Haunted
Classical music to chill, spook, and haunt!
At this time of year, the streets are full of pumpkins, and the shops are full of tiny sweets and glittery costumes, so I have celebrated this with a new youtube playlist.
As our theme, I have chosen music that explores our relationship with heaven and earth, death, transformation, haunting, dances, and folklore.
I have included in the playlist a range of different settings - opera, wind band, orchestra, chanson/lieder, choral, organ solo… with both well-known favourites and also a few more unusual pieces that I hope you will enjoy getting to know.
I have a blog post with music details and a link to the youtube playlist, which you can find here:
As the old saying goes, ‘It is always darkest before the dawn’ so fear not! Not all my playlists are dark and spooky, go and have an explore!
But until then, enjoy my dark and chilling playlist and my other blog posts for the season are linked to make it easy to find them.
Haunting Music: Dark Chilling Music to sit with you a while
Ghosts: 1. The Haunting, by Stephen McNeff, featuring the Band of the Royal Air Force, conducted by Chris L’anson and Mark Heron
The Water Goblin, by Dvorak, featuring the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jamie Philips
Au cimitière, Op. 51 no. 2 by Fauré, sung by Leontyne Price accompanied by David Garvey
Night on Bald Mountain - Fantasia (1941 Theatrical Cut) by Mussorgsky, played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski
Entry of the Gods into Valhalla, Das Rheingold, by Wagner, Metropolitan Opera conducted by James Levine
Waldesgespräch, from Liederkreis op39 by Robert Schumann, sung by Fietrich Fischer-Dieskau accompanied by Günther Weissenborn
Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath, from Symphony Fantastique by Berlioz, played by Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Sit Colin Davis
Transformation Music, Act 1 of Parsifal, by Wagner, 1998 Bayreuth production conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli
Commendatore Scene, Don Giovanni, by Mozart, sung by Samuel Ramey (Giovanni), Kurt Moll (Commendatore) and Ferrruccio Furlanetto (Leporello)
Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 by Bach, played by Liene Andreta at Riga Cathedral in Latvia
March to the Scaffold, from Symphony Fantastique, by Berlioz, played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
Aria: Betracht dies Herz und frage mich, from Grabmusik k42 IV, by Mozart, sung by Karita Mattila with the Berliner Phiharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado
Dies Irae, Requiem, by Verdi, with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Claudio Abbado
Siegfried’s Death and Funeral March, from Göttterdämmerung, by Wagner, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Klaus Tennstedt
Ghosts III The Dog of Godley, by Stephen McNeff, featuring the Band of the Royal Air Force, conducted by Chris L’anson and Mark Heron
Funeral March, by Felix Mendelssohn, with the Musique des Gardiens de la paix de Paris, conducted by Désiré Dondeyne
Im Abendrot, from Vier Letzte Lieder, by Richard Strauss, sung by Asmik Grigorian with the Wiener Philharmoniker, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel
What do I need for my lesson?
Whether a seasoned regular or coming for your very first lesson, here are a few things you might want to bring or think about to attend your lesson, and to get the most out of the experience.
Music
What have you been studying/learning? Bring that, and bring a second copy to share with your teacher/pianist.
Any music you are performing with your choir, church solos, stage shows. Even if you don’t plan to sing it, it may become relevant for technical or performance reasons.
A pencil
Whether working digitally or with paper music, bring a pencil to make notes and mark your music.
A notebook, or recorder to record the lesson if agreed with your teacher
Either are fine with me, but it makes sense to be able to write down broader technical and performance ideas for your practise later.
An open mind
This is your time to work on your goals - so to help you do this fully come ready to play, work, experiment, and learn. Put aside the everyday distractions for now and enjoy this time to concentrate on your voice and performance.
“You do get better at even the things you’re terrible at, if you practice.”
Before the lesson
What you wear
Think about wearing something you are comfortable in, that allows you to move and work physically. We will be doing stretches, and sometimes use weights/pilates bands and other equipment as part of our work together.
Food and drink
Make sure you have eaten and drunk enough before the lesson to feel comfortable standing and working physically. If you wish to drink water during the lesson, lay it out to bring with you. By personal preference, I prefer not to drink while singing, but I don’t mind if you do.
Warm-up
You may wish to have a short vocalise or warm-up before you arrive, check in with your voice and see how it feels today, if you are experiencing anything different you can bring this up at the start of the lesson. This might also include feeling if you have any tension.
Lastly, a little reassurance. I am human, I have made many mistakes, I have sometimes found practise hard to fit into life or had other things going on that make work/life tricky. Please feel free to let me know of anything that might affect our session together that you think I should know about. I fit around you and your needs.
I do not expect that every pupil arrives a perfect and finished product - that simply isn’t real life! Sometimes the best lessons are the ones that happen responding to the voice and singer as they turn up that day. So please don’t worry that you feel you should have done x, y, or z. Hopefully all teachers feel this way and should be understanding!
No Limits
Blisterleaf- or Anemone vesicatoria, a dainty plant with the hidden ability to burn with its toxic oil, a skill it uses to protect itself
Don’t limit yourself.
It’s so easy to apologise or make excuses as to why we think we aren’t good enough - but does this help us improve?
I have a rule in my teaching room that we aim never to make negative comments about our voice or our singing as these can make it very difficult for us to achieve our goals. Our negativity holds us back, our apologies begin our session on the back-foot with the suggestion we will fail. The mere suggestion that we are not good enough will infiltrate our ability to achieve, and possibly succeed in areas that are new to us.
How many times have you told people you are doing something but that you aren’t very good? It’s a particularly British thing I’m overly guilty of!
“If I were not able to separate the art from the artists, I think I would limit myself a great deal, and life wouldn’t be nearly as interesting.”
Jessye Norman
In the world of learning, we have to be brave. We have to put ourselves through the experience of admitting we know little, and learn more.
We have to play and experiment without fear of judgement or failure.
This process is done with the aid of books, online research, published papers from experts, film and recordings, and of course, teachers.
A good teacher will be willing you on. They will set you challenges to help you succeed. Some of those challenges will lead you to better ability and understanding, and some will count as experiments that did not work out, maybe just not yet.
In nature - where I often like to take inspiration - plants do not limit themselves. They develop and adapt and try according to their surroundings. They succeed in all sorts of places. Sometimes this might not work, but every so often it will and leads to the development of the plant in a new way.
If you are a gardener you may be familiar with this already - we have all tried to plant something and watched it fail, only to watch nature self-seed and thrive in an area that every textbook tells you should not work! Some of the healthiest plants are the weeds growing in an unlikely place, growing without fear of failure. Their success unaware of the ‘rules’.
We need that experimental and positive attitude when learning to bring about our new skills.
Have you ever been set a new piece by your teacher and found unexpected success?… Hold on to those moments as you continue onwards!