So, since today is Halloween, I thought I would share a couple of organ pieces that I particularly like, since organ music is often heard on Halloween. These two pieces are really cool, so I hope you listen to them!
The first is probably the most famous piece of organ music. It was featured in an early film version of Phantom of the Opera, and has been featured in many creepy and/or dramatic films since then. It has become an iconic piece in today's culture, since just about everybody has heard the beginning of this piece at least once.You'll probably recognize it in the first fives seconds or so.
This piece is the Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
More history on the piece, and how it became associated with Halloween is very well summarized in this article.
Here's one of my favorite recordings of it, played on an organ that Bach may have played in his lifetime:
So, that's the famous one. This next one is a little more obscure, but it's one of my absolute favorite pieces. It's just so dramatic, and I hope to one day be able to play it!
This is the Toccata from Leon Boellmann's Gothic Suite. If you can, listen to this on some larger speakers, or with some good headphones, because this piece is so dramatic, and you lose some of the effect on smaller speakers.
Here's the video:
And, though it isn't classical, who could forget the now-famous overture from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, The Phantom of the Opera?
Here's a good recording of it played on a nice pipe organ:
Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you enjoyed these three pieces as much as I did!
No comments:
Post a Comment