After yesterday's miserable post I cheered up considerably on the way to work when Radio 3's deliciously munchable Sara Mohr-Pietsch played me Aram Khachaturian's Valse from his Masquerade Suite.
Now THAT'S Halloween music!
Play this LOUD, close your eyes and picture if you will a dark and dusty after-hours circus run by Tim Burton. The crowds have all gone home and now here come Jack Skellington and the Corpse Bride leading a mad Valse, followed around the ring by the shambling, lurching, delirious, drunken and happy dead. If this music doesn't make you want to whirl 'til you're giddy then I hope your soul gets eaten by spiders while you sleep.
I had completely forgotten this brilliant piece of music existed but it kept me happy all yesterday, picturing the denizens of Halloween Town spinning ecstatically into oblivion.
Of course most dead people can only count up to three which is probably why they stick to waltzes.
I checked my CDs when I got home and sadly I couldn't find Masquerade. The only two Khachaturians I own are the ballets Spartacus and Gayaneh.
So as I'm in the mood for some more Armenian madness, pull up a chair and cock an ear to that gloriously romantic, sugar-syrup confection, the heartbreakingly beautiful Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia (only spoiled - if you're old and English - by the baffling image of Peter Gilmore hamming it up astride the deck of a sailing ship and sporting a pair of muttonchop whiskers bigger than his head in The Onedin Line, a magnificently silly 1970s drama serial for which this was used as the theme tune).
This one, however, is the same version I have, conducted by the great man himself.
I'll skip the Sabre Dance and go straight to the other great Halloween special Khachaturian wrote: that chilling (it still makes me shiver) Adagio from Gayaneh that was used in 2001 A Space Odyssey and again for the spookiest parts of Aliens. When it reaches half way through, "that" theme starts up for the first time and it makes me want to hide behind the sofa with Sigourney Weaver in a vest … er …
So here's to the mighty Aram Khachaturian, Armenia's greatest son, king of unintentional Halloween music and lush romanticism.
Thanks for cheering me up.
8 comments:
Unintentional creepiness is the best kind. These are all beautiful, though, and if I were to hear them in another season, I might not think of Tim Burton (I've never seen Alien!)
I loved the music, Dive. I watched "A Nightmare Before Christmas" this weekend. It always fascinates me and I don't find it creepy, just an alternate reality. Other things scare me and I will not watch them ("Alien," for example).
I first listened to these clips early this morning, then went back to them a while ago. I've always felt/imagined movement when listening to music, especially ballet and skating. So of course, the waltz takes me there. Since I don't have scary movies to interfere with my imaginings,the second two are just daggone erotic.
Robyn, I really think you should programme (or even program as you're across the Pond) the Masquerade Waltz for next year's Halloween Concert. It really is Jack Skellington territory.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is such a perfect little movie, Speedway. Did you notice how every one of Danny Elfman's tunes in the soundtrack is left unresolved until the very final note of the very final song when it resolves to the tonic. I LOVE that.
I've got too many mental attachments to the second two pieces to find them erotic (Peter Gilmore's sideburns and the only movie monster ever to make me jump are not conducive to getting a stiffy) but I'm sure Aram is grinning happily in his grave at your feelings about his music.
Such amazing and gorgeous music! Fun to think of a Tim B film using "Masquerade". And the other two are just simply beautiful, heartfelt pieces (although I do remember the Adagio in 2001 and Aliens, now that you point it out). Aliens was really chilling!
And so refreshing to find an intelligent and cultured person who'll fess up to having watched Aliens. Hee hee.
I have to admit to liking a good horror flick every once in a while. Aliens scared the shit out of me. And one of my fav vampire flicks is "The Lost Boys"; it's campy, and has some good shock effects thrown at you when you least expect them.
I'd forgotten the Lost Boys. Hoorah for eighties camp horror!
Post a Comment