If you鈥檙e heading to a Halloween party this weekend, odds are you鈥檙e going to hear 鈥淭hriller鈥� and 鈥淢onster Mash.鈥�
And why not? Those songs have become bonafide seasonal classics, catchy anthems for the season. But they鈥檙e not the only uncanny jams available, or the only compositions that are adept at sending shivers down your spine. We reached out to some of Dal鈥檚 musicology experts in the Fountain School of Performing Arts for their spooky suggestions.
(And if you鈥檙e more the visual or literary type, .)
Steve Baur
Associate Professor, Fountain School of Performing Arts
Cross-Appointment w/ Gender and Women鈥檚 Studies
The piece that comes to my mind immediately is Henry Cowell's The Banshee, which requires the pianist to delve inside of the piano to make all kinds of spooky sounds by rubbing, scraping, and scratching the strings. Very spooky and witchy! Then there's Musorgsky's , which is an orchestral rendering of a witches' sabbath. A witches' sabbath is also the subject of the final movement of Berlioz's . But for sheer spookiness, I think Cowell takes the cake.
Jacqueline Warwick
Associate Professor, Musicology
Gender and Women's Studies Coordinator
The thing that makes The Banshee so eerie is that we can鈥檛 easily identify the source of the sounds. That is also the case with Bauhaus鈥檚 鈥淏ela Lugosi鈥檚 Dead,鈥� which I鈥檒l contribute. The Bauhaus recording is long, and harmonically tense because it never really moves; the bass line just creeps down a minor third over and over, while Peter Murphy howls at us about bats, brides, and the undead.
J茅r么me Blais
Associate Professor, Composition, Fountain School of Performing Arts
Cross Appointment w/ Canadian Studies
Ligeti's can be pretty spooky, and Pendercki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima is beyond scary 鈥� simply panicking. Although I must confess I constantly battle my students to go beyond the clich茅 that modern, atonal music sounds like horror movies music.
Ryan McNutt
Dal News editor and MA student, Musicology
In the more lighthearted spirit of the season, I鈥檒l throw 鈥淒o They Know It鈥檚 Halloween?鈥� into the mix: a 2005 charity single organized by Vice Records for UNICEF. Modelled after Band Aid鈥檚 iconic (and ham-fisted) 鈥淒o They Know It鈥檚 Christmas?鈥� the song is a cheeky, creepy anthem credited to The North American Halloween Prevention Initiative. Its members (the song鈥檚 artists) include Arcade Fire, Beck, Buck 65, Feist, Elvira, Malcolm McLaren, Wolf Parade, this year鈥檚 Polaris Prize winner Tanya Tagaq and more.
What's your favourite song for a Halloween soundtrack? Share your suggestions in the comments below.
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