Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for example, often punctuated a scary scene with screeching violins that sound like a rising scream. In suspenseful TV shows, bursts of music that deliver a shock usually blare just before a commercial break. Geroge Crumb: “The Phantom Gondolier” (excerpt) from Makrokosmos (1972) Stingers John Cage: Sonata II for prepared piano (excerpt) (1946) Listen to the two examples in the audio player below: In a similar way, arrangers of scary music will sometimes use unusual instruments or play instruments in unusual ways to give a song freaky weirdness. Composers John Cage and George Crumb wrote music for a specially-prepared piano that might have screws, hair clips, and playing cards attached to the strings so the instrument sounded bizarre. Hearing a strange, unfamiliar sound can stop us in our tracks to listen for trouble. When composers want to signal that the coast is clear, they will often return to a pleasant-sounding harmony. Listen:Ĭamille Saint-Saëns: Danse Macabre (excerpt) (1874) Long ago, church leaders labeled the tritone “Diabolus in Musica”-“The Devil in Music.” In Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, Death raises skeletons to a graveyard dance by playing his violin in sinister tritones. An example of a creepy combination is the tritone-a musical chord that can annoy the ears and suggest something is terribly wrong. Other combinations produce friction, making us wince and feel uncomfortable. Some musical notes sound good together, creating harmony. Listen:įranz Schubert: “Der Erlkönig” D.328 (excerpt) (1821) Dissonance In the art song “The Erlkonig,” for example, composer Franz Schubert has the voice of the young son get higher and higher as a forest spirit pursues him. Listen:Ĭarl Orff: “O Fortuna” (excerpt) from Carmina Burana (1936) PitchĮver notice how people’s voices often get higher when they feel nervous? Composers may build this behavior into their music, raising tension by having the instruments or voices shift upward in pitch to higher notes. Getting louder may hint that something or someone is about to pounce. Soft, eerie music can raise suspense by suggesting danger in the distance. Refers to how loud or soft notes are played, and how the volume changes during the course of a song. Bringing back a steady rhythm helps ease the tension.Įdvard Grieg: “In The Hall of the Mountain King” (excerpt) from Peer Gynt (1875) Dynamics Using an unsteady beat often hints that something is out of whack or out of control. Slowing down the beat might indicate lurking evil or a fading heartbeat. Accelerating tempo (speed of music) might suggest a chase or the heavy breathing of a frightened character. By changing the pace-speeding up the rhythm or slowing it down-the composer sends a signal that can put listeners on the edge of their seats. What are other ways composers craft their music to scare us?Ī heartbeat, ticking clock, footsteps, a galloping horse-these are familiar sounds a composer may echo in the beat of a song. “Our instincts tell us a creature is upon us and we need to run away or turn and fight.” That was the technique the Jaws theme used to such terrifying effect. “My hunch is that our brains hear that music in terms of being hunted,” suggests Lerner. For example, the music may speed up and grow louder to suggest the danger is closing in. Music composers and arrangers have a variety of ways to add eeriness, ramp up suspense, or help deliver the shock people love to fear, according to Professor Lerner.Ī favorite scary music technique is sound and music that hints a character is being chased. Lerner is a professor of music at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, and an expert in horror film music. “Music contributes a lot to the overall emotional experience of an audience,” says Neil Lerner. And the creators of spooky tunes know exactly what they are doing to send shivers down the spines of listeners. Most listeners automatically recognize when music sends clues that something creepy is hiding under the bed, in the basement, or behind the mask. Scary music has a long, bone-chilling history in symphonies, plays, ballets, and operas, as well as movies. The theme from Jaws is one example of scary movie music at its horrifying best. John Williams: “Main Title” (excerpt) from Jaws (1975) BAH-DUMP…-warning the shark was closing in for a snack-was enough to make the audience crawl under the seats and cancel the trip to the beach. The accelerating musical theme- bah-dump…bah-dump…bah-dump…BAH-DUMP, BAH-DUMP, BAH-DUMP. It also demonstrated the power of scary music. But the film did more than freak out people with a rompin’, chompin’ mechanical Great White shark. In the summer of 1975, moviegoers lined up to get a good scare.
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