The orchestra clamors and clashes dissonance dominates the soundscape of this deeply disturbing piece. Penderecki conveys the horror of nuclear warfare through this threnody. Penderecki - “ Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima” Though initially received negatively, this piece has worked its way into concert halls everywhere and undoubtedly conjures up the spirit of spookiness and Halloween.ĥ. The memorable melody rings in everyone’s ears. Then the iconic opening violin intervals of this piece invite you into the “Dance of Death.” As Death comes around on Halloween, he wakes the deceased from their graves and commands them to dance to the tune of his fiddle. It sounds like a mass of souls being dragged into the underworld. Lines weave in and out, forming an intricate tapestry of despair and fear. Individual voices and lines are impossible to make out, instead congealed into a wall of human sound. Famously used in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the piece moves like thick sludge voices are clustered together and move slowly.

The human voice can undoubtedly be one of the spookiest sounds, and Ligeti definitely knew this when he wrote his Requiem.

How to play spooky organ