Before stepping into the typical college Halloween party ““ you know, the one with the weather-inappropriate Leg Avenue costumes ““ consider stepping in on an evening of free music and unusual performances.
Presenting a lively program of macabre music, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music will host “One Foot in the Grave: The UCLA Philharmonia Halloween Spooktacular,” at Royce Hall on Friday evening.
Although this year marks UCLA Philharmonia’s first Halloween event, Halloween concerts are not as eccentric or uncommon as they may sound.
Orchestras from the Chicago Symphony and university ensembles such as the Yale Symphony Orchestra have held the tradition for years.
“Ever since I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan, I remembered how terrific their Halloween concert was, and I said to myself if I ever have the chance to do something like this, I’m going to grab it,” conductor Neal Stulberg said.
Part of the appeal of a Halloween-themed performance is being part of an audience that is encouraged to dress up. Not only is the audience expected to be in costume, but the orchestra ensemble, including the conductor, will all be costumed as well.
“I’ve tried to put together a program that will be fun for the musicians to play, lively and crazy enough to appeal to an audience that might never normally step foot into Royce Hall,” Stulberg said.
Some notable pieces include two horror-film music pieces: “Psycho” and a U.S. premiere of the 1970s British horror-film score from “Taste the Blood of Dracula.”
“Bernard Herrmann’s “˜Psycho: A Narrative for Orchestra’ is the suite of string music from the Hitchcock film, arguably the greatest ““ and scariest ““ film music ever composed,” Stulberg said.
For Hitchcock enthusiasts and film-score lovers alike, the performance should prove a unique showcase of some of the rarest collections the Philharmonia has found.
“The scores are magnificent and very scary,” Stulberg said.
“We’ve been lucky to track down this music, which was located in a deep storage area of the British recording company Silva Screen, which released a collection of Hammer horror-film music,” he added.
The evening’s program will not only showcase the Philharmonia ensemble but will also show silent-film shorts, and student actors from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television will narrate the event.
Under the direction of Conor Hanratty, theater graduate students Monica Payne and Brendon Fox will present dramatic narratives before standard pieces Hector Berlioz’s “Pandemonium” from “The Damnation of Faust,” AntonÃn Dvorák’s “The Noon Witch” and César Franck’s “The Cursed Hunter.”
Because the pieces are based on “scary tales” and because the music follows the story very closely, it’s essential that the audience be able to follow the plot along with the music.
Student actors “are going to introduce two of the pieces with a blood-curdling narration, which has been written especially for this event,” Stulberg said.
Scary silent-film shorts will be accompanied by university organist Christoph Bull, who has also performed a series of organ concerts in Royce called “Organica.”
The silent films will be played on a large screen, which may also be used for titles and evocative illustrations accompanying the music.
The event will proceed without an intermission, so it should be over in time to hit the party circuit.
“I think you’d have to be there to see how spectacular it really is,” Stulberg said. “You will never come to a concert like this again.”