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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Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
