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Top Ten Spookiest Classical Pieces

Perhaps I’m feeling macabre, but tonight I’m digging out my favorite spooky classical pieces and listening to them. So I thought putting together a top ten list of these would be fun while I drink my scotch. Note: These are not really in any particular order. I love them all.

1. Beethoven: Piano Trio in D major, op. 70 no. 1, “Ghost” - 2nd movement. Rattling of chains, shrieking of spirits; the nickname of this trio fits it well. The first and third movements are good as well, but only the second movement is really spooky. 2. Schubert: Der Leiermann (from Winterreise). A heartbroken young man sings about the hurdy-gurdy, an outcast who sits just outside the village and plays his instrument while dogs snarl at him and people ignore him. Particularly chilling is that this is the last song of an hour-long cycle, and it drones on without clear resolution, ending with the line: “Strange old man, should I go with you? Will you accompany my songs on your hurdy-gurdy?”  3. Mussorgsky: Night On Bald Mountain. You may know this one from Disney’s Fantasia, which is featured during the Witches’ Sabbath sequence. 4. Schubert: Der Erlkönig. Based on a poem by Goethe, this song tells the chilling story of a father and his ailing child riding through the woods on horseback, while a malicious spirit tries to lure the boy away, unseen and unheard by the father. 5. Saint-Saens: Danse Macabre. Death plays his fiddle in the cemetery, rousing all the skeletons from their graves and dancing with them until they have to slink back at the first light of dawn. 6. Brahms: Ballade in D minor, op. 10 no. 1, “Edward.” Based on a Scottish ballade, the story is of a mother who knows that her son has murdered his father - she just wants to hear him say it himself. 7. Shostakovich: Viola Sonata. Shostakovich composed during the height of Soviet censorship, and his music almost always has a hunted, almost panicked feel to it. He composed this viola sonata just a month before his death. 8. Shostakovich: String Quartet no. 8 in C minor, op. 110. Between the frenzy of the second movement and the insistent “knocking on the door” of the fourth, this quartet can really put you on edge. What makes this music even freakier is Shostakovich’s musical signature (D E-flat C B) throughout the work. 9. Mussorgsky: The Hut of Baba Yaga the Witch (from Pictures at an Exhibition). This one always sounds like Baba Yaga’s “Hut On Chicken’s Legs” is chasing me through the woods, but that might just be my wild imagination. 10. Scriabin: Piano Sonata no. 9, “Black Mass.” Some of the directions that Scriabin writes in the score are “mysteriously murmuring”, and “with a sweetness that becomes increasingly poisonous,” which is a pretty apt description for much of this work. It begins mysteriously, then builds in tension until it all explodes in some kind of orgiastic climax. It ends just as enigmatically as it begins.

[manuellopez]

No. Nope. No.

[manuellopez]

¿Quién vive en una piña debajo del mar? (at SpongeBob Broadway) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpQAcYdAzKQ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1b55md0as8ptu

[manuellopez]

Pavos salvajes buscando problemas en la escuela. (at Bristol, Connecticut) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpLLiSuAzCV/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=j7vrkthxk56c

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When someone asks what kind of music you listen to and you have to decide if you want to open that can of beans with a complete stranger

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very important orchestra performance. please watch

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Los bebés están seguros. Batman los cuida. (at Hartford, Connecticut)

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ahdjfkfkk

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Él vive en tí. (at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts)

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Noche de teatro en el Bushnell. (at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts)

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La bomba de $5000 más IVA. (at Apple Westfarms)

[manuellopez]

the universe: okay, you’re a human. I gave you free will and a conscious mind, so you’re free to do whatever you want. So what do you wanna do?

human: GO FAST

the universe: well, you’re a perfect pursuit predator but if that’s the way you want to evolve, go ahead.

human, climbing on a horse: GO FAST

the universe: wait what

human, inventing the carriage, the car and the bullet train: GO FASTER

the universe: I IMPLORE YOU TO STOP

human, trying to figure out lightspeed travel: FAS T ER

[manuellopez]

@freaksan

Opera plots simplified for the novices.

[manuellopez]

This needs to be told 100 times, if not more.

Singing Child Prodigies Do Not Exist.

There is absolutely no good reason for a child to sing in a heavily operatic style. This is vocally unsafe. It is vocally irresponsible, and it is just as irresponsible to encourage this type of singing.

You know that 8 year old pianist who is rocking out to Rachmaninoff on the piano way better than any professional musician you know? That 14 year old violinist who is a “child prodigy”? Yeah, that doesn’t exist in the singing world. Here’s why:

Most people’s voices do not settle until their mid-20′s. A child’s larynx is still developing. It will continue to develop. A lot of people don’t even start taking private lessons until they are 18+ because of this. I cannot name one person I know of that would think this aria is appropriate for even a 20 year old. The amount of pressure this child is placing on her vocal cords will most likely damage them if she continues this.

A child is supposed to sound like a child. This is not her real voice. It is not POSSIBLE that this is her real voice. She is using pressure, tension, and darkening her color probably by falsely depressing her larynx to achieve a more mature sound.

The awful effects of this can be permanent, both physiologically and psychologically. The opera industry (the entire entertainment industry actually) is a world full of no. A world full of rejection. Expensive rejection, might I add. A world full of criticism – your voice is too wobbly, your voice is too shrill, your voice is too wide, your voice is too dark, your voice is too bright, you’re too fat, you’re too short, you’re not the right ethnicity, you’re too this, you’re too that, but not enough this or not enough that. Yes, let’s welcome children to the amount of vitriol you will experience. 

Your body has to catch up to your technique. Singing involves using a lot of muscles. Just to list a few: cricothyroid, posterior cricoarytenoid, lateral cricoarytenoid, transverse arytenoid, oblique arytenoid, thyroarytenoid, sternothyroid, omohyoid, sternohyoid, inferior constrictors, thyrohyoid, digastric, stylohyoid, mylohoid, geniohyoid, hyoglossus, genioglossus muscles…those are JUST the muscles used for phonation alone. Look at all those muscles you can damage! Like an athlete, these muscles must be warmed up, cooled down, and most importantly – trained. Vocal folds are pretty delicate. Look at professionally trained opera singers who have damaged their voices by overuse – and you’re telling me the same won’t happen to an underdeveloped voice? This girl will likely not even have the OPTION of an opera career because of the irresponsible people around her telling her it is okay to literally damage her voice. Unlike a piano, a flute, a violin, etc. you cannot purchase a new voice. It’s important to take care of the voice you have.

Not to mention, is there anyone out there that actually wants to hear a 13 year old sing about deeply intense sexual love? Really? Yeah, let’s totally forget why this aria was even written and the complex adult themes in many operas.

If you know voice teachers that promote this type of singing for very young singers, please know that those voice teachers are irresponsible and somewhat abusive. You are robbing a potential singer of their talent and throwing it away in the trash. 

[manuellopez]

Love this post!!

Pleased to introduce our newest #sithconductor, Vladimir Jurowski. 

Kylo Ren had best watch his back for the conductor who has both the power and hair game give to him a run for his money.

(watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Aqa4lvn6Q

Jurowski Photo: Sheila Rock)