AN UNRAVELING MUSICAL MYTHS SOUNDTRACK FOR A HARROWING HELL-OWE'EN (PART I OF III)

It's that time of year again - as fellow music enthusiasts dust off their spookiest selections of classical masterpieces intended to send the listener into a tizzy of tormented terror, Unraveling Musical Myths has once again sifted through the deepest layers of musical hell to unearth the most spine-tingling, palpitation-inducing tracks of abysmal hellfire. From creepy and classic masterpieces to contemporary bone chillers, this year's addition has a little something for everyone.

Be warned, dear reader, this chillingly curated collection of acoustical terror will be anything but a walk in the park. Far from the average "best of" Halloween playlists, this latest edition dwells among the unknown: those obscure masterpieces from Western and Eastern Europe, the Nordic countries and beyond. Occasionally, a more familiar holiday fixture will bear its fangs for the more traditionally inclined seeking to get their shriek on -  but for the most part, it is my hope to introduce the listener to something newly horrific.

*Due to time constraints, a limited supply of videos will accompany brief synopses. I will continue to add snippets as my schedule permits.

In the interim, let the macabre music speak for itself:

PART I/III (second and third posts will be placed below part one)

KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI: CELLO CONCERTO NO 1


Originally composed for violino grande (an acoustical hybrid of violin and viola) and orchestra, this absolutely bone chilling concerto takes the listener on a horrifyingly harrowing journey though purgatory. This isn't your average spooky orchestration, either: Penderecki upped the angst-fueled ante by adding some of the most haunting instruments to the rhythm section: a guiro, whip, rattle, celesta - and even a saw - in order to violently slice through the frenzied din.



MYKOLA LEONTOVYCH: "SMERT" (DEATH)


This haunting choral piece, written in 1921 by the "Ukrainian Bach," Mykola Leontovych is not only capable of inducing a severe case of gooseflesh in the average listener, but also an intense case of anxiety for the superstitiously-inclined lot."Smert," or "Death," read like a bad omen for Leontovych.

This desperate protest against the reaper would immediately precede the composers violent, untimely death by gunfire. Written mere days before Leontovych was brutally assassinated by a Soviet agent in 1921, the choice of lyrics can only be viewed as highly unsettling, and eerily prophetic:

"I hear death walking in the yard, I hear it approaching me, quietly, slowly. Quietly, slowly all the way. Oh my children, my flowers, don't let my death in, don't let me die! I hear death walking in the hallway..."

ANDRÉ CAPLET: CONTE FANTASTIQUE FOR HARP AND STRING QUARTET


Whoever thought the harp delicate has clearly never heard André Caplet's Conte Fantastique.

Scored for piano or harp and orchestra, this version of the French composers' terrifying tone poem evokes all of the gruesome horror of Edgar Allan Poe's morbid "Masque of the Red Death," an alarming short story concerning a bloody plague known only as the Red Death - a fatal, highly infectious pestilence that kills it's victims by bleeding them out in the span of one half-hour - long enough to suffer in agony and become fully cognizant of one's own impending doom, yet too short of a time span to do anything about it.

Caplet's instructions for the harpist truly devolve the instrument from its classically calming, aeolian stereotype into something sinfully sinister: the player is directed to knock on the harp with his or her knuckles and play sul ponticello, or close to the bridge, inducing brash, eerie, other-worldly effects.

Combine this unusual method of play with the not-so-common knowledge of Caplet's tragic death nearly two decades after Conte Fantastique's premiere from complications suffered by a poison gas attack he had endured during WWI, and you have one truly terrifying piece.


GALINA USTVOLSKAYA: GRAND DUET FOR CELLO AND PIANO

Dubbed "The Lady with the Hammer," 20th century Russian composer and would-be wife of Dmitri Shostakovitch Galina Ustvolskaya, who is alleged to have refused the former's marriage proposal (she was also his prized pupil), floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. Her music was notorious for it's ferocious tenacity, toeing the line of expulsion from the Union of Composers in Soviet Russia, wherein the government actively opposed music of the avant-garde persuasion.

The abrasive Grand Duet for cello and piano, commissioned in the 1960's by renowned cellist Mstislav Rostropovich (who declared the visage of the lady composer as "shy and exceptionally beautiful") is no exception to this rule. Forbidden to perform the Duet live for fear of immediate arrest, Rostropovich recalls his private sessions with Ustvolskaya:

"[she] suddenly struck the bass notes with such force, while simultaneously launching into a machine-gun burst in the upper register, that I involuntarily started at the contrast between her personal modesty and her incredibly powerful music."

MARTA PTASZYNSKA: A WINTER'S TALE


Titles can be deceiving - especially when it comes to 20th century Polish composer Marta Ptaszynska's hellish "La Novella d'Inverno" (A Winter's Tale) for string orchestra.

We often associate the frigid season with sounds that ring merry - but, be forewarned, dear reader, there are no celestas to be found here, no ringing of bells nor yuletide cheer.

Transmuting (and modifying) motives and rhythms from the famed Le quattro stagioni of Antonio Vivaldi, La Novella draws it's inspiration from the surrealist imagery of Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, and Giorgio de Chirico. A Winter's Tale, much like the art that led to its creation, combines elements of the natural world with the bizarre terrain of your very worst nightmares.


KRZYSTOF PENDERECKI: THRENODY TO THE VICTIMS OF HIROSHIMA


Originally titled "8'37," Krzystof Penderecki's award winning Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima first introduces the listener  to an ear-splitting, gooseflesh inducing, hair raising cluster chord of all of the piece's instruments playing in their uppermost register. What follows is a diabolically delicious cacophony of alternating diminuendoes and crescendos and terrifying tremolos.

A forerunner of sonorism, this shocking work was deemed so agonizingly abhorrent by music critics, it would briefly fall into the much loathed category of music unfit for sensible ears.


PER NØRGÅRD: SYMPHONY NO. 5


Danish composer Per Nørgård's 35 minute, uninterrupted tour de force may present itself as a shrill, symphonic escapade of irascible, indeterminate movements, but of one thing it is certain: it is one hell of a motley brew of sepulchral, sinister tones. Aptly described by one listener as "a trip with a firey dragon," this soundtrack-worthy entry is sure to make even the most robust of men cower beneath the covers.


LÉON BOËLLMANN: TOCCATA (SUITE GOTHIQUE)


The first of three organ works to appear on this year's Hell-owe'en countdown, this late 19th century French suite - in particular its fourth movement (the Toccata) - gives Bach's infamous piece a run for its money. Dark, brooding and unquestionably dramatic, this grim gothic suite proves the church's most popular instrument can be used for both good and evil.


JERRY GOLDSMITH: AVE SATANI (OMEN SUITE)

Composed by the late American film scorer Jerry Goldsmith in 1976 for the cult horror film The Omen, this award-winning choral "mass" sounds like Orff's "O Fortuna" on steroids. 

Inspired by the notion of the "black mass," this Latin ode to Satan is almost certain to leave unsuspecting listeners suddenly speaking in tongues. 

Inverting the text of the Latin Eucharist, Ave Satani's (Hail Satan) lyrics translate as follows:

We drink the blood
We eat the body
Raise the body of Satan
Hail, Hail Antichrist!
Hail Satan!

/ END OF PT. I (II & III TO FOLLOW)

- Rose.

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