seasonal / holiday, Studio Business

Classical Music To Attract (or Scare) Your Trick-Or-Treaters

This year for Halloween, I plan to pass out candy with my studio name on it again and wear my piano costume dress again.  I was thinking about having some scary classical music playing on my porch too, so I compiled a list of music!  Let me know if you have any suggestions to add to the list.  🙂

  • Alkan – Prelude Op. 31 No. 8 (a madwoman at the seashore)
  • Bach (previously attributed to Bach) – Toccata and Fugue in d minor, BWV 565
  • Bartok – 3rd movement of Suite Op. 14
    Bartok
    – 1st, 4th and 5th movements of Out of Doors Suite
  • Bartok – Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (mvmt. 3, adagio)
  • Berlioz – “Dream Of A Witches’ Sabbath.”
  • Berlioz – Symphony Fantastique
  • Wendy Carlos – Incantation from Beauty in the Beast
  • Chopin – Marche Funebre
  • Chopin – Prelude Op. 28 No. 14 in E-flat minor
  • Corigliano – 4th movement of Piano Concerto
  • Corigliano – 4th movement of Etude Fantasy (“Ornaments”)
  • Cowell – The Banshee
  • Daugherty – Viola Zombie
  • de Falla – Dance of Terror (check out the Bragiotti arrangement for 2 pianos, too)
  • Dukas – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (also check out the 2-piano arrangement by Rabinovitch)
  • George Crumb – Vox balaenae
  • Ginastera – 2nd movement of Sonata No. 1, Op. 22
  • Gluck – Dance of the Furies
  • Gounod – “Funeral March of a Marionette” (Alfred Hitchcock theme song)
  • Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King
  • Grieg – the lyric piece “Puck”
  • Liebermann – Gargoyles (last movement)
  • Liebermann – Piano Concerto No. 1 (last movement)
  • Ligeti – Etudes Nos. 6 and 13 from Book 1
    Ligeti
    – Study No. 1 for organ (“Harmonies”)
    Ligeti
     – Ricercare (for organ)
  • Liszt – Mephisto Waltz
  • Liszt — Totentanz
  • Lygeti – Kyrie
  • Mendelssohn – First Walpurgis Night
  • Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain
  • Mussorgsky – “The Hut of Baba Yaga”
  • Mozart – Requiem “Dies Irae”
  • Orff – Carmina Burana, “O Fortuna”
  • Allan Pettersson – Symphony No. 7
  • Prokofiev – Dance of the Knights
  • Prokofiev – Diabolic Suggestions, Opus 4, No 4
  • Prokofiev – Etude Op.2 No.1
  • Prokofiev – “Montagues And Capulets”
  • Prokofiev — Toccata
  • Rachmaninoff – Prelude, Op. 3 No. 2 in C Sharp Minor
  • Rachmaninoff – Isle of the Dead, Op.29
  • Rachmaninoff – Etude Tableaux Op.33 No.5
  • Ravel – “Le Gibet,” from Gaspard de la nuit
  • Saint-Saëns – Dance Macabre, Op. 40
  • Schubert – “Erlkonig”
  • Scriabin – “Black mass” Sonata for piano
  • Shostakovich – Symphony No. 10, mvmt. 2
  • Stravinsky – “Sacrificial Dance” from “The Rite Of Spring”
  • Weber – Wolf’s Glen scene from Der Freischütz
  • Webern – Variations Op. 27 – Ruhig fliessend
  • Williams – “Imperial March.”
  • Williams – “Devil’s Dance.”

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19 thoughts on “Classical Music To Attract (or Scare) Your Trick-Or-Treaters”

  1. These are amazing peices!! I’m planning on doing a Halloween themed lesson so these would be great peices to listen to in the background during theory time or try and do a listening activity!

  2. Hey Joy! I’m interested in the marketing idea you have. Did you have any success with it last year? Any call backs? I’m thinking about trying this. I also have my studio name carved out in little sugar pumpkins on my porch. Thought I’d send that idea along too!

    1. Hi Erica,

      No, I didn’t get any call-backs from the Halloween candy last year. But still — it is a chance for people to see and recognize your name! Some people don’t take action until they’ve seen your name two or three times.

      Good luck! The pumpkin idea is cute!!

  3. Here are some more for you::

    Alkan – Prelude Op. 31 No. 8 (a madwoman at the seashore)
    Bartok – 3rd movement of Suite Op. 14
    Bartok – 1st, 4th and 5th movements of Out of Doors Suite
    Wendy Carlos – Incantation from Beauty in the Beast (if you REALLY want to scare the kids!)
    Chopin – Prelude Op. 28 No. 14 in E-flat minor
    Corigliano – 4th movement of Piano Concerto
    Corigliano – 4th movement of Etude Fantasy (“Ornaments”)
    de Falla – you already mentioned Terror Dance but also wanted to point out the Bragiotti arrangement for 2 pianos (highly recommend Labeque sisters)
    Ginastera – 2nd movement of Sonata No. 1, Op. 22
    Ligeti – Etudes Nos. 6 and 13 from Book 1
    Ligeti – Study No. 1 for organ (“Harmonies”)
    Ligeti – Ricercare (for organ)
    Liszt – Totentanz
    Prokofiev – Toccata

  4. What a great list Joy! I can’t wait to play these when we do “Boo in Bluffton” tonight in our town.

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