Classical Music and Halloween: Let's Shiver (in Music)

Metronaut wants to celebrate an incredible Halloween! Yes, Halloween is here! Joy is a recurring theme in music. But if music has that positive power, some composers also expressed its darker side as well by representing and embodying fear and despair. And we are here to make your Halloween spooky as it should be if you are looking for creepy and dark melodies. Check out our special Halloween classical music pieces to see which composers and pieces make us quiver with fear...

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Hollywood and Classical music

1. Gounod – Funeral March of a Marionette

Listen to this piece and you’ll instantly recognize it as Alfred Hitchcock Presents' theme. However, it is also a great piece for Halloween because of its subject matter (a funeral) and and it’s oddly a catchy and creepy melody. The storyline that the piece follows is that a puppet has died in a duel, the funeral procession begins, and then, during the central section, mourners take refreshments before returning to the march.

2. Dukas - The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

In 1936, Walt Disney felt that the Disney studio’s star character Mickey Mouse needed a boost in popularity. He decided to feature the mouse in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Dukas’ theme will forever be associated with images of Mickey Mouse attempting to chop up an army of possessed mops.

3. Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake

With the Black Swan movie, Swan Lake was more about a nightmare than a tragedy. Surely, there is an evil sorcerer and a curse, but that’s pretty standard fare for Romantic-era ballets. When Prince Seigfried falls for Rothbart’s trick and betrays Odette, it’s more sad than terrifying. But Black Swan gives to this song a hint of horror to make you shiver!