Music for all Hallows Eve, from ancient chant to modern horror. Halloween night, Beaumont Tower 9pm.
Copy-paste of the program contents:
Theme from Dead Silence Charlie Clouser (b. 1963)
A murdered ventriloquist returns as a doll to seeks revenge. If you
scream, you die.
Saints and Demons
Ballet from the opera Faust Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
Dies Irae trad. Gregorian chant
Chartres Roy H. Johnson (1929-2020)
Faust: Mephistopheles offers a bet to a scholar with an insatiable
appetite for learning and growth. If he can give Faust a moment so
blissful that he wishes to remain forever, never striving for more,
Faust will instantly die and forever serve the devil in hell.
Dies Irae (D S E-ray) is a Gregorian chant of death and judgement.
“The day of wrath will dissolve the world in ashes… grant that I be
not burned up by everlasting fire.” It’s a prolific melody, showing up
in the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Hayden, Liszt, Rachmaninoff,
Stravinsky, Mahler (to name a few), and in films like Citizen Kane,
Star Wars, Home Alone, Hunchback, Lion King, even Frozen 2.
Goethe quoted its text in his play Faust, and Gounod quoted the
melody in his operatic adaptation, a bit of which we just heard.
Chartres is a 15th century Catholic melody. This setting was
composed in 1970, specifically for carillon. Spooky.
Horrors and Villains
Pinhead (Hellraiser) Christopher Young (b. 1958)
Freddy Krueger (Nightmare) Charles Bernstein (b. 1950)
Michael Myers (Halloween) John Carpenter (b. 1948)
Hellraiser: A puzzle box summons demons of pain and torment.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy hunts you in your dreams.
Halloween: A murderer escapes on Halloween night to kill again.
Haunting Refrains
Danza Espanola #2 Enrique Granados (1867-1916)
Music of the Night (Phantom) Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948)
Haunted Taylor Swift (b. 1989)
Danza Espanola wasn’t originally Halloween music, it just works.
While we often hear the Phantom’s thunder, the sweeter Music of
the Night is just as nefarious, part of his dark seduction of the
young opera singer lured to his lair. (btw In the original production,
the Phantom’s wall displays the text of Dies Irae. It’s everywhere).
Haunted was Taylor-made for a night like this.
Sonorities John Courter (1941-2010)
Sonorities channels the quiet side of spook, like ancient ruins in
moonlight or a fading path in the dark woods. It was also originally
composed for carillon, so no adaptation required.
Death, Actually
Zombie Cranberries, Dolores O'Riordan (b. 1971)
Danse Macabre Camile Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Dust in the Wind Kansas, Kerry Livgren (b. 1949)
It’s hard to beat a title like Zombie, but it was actually written as a
protest song for the young victims of a bombing in England, tied to
violence in Ireland. We’ll lean into the unplugged side of this one.
Danse Macabre: As midnight tolls on Halloween, Death calls the
dead from their graves to dance… until the rooster crows and they
must return to their graves until the next year.
Indulge me briefly: behind the fun and pageantry of Halloween,
there something scarier than the monsters. We know we will die,
and ultimately our time here is short. Cleric Regina Sandler-
Phillips said she would like “a tiny fraction of all the money, time,
and resources spent on zombies and vampires and the undead to
be spent on coming to terms with real death and what it means for
our lives.” In Regina’s honor, I’ll give that darkness some airtime
too. Memento Mori say the sages, remember you will die and it will
help you to live a better life. Dust in the Wind sings softly, almost
consolingly of death; no costumes or jump scares necessary. “I
close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone... all we
do, crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see… it slips
away, and all your money won't another minute buy… All we are is
dust in the wind.”
In the Hall of the Mountain King Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Back to the pageantry. You are in the subterranean palace of a troll
king, surrounded by “a great crowd of troll courtiers, gnomes, and
goblins”, forced to marry the king’s daughter and become a troll.
When you refuse, the entire hall comes to life, singing “Slay him!”,
and listing all the ways you might die at their hands. Turns out it’s
also the inspiration for the Inspector Gadget theme song.
Thanks for coming out!! Want more?
Concerts each Wednesday classes meet, 12 – 12:30pm
Tower tours, first Wednesday of each month, 12 – 12:30pm
Xmas Nov 21st, MLK Day Jan 20th, Lunar New Year Feb 10th
Artists from around the world, Wednesdays in July, 6 – 7pm
@msucarillon, @msutowerguard (or check the tower door!)
PS know what’s really scary? Waking up in 5 days and realizing
you didn’t vote. Early voting is on. Same-day voter registration too.
Michigan may decide the election. If you study here, you can vote
here. Make a plan now, vote early, or before polls close Tuesday.