Lifelong Listeners Newsletter
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This month we will be celebrating Halloween by listening to some spooky music! We will explore the ways that composers can get spooky sounds by using unique instruments and playing techniques. Happy Halloween and as always, Happy Listening!
Music 101
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Live Concerts!
(Use this section with Listener Worksheet #1 and Listener Worksheet #2) * This symbol indicates that a Music 101 faculty member will perform in this concert! 10/10 (Fri.), 7:30pm or 10/12 (Sun.), 3pm - Handel and Haydn Society Concert (Boston)
This is your chance to hear some baroque classics performed on period instruments with gut strings (see "For Students" below)! This concert will also include a chorus. Click here for more information. *10/18 (Sat.) - Back Bay Chorale Concert, 8pm (Cambridge)
Here is your chance to see Music 101's own Andrew Mattfeld sing some Viennese music with the Back Bay Chorale! Click here for more information. 10/18 (Sat) - Lexington Symphony Concert, 8pm (Lexington)
This conc ert will celebrate the music of England. It also includes a chorus. Click here for more information. *10/23 (Thurs.), 7:30pm (Marblehead) or 10/26 (Sun.), 3pm (Newburyport)- Symphony by the Sea Concert
Come see Music 101's violinist Jenny Herzig perform with the orchestra! This "All for Opera" concert will feature the orchestra and some wonderful vocal soloists. Click here for more information.
11/1 (Sat.) - Melrose Symphony's Halloween Spooktacular Concert, 8pm (Melrose)
Here's your chance to hear some great spooky music right here in Melrose! For more information, click here.
*11/10 (Mon.) - Zamir Chorale Concert, 7:30pm (Boston)
Our own Andrew Mattfeld is an assistant conductor for this wonderful chorus. Come see them sing some cabaret-style music! Click here for more information.
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Listen Online!
You will probably recognize the beginning of this famous piece. It has been the background music in many spooky movies and television shows. Watch closely as the organist uses his hands to play many different keyboards and his feet to play another one on the ground! Can you believe how big the organ is? What is it about the organ that can make it sound so spooky?
The organ is not the only instrument composers can use to make spooky sounds. In this famous music from Harry Potter, composer John Williams features a strange-sounding keyboard instrument called the celeste. You can watch the celeste player at the very beginning of the video. This video also shows great close-ups of the other instruments helping to make the spooky magical sounds from the movie. Check out this cool video about the celeste.
This piece is certainly not an average string quartet! Notice how the musicians use all sorts of objects like drinking glasses and thimbles to create spooky sound effects. Do you think this piece would make good background music for a scary movie?
Not all scary music has to be made up of sound effects. In his singspiel (an opera with spoken words, like a musical) "The Magic Flute", Mozart uses very high notes and difficult runs to show that the evil Queen of the Night is crazy.
This guitar piece sounds spooky and mysterious. Watch at the beginning when the guitar player lightly touches the string to get a strange sound called a harmonic.
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For Students
Spooky Music Fact:
Did you know that strings for instruments like the violin or guitar were traditionally made out of animal intestines? They are called gut strings. It might sound a little gross, but back then, it was the best material they had. To hear some gut strings in action, click here. These days, most string instrument players use modern strings made of metal, but players who want a historically accurate sound still use gut strings. The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, for example, plays baroque music on instruments with gut strings. See the Live Concerts section about attending one of their concerts!
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Faculty Spotlight
Music 101 would like to congratulate our own Hayley Thompson-King; who recently learned that two of her songs will be featured in the upcoming film Diary of a Teenage Girl starring Kristen Wiig and Jeremy Skarsgard! Congratulations Hayley!!!
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