New Music Upload (Halloween Horror Edition)

Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Happy Halloween!

. . . Or, at least it was last night when I posted my new chamber orchestra Chronophobia. Be sure to give it a listen in the Works section. It’s full of thrills and chills, plus it gives you an excuse to sit down and eat more of that candy you said you wouldn’t buy this year.

Chronophobia, or the fear of running out of time, plays a big role in this fairly programmatic work. The main idea of the piece is to use clock sounds, specifically the Westminster Chimes, to indicate the passing of time within the work. The time starts at 11:00 p.m. (23:00) and gradually progresses to midnight, where some unknown horror awaits (time’s up!). Every time you hear the tubular bells play the time, the music changes in some way. Chronophobia tops out at just under 15 minutes in length, also making it the longest single movement work I have written so far. There is quite a range of emotions in this piece, ranging from somewhat whimsical to outright terror. In your mind, you could see yourself collecting a copious cache of candy from your neighbors one moment and then hiding from a hideous horror the next.

As far as instrumentation goes, this is the largest work I have undertaken to date. The instruments within Chronophobia are as follows: flute, 2 French horns, a contrabassoon, bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam, ratchet, crotales, tubular bells, xylophone, harp, 1 – 3 soprano voices, 1 – 3 alto voices, 8 violins, 3 – 4 violas, 2 – 3 cellos, and 2 upright basses. Two players will handle the percussion section. That totals up to 24 – 30 performers.

While working with this set of instruments, I have found a few combinations of instruments that I think sound very good together. For example, the contrabassoon and the cello play especially well together, combining for an intensely rich tone (3:04). Pizzicato (plucked) strings sound very punchy when paired with the xylophone (4:42). Also, the voices and harp together are just angelic (12:13).

There are some very interesting techniques used, especially in the percussion section. For example, in the quiet part with the bass and cello drone, both the cymbals and the crotales are bowed. This isn’t reflected in the playback as of yet due to technical limitations (i.e. no sample library in my collection has the sounds), but when performed live would ramp up the spooky noise factor to 11. In order to approximate a clock ticking, I utilized a ratchet. However, I had to use a woodblock to approximate the sound, as Sibelius doesn’t have a ratchet sound in its library either.

The artwork for Chronophobia was a collaboration between my brother Joshua and myself. I had made something with some sort of line art generator a long time ago and liked it enough to save it for something in the future. I sent it to Josh and from the jumbled mass of lines he brought out a distinctly scary looking monster. He sent back his work in two versions: a black and white version and a version that had a dirty, burnt looking color. I used both in the finished cover for the score, with very few changes. I just added text, framed the burnt version of the art, and put it on a filtered version of the black and white. The coolest thing about Josh’s art is that depending on how you look at it, it can take on different forms. It could be a creature emerging from a dark hole. It could be some sort of crazy spider thing. You can see all manner of different spooky images in the spaces between the lines too. I can make out several faces. How many different images can you find? Thanks again to Josh for his fantastic work.

Original Line Art

Joshua Curtis Black and White Version

Joshua Curtis Burnt Version

Thanks again for all the support. I appreciate you all taking the time to listen to my music. If you get the chance, spread some extra Halloween cheer (and burn a calorie or two) by liking and sharing Chronophobia with a friend on your favorite social media platforms. I hope you all had a spooktacular Halloween! I’m going to go eat candy now.

Best,

Nathan C. Curtis