Product Description
Halloween Music. Time: 2 min, 45 sec
UPDATED 2025 06 04--This version is still very close to the YouTube video, but check out the one I just posted at the "Listen" icon on the publisher's website to hear the most current version.
Level: BEFORE YOU BUY, VERY ADVANCED! I don't play strings, so beware! Look over the parts before you buy!
Keys: C maj, G# min, D min, Bb min
Multiple double-stops, septuplet octave runs, high trills
Range: 1st Vln A6, Vla A4, Cello F#5, CB Middle C
Laughter can be anything from fun to menacing, and this piece explores that as a metamorphosis. Don't let the beginning in C major fool you-- this piece is written for Halloween!
It began as a study on different kinds of laughter. It's from the vantage point of someone taking a stroll through a familiar neighborhood on All Hallows Eve, and I'd be lying if I said that works like Michael Jackson's "Thriller", or Lovecraft's "The Festival" didn't inspire it!
After passing a holiday party, where light tittering is overheard from the warm, cozy rooms within, its mood grows darker and darker, eventually descending into a vortex of ghoulish chuckles, and malevolent guffaws, finally ending at a deserted carnival grounds (probably from my one viewing of Spielberg's "Something Wicked This Way Comes"), where the carousel--reputed to be haunted--comes to life, begins turning, then a calliope starts playing... (Disney's "Night on Bald Mountain" from the old Disney Fantasia). I've tried to evoke fiendish, diabolical laughter in the last few measures, but you'll have to be the judge of how well I did.
Throughout, staccato accents and a slight diminuendo should be used on the descending scales. Less legato seems to work best in my DAW.
Other inspirations: Chopin, Tim Burton/Danny Elfman, the "Phantom of the Opera" movie. I can almost hear Vincent Price laughing at the end. Listen to the audio sample and see if you agree!
I look forward to hearing any comments/suggestions at my e-mail: klazzkeys@aol.com
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