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Feature Fridays: 40 Most Scary Halloween Classics

In the music library’s ongoing series, this week’s feature is from Music Library Coordinator Amanda Steadman, who reviews 40 Most Scary Halloween Classics.

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Welcome to Feature Fridays!Eachweek, AU Music Library staff highlight an item from our collection. While the music library is closed, we will feature items that are available for streaming. This week Music Library Coordinator Amanda Steadman reviews, available from Naxos Music Library with your AU credentials.

In this spooky season, I wanted to highlight something Halloween-related. Naxos conveniently suggested this collection of classical pieces.Not all of them sound exactly spooky to me—particularly items like Debussy’s(“moonlight”)and(“the sunken cathedral”), which are more “spooky in name only” to my ears, although both beautiful pieces. But there’s plenty toexplorein this collection, which features performances from various top name orchestras and solo performers.

Hauntedhighlights you may have heard before include Mussorgsky’s, which if you’ve ever seen Disney’sFantasia,is the one with the devil on the mountaintop.Bach’s, BWV 565 is also inFantasia, but has been used for numerous appearances of organ playing vampires.Anyone with an ear for Broadway will recognize the music from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s.

My favorite spooky secret is theDies Irae,a melodythatoriginates inplainchantof the Requiem mass (mass for the dead); theoriginal setting’s dateisunclear, butis generally thought to besometime in the 13thcentury.You can hear the plainchant settinginonfrom the album. The beginning eight-note melody has been used as musical shorthandfor death and other scary thingsby composers over the past eight centuries(especially the first four notes.)Itappears in other pieces on this album, most notably in Berlioz’sSymphonie Fantastique(which itself has a fascinating story that I don’t have space to cover here!), inthe final movement, “.” You can hear it in this version around3:06andagain at7:40.Another instance can be found in Franz Liszt’s(“death dance”)throughout the piece.For another famous quotation of this melody, I recommendanon “Making Christmas” from Danny Elfman’s score forThe Nightmare Before Christmas. This melody shows up several times inElfman’s scoreand hearing the host talk throughElfman’s use of the melodymay help you to recognize it in other films.I will note quickly that theDies Iraetext is also used separately from this melody in settings of theRequiemmass.is also included in this collection.

Overall, this collection featuresanalarmingatmosphere for spooky studying. I recommendit for your Halloween listening pleasure.

40 Most Scary Halloween Classicsand many other albums of classical music are available for streaming from with your AU credentials.