Vulgano Brother

Happy Halloween!
Let’s talk about scary music.



For me, the spookiest music is Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, simply because while in college, those of us on Basic Cable could get a month’s free use of HBO, which in my first year of graduate school meant watching The Shining 24/7 for a month. This was used in Kubrick’s background score when Jack Nicholson was doing some serious character morphing. My droogs and I watched it under a variety of conditions, including what is commonly called “altered states.” (Don’t worry, Moms, that was the early 80’s when "altered" states were still considered something ok for college students to experience as part of the “growing up process.” We didn’t have online video games back then, and the sorority girls had good enough sense not to seriously date music majors.)

I can’t hear this piece still without seeing Jack Torance grabbing hold of his axe. That was spooky, especially after one Halloween viewing and going for a walk, only to have a spear-wielding cave man drop out of a tree. Weird.

Scary for me, however, is the Symphony Nr. 3, the “Poem of Ecstasy,” by Scriabin. There is something so much “wrong” so much “against the grain” that makes it sound evil to my ears.

What are your favorite spooky/scary orchestral/chamber pieces?

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tptshark

Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima!

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richtom

Reiner/CSO, Rachmaninoff: Isle of the Dead.
Don't listen to this with the lights off. The atmosphere Reiner could create was second to none and there is a sense of menace and foreboding in this legendary recording that is downright scary. The sinister and relentless 5/8 time which permeates the work and the melancholy that is the very essence of Rachmaninoff himself is completely realized in very well recorded work. There are some hair-raising brass chords that the CSO brass section pound on the listen like a sledge hammer.
One look at the painting by Bocklin and you will see what inspired Rachmaninoff.
Strauss's Death and Transfiguration and Sibelius Valse Trieste can also be on the unnerving side.
Rich T.

Trumpet_EG

the andante of Mahler's tenth

Solar Bell

Triskaidekaphobia....a great old big band tune.

Here is a sample....click on Trisaidekaphobia.

Rhythm Society Orchestra - CD

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Chuck Willard
The Willard of Oz


"Don't be afraid to see what you see."
Ronald Reagan

The average response time of a 911 call is over 4 minutes.
The average speed of my 9mm is 1250 fps

When seconds count....the police are only minutes away.

wiseone2

Try this one.............

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Be sure Brain is engaged before putting Mouthpiece in gear.
S.Suark 1951