnail isn't showing up but it's playable if you click on it.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

The "Mad Scene" from Boris Godunov is pretty unsettling.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I don't think the spooky _Lenore_ symphony (#5) by Raff has been mentioned. Mussorgsky's _Pictures at an exhibition_ has its scary moments too. Dvorak's symphonic poem _The noon witch_ fits the bill.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

There's a lot of very bad noisy modern music that fits the bill, perhaps a bit too cruelly.


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

"There's a lot of very bad noisy modern music that fits the bill, perhaps a bit too cruelly."

True. Hopefully we'll get some of the other sort. I did ask for "fun" Halloween stuff.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

*Try*:

*Alexander Glazunov*: The Forest
-->




*Sir Arnold Bax*: November Woods
-->




*Sir Eugene Goossens:* "Tam O'Shanter"
-->


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

An interesting seasonal tie-in for Sir Eugene Goossens: "The Witch of Kings Cross" Scandal which ended his career. The link below explains the sordid details:
http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/...m-director-and-the-witch-20150702-gi3h8y.html


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## JohnDWhite (Aug 20, 2013)

Carl Orff's O Fortuna from Carmina Burana always works it's Halloween magic for me.


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

mbhaub said:


> In addition to some of the above, these always show up on my Halloween playlist:
> 
> *Liadov: Baba Yaga and Kikimora*
> *Balakirev: Tamar*a
> ...


The Russian composers seemed to have a special knack for the spooky stuff, didn't they?


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## bigboy (May 26, 2017)

I recently attended a small piano/vocal duet concert that was in keeping with the mood of the season (in a graveyard no less!)
I will shameless copy of some of their set list here:

Alkan - Song of the mad woman on the seashore
Ravel - Gaspard de la nuit (esp. mov. 2)
Berlioz - The last two movements of Symphonie Fantastique (March to the scaffold and Dream of the night of the [witch's] sabbath (which was already mentioned here it seems but I really have to give it another vote))

They also performed a version of Danse Macabre for just piano/voice which was interesting, but I'd take the full orchestra any day.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Danse Macabre Saint Saens
Reminds me of a "ghost train" on holiday when I was young. Was played as I was riding through!


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## Nocture In Blue (Jun 3, 2015)

The Devils of Loudun by Krzysztof Penderecki is good Halloween music.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Best music for scaring small children.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

French music......


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## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

Bernard Herrmann, _Psycho Suite for Strings_ 2011 British Proms (I prefer the Berlin Philharmonic performance but you have to buy a ticket to watch the piece online.)

Happy Halloween!


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## Bill Cooke (May 20, 2017)

I don't believe Liszt's "Mephisto Waltz" has been mentioned. Jerry Goldsmith used parts of it, along with the Dies Irae, to create a sensationally scary film score for the 1972 movie THE MEPHISTO WALTZ.

Other spooky or supernatural-themed classical pieces:

George Crumb: Haunted Landscape (also Black Angels)
Florent Schmitt: The Haunted Palace
Malcolm Arnold: Tam O'Shanter Overture 
Franz Liszt: Faust Symphony
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3 (based on his opera about a witch's damnation, The Fiery Angel)
Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle
Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 9 "Black Mass"
Copland: Grohg (ballet)


And while not meant to be a scary piece of music, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor seems to be on every diabolical organist's hits list.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Big organ sounds are a cliche I know, but I can't resist the Poulenc Organ Concerto when it comes to the cheesier side of Halloween; even though the music has nothing whatsoever to do with the occasion. 
This recording has a suitably big, gothic organ sound.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I do think Moonlight Sonata fits the bill really well.

Some darker Debussy as well.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Attended a "Halloween" concert last weekend and heard a piece I didn't know -- Kikimora by Anatoly Liadov. It was enhanced by a woman onstage dressed in costume saying she was Kikimora prior to it being played. She described herself as an evil spirit. The concert consisted of:

Webber Phantom Of the Opera
Gluck Dance of the Furies
Saint Saens Danse Macabre
Kikimora
Grieg In the Hall of the Mountain King
Mussorgsky Night On Bald Mountain (of course)

A local ballet company's dancers paraded during most of the music and even came into the audience. It was a lot of fun.

I'd say the "scarier" Halloween music I know is the adagio from Bartok's Concerto for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Wendy (once Walter) Carlos's score to "The Shining," and "Black Host" from William Bolcom.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Wolf's Glen scene from Act II of Weber's _Der Freischütz_

Witches Cave scene from Act III of Verdi's _Macbeth_

Most of Act I of Marchner's _Der Vampyr_

From the point where Méphistophélès and Faust gallop off to Hell in Part IV of Berlioz's _La damnation de Faust_


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

Manxfeeder said:


> The opening and closing movements of Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antarctica. It scares the bejeesus out of me.


Yes , that wordless vocal part certainly is eerie.

On an unrelated point ,I think the Sibelius Symphony No. 4 is the ultimate "haunted house" music:





"Macbeth" by R. Strauss is suitably dark and stormy also:


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## pokeefe0001 (Jan 15, 2017)

H.K. Gruber's Frankenstein!! would be appropriate in a fun, campish kind of way. I have not been able to find his English version of the complete work on the web. Several German performances (appropriate, of course), and an Italian one.

Here's a short excerpt of the an English performance - the section "Hello, Hello, Herr Frankenstein".





Here's a short, very Kurt Weilish excerpt - "Herr Supermann" - with Gruber as conductor and chansonnier:





And here's a collage of several excerpts (in German) that gives a good feel for the work:





The work is great fun and should be heard more.

By the way, Gruber wrote the English version not as a translation of the German but as something giving the same feeling as the original German. (The German flying circus mouse with a cape becomes a flying circus rat with a cape because rat/bat works in English.)


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## David OByrne (Dec 1, 2016)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Some darker Debussy as well.


I've never heard a single Debussy piece that I would call "dark" in any sense of the word :lol:


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

I wouldn't really think of Debussy as being particularly dark either. "The Sunken Cathedral" maybe comes closest:


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## Bill Cooke (May 20, 2017)

David OByrne said:


> I've never heard a single Debussy piece that I would call "dark" in any sense of the word :lol:


Debussy started an opera based on Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" but never completed it. The portion he wrote was recorded and can be found on an EMI compilation that also includes Caplet's Masque of the Red Death and Schmitt's Haunted Palace.

Debussy's music for Poe was appropriately eerie and morbid. A shame the work was not completed.


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