October music holds a special place in my heart. There are as many varieties of October music as there are ways to describe this special month. In other words, there is a bit of something for everyone. There is classical music, rock music, pop music, choir music, instrumental only, spooky, pastoral and everything in between. No matter my mood for the day, there is a bit of October music to accompany it.
For the changing of the seasons there is Vivaldi. For the spooky there is Thriller or the theme music from either Psycho or Jaws. If you want something based on mythology/fairy tale, try Warren Zevon with his Werewolves of London or Sam the Sham and Li’l Red Riding Hood. Maybe you are feeling romantic, try Van Morrison’s Moondance. The movie Fantasia and its accompanying soundtrack are a perfect October treat. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the Waltz of the Flowers fit quite nicely with falling leaves and Halloween. Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King is a personal favorite. I even like the new techno-ish version done by Trent Reznor for the movie The Social Network. Then there are the silly songs, the theme from Ghostbusters, Monster Mash, and Purple People Eater.
Aside from the fact that I listened to a Halloween tape from Hallmark pretty much year round, my other favorite album as a kid was Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev. If I wasn’t playing the Halloween tape, I was listening to Peter. It is good lurking music in parts and it gave me goosebumps. I’m pretty sure that that particular arrangement is 50% of why I am scared of werewolves. The other 50% comes from some truly awful monster movies, but that is a story for another day. My mother continually asks me why I can’t listen to nice music. I tell her that no one should have to listen to Elvis as much as she does and we agree to disagree. She rolls her eyes but keeps silent when I break out my bagpipe CD (also good music for October) and I keep the snorting noises to a minimum when I hear Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog. Which if it wasn’t Elvis and didn’t sound so dorky, might actually make a good October song since it does talk about howling in a round about fashion.
I love words and language, if you haven’t guessed by now. I love how they sound and how they meld together to make pictures in the mind. Music does the same for me. Especially classical music. It is amazing what words one can hear when language is taken out of the equation. I have already mentioned that I love violins. They are truly one of October’s special instruments. But I also love the pipe organ. Never mind the fact that they are monestrous contraptions, that only a few people can play, or even choose to. They can fill a room with their sound like no other instrument I have heard.........short of a fog horn, but that doesn’t count.
A few months back, when I was out on a late night grocery run, I happened upon the most wonderful radio program. It actually was a dark and stormy night and as soon as I turned on the radio, my vehicle was filled with the melodious sounds of the pipe organ. Did I mention that I LOVE pipe organs? I can’t remember the song that played, but it was suitably spooky to match the evening. I drove around and around the dark countryside just listening to the wonderful music. Eventually all good things must come to and end, but I found out that this particular radio program happens every Sunday night. In this age of internet and fast information, I could go to the stations home page and find out exactly when the show airs each Sunday, but I choose to let it be a surprise. So far I haven’t missed a show. Somehow I always find myself in the car in the dead of night, listening to organ music. Really, I think I was born into the wrong time. I love pipe organs, gothic architecture, old books, old tombs and the list goes on.
When I had the chance to travel Europe, some of my favorite places were the cathedrals. I really wish that we had more places like them around here. These grand structures took years to build. Not months. And they are still standing. When you walk into such a place, you can’t help but fall silent and feel how tiny and young you are in relation to the rest of the world. Then when such a place is suddenly filled with the sweet sounds of a pipe organ.....my mind almost goes into overload from joy.
October is a very good month for pipe organs and I love it when movies make use of them. It always adds an extra layer of enjoyment for me. Look at the Phantom of the Opera. He wouldn’t have been half as cool if he was playing a clarinet. Sorry to any clarinet players out there, but it is true. Lurch from the Addams Family plays a pipe organ and so does Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean. When he started playing the keys with the tentacles of his beard I let out this little rapturous squeak right there in the theater. A pirate, on a ship, in a storm, with tentacles for a beard, playing a pipe organ that he somehow had built into his stateroom. Swoon!
If I could, I would have portable speakers affixed to myself somehow and have someone play me a live action Rebecca theme song set to a pipe organ. How much cooler would it be to go to the Post Office to get stamps if your transaction was punctuated by furious pipe organ playing. Oooh or the DMV. That would really be something.
My very very very favorite bit of pipe organry is one I have talked about before, the Bach Toccata and Fugues in D Minor. I have no idea what-so-ever what a fugue is, let alone fugues plural. I know that with the internet or various other resources I could have an answer in seconds, but I like the mystery of it all. Perhaps a fugue is a little imp who jumps up and down on the air bellows and gives the pipe organ an extra umph to make it to D minor. Perhaps the fugue is a certain pedal that the organist stomps on extra hard. I don’t know and I don’t care. Ok, I care a little, but not enough to look it up. I just know that it is in D minor and I love it to bits, and that is enough for me. So for those of you who have never heard it, I heartily suggest you visit YouTube and give it a listen. For those of you who have heard it, I applaud you and now you will get a chance to see it through my eyes.
Whenever I hear this bit of music I am immediately transported to a grand yet dark stone cathedral. A few candles are burning and flickering in the draft off in the periphery of my vision and aside from a few pigeons in the rafters I have the entire place to myself. I sit down on the cold stone floor, look up past the stained glass and trace the ornate archways and buttresses with my eyes. Then it starts.
A heavy door somewhere in the cathedral shuts with the resounding clonk of sturdy wood and heavy hinges. There are the rapid footfalls of some mysterious person echoing across the darkness. Then there is the scrape of a bench and the crack of knucles. The music begins suddenly, breaking through the silence like a whip, demanding ones undivided attention. A few lingering high notes shoot straight up to the ceiling announcing the fact that music has entered the space. While a few deeper notes follow them to test the width and length of the hall like sonar. They are richer and bolder and finish their topography of the cathedral as quickly as the first. Then a deep base builds and is unleashed that fills the place completely like a bullfrog expanding its chest. The music takes a deep and audible breath in, and then a sharper and higher breath out.
From the long sustained notes of the deep, a cascade of more playful sounds break off and run freely. Little notes that bounce along the floor and ceiling looking for a bit of fun like puppies suddenly turned out of doors. While they frolic, a cascading melody rolls across the floor like water, only to be called back by the deeper more sustaining notes.
And then it rains. Sound sprinkles down in a pleasant shower joining the deeper waters that have formed a rather large pool, the murky depths of which you don’t feel safe exploring. Now the playful notes are calling to and taunting the deeper, more stately sounds. They poke and prod and dance around while the older notes complain. As they move back and forth a slender sound joins the fray and turns into a beautiful waterfall that cascades down the stained glass window to the stone floor below. The grand space begins to fill with water, chairs, lecturns and hymnals all begin to float, as do you along with the candles which have long since been extinguished. As you float you notice that the waters are turning various hues as the sun begins to steal its way across the glass, making the waters shimmer. All have blended by now, rain, puddles and pool, and you are floating in the sound higher and higher toward the ceiling. Up and up you go, higher and faster and soon you are up and out and over the bellfrey sliding along to a gargoyle.
The music diminishes as you slide down along the drainage system courtesy of the gargoyle and find yourself sodden and back on the street. The waters have claimed the music for their own inside the cathedral and this special concert has come to an end. Or at least that is how I see it in my minds eye. I really do encourage you to take a listen. It is a short piece, at least on my tape. What do you hear/see when you listen to it? What are some of your favorite October songs?
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