Nialler9 Podcast: The devil in music, a short history of horror soundtracks & spooky tunes

Episode 112 is a spooky music special:

This week, Dre deep dives into the mysterious ‘diabolus in musica’ tritone and dispels a spooky rumour you might have heard about it. Also in this segment, a brief history of musicians who have made deals with the devil, one who won a golden fiddle. 

Niall gives a short history of some of his favourite horror soundtracks like Psycho, John Carpenter, The Exorcist, Italian Horror soundtracks and segue into modern horror-inspired music from Clipping.

Finally, we discuss genuinely spooky songs from Scott Walker’s 2006 album The Drift and The Caretaker.

Happy Halloween!

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Running Order:

The Devil In Music

Diabolus in Musica

I heard there was an evil chord, that Satan played and it spooked the lord…

Musical works cited:

• Camille Sans-Saens  “The Dance Macabre”
• Frans Liszt “The Dante Sonata” 
• Giuseppe Tartini “Violin Sonata in G, The Devil’s Trill’s Sonata”
• Robert Johnson “Cross Road Blues”, “Hell hound on my trail”, “Me and The Devil Blues”
• The Charlie Daniels Band ‘The Devil Went Down To Georgia”
• Metallica “Enter Sandman”
• Danny Elfman “The Simpsons — Theme Song” 
• “They Sold Their Solds For Rock and Roll” — Christian Documentary on Rock Music and the Devil

A short history of horror soundtracks

• Dies Irae – Day of Wrath – 4 descending minor notes in a chant used in The Shining theme and many other horror scores.
• The Mummy (1932) opening sequence – used Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake
• Psycho (1961) – Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece with Bernard Hermann’s score was an early example of jump scare music.
• The Exorcist (1973) – the use of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells
• Halloween (1978) – John Carpenter and the proliferation of ’80s synths and horror
• Italian Horror – Dario Argento – Goblin for Suspiria (1977) and Tenebre (1982)
• Modern Horror and retromania – Stranger Things (2016) and It Follows (2014)

Spooky songs played

Novelty Songs – Bobby Pickett’s Monster Mash (1962)

Yvonne Gage – Doing It In A Haunted House (1984)

The Caretaker – An Empty Bliss Beyond This World (2011)

Clipping – Nothing Is Safe (2019)

Clipping – ’96 Neve Campbell (2020)

Scott Walker – The Escape (2006)

Scott Walker – Jolson and Jones (2006)

Closing Track

Psyche – The Saint Became A Lush

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