Today’s piece isn’t necessarily scary, but it is dark, deep, and heavy. I don’t associate it with Halloween, but I do remember an old Halloween cartoon in which a crazy old man played it on the piano in his haunted house.

There’s a tradition in keyboard composition to write a set of pieces in all 24 keys – that is, all 12 pitches of the chromatic scale (A, A#, B, C, C#, etc), in both major and minor tonalities. The idea to write this sort of musical collection can be traced to composer Vincenzo Galilei (who, incidentally, was the father of Galileo … lest you think musicians are dumb performing monkeys.) However, the first successful set of compositions in all 24 keys is without a doubt Johann Sebastian Bach‘s Well Tempered Clavier. The Well Tempered Clavier has since become one of those magical works which is all things to all people. It is used as a teaching tool for children and adults, pianists, composers, and more; and yet, you’ll hear selections from it on many piano concerts, and regularly see performances of all 24 pieces (memorized, usually.) Since its completion, all the great pianists have played it, and most composers refer to it as one of their inspirations.

Sergei Rachmaninoff would have known this work, as well as Chopin‘s and probably Scriabin‘s sets of 24 preludes. Being one of the greatest composers for piano in the early twentieth century, it would be wrong if he didn’t contribute his own exceedingly difficult set of pieces in every key. This Prelude in C# minor is practically a right of passage for young pianists, since it calls for a number of skills that are necessary as they graduate to more advanced literature. There are large chords, big jumps, and the middle section requires finger dexterity. And it has the added benefit of being not too hard, but sounding hard – making it good for impressing friends at parties.

This video contains a performance by Rachmaninoff himself!

I’m a decent musician. When I see a pianist like this perform, I am floored. How can anyone play this fast while remaining accurate and expressive?

There’s only one way. They sold their soul to the devil!

It all started with Franz Liszt, who lived quite the life. He was by far the most talented pianist of his time, and pushed the instrument to new levels. He was also an international playboy and possibly the first musical superstar. But what really convinces me of his deal with the devil is that he joined a religious order late in life, perhaps as an attempt to buy out his unholy contract. Or, perhaps it was just an attempt to atone for his multiple affairs with numerous women in various European courts.

Perhaps, shortly after he sold his soul, Liszt regretted the decision and wrote his Totentanz – dance of the dead. This is a symphonic poem (a free-form style of composition which Liszt invented) which uses the ancient Dies Irae (Day of Judgment) chant (a popular chant for Halloween). It’s a spooky piece which shows off the legendary piano technique of the great master. The skill required to play this is inhuman … the devil has to be at work here!

Joking aside – these great pianists (and composers) are simply great, and have no unholy dealings; I celebrate them!

Of Europe’s 750 million people, Norway claims only 5. Norway is the sticks, the boondocks, the land of country bumpkins.

Joking aside, it is relatively small and remote. It was even more so a century ago, before cars and the internet made the earth a lot smaller. So when Norwegian hero Edvard Grieg wrote magnificent music, he put this small country on the maps and in the minds of the rest of the continent. His compositions are flavored with Norwegian legends and mythology – this is the land of giants, trolls, gnomes, swords, spears, and Vikings. One of my favorite Halloweentide pieces is his March of the Trolls, which comes from a series of short character pieces he wrote for piano.

This piece is in trio form – ABA. There’s an opening section in which you can hear the excited little trolls running around, followed by a middle section where the trolls sit around and relax a spell; the piece ends with an exact repeat of the first section.