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Halloween Michael Myers Horror movies Halloween 2020 Musical analysis

Halloween

halloween

One of the many reasons for the success of the movie Halloween lies in this spectacular song composed by the same director Jhon Carpenter, which creates a tense and disturbing atmosphere, and I will take advantage of this space to explain details about it.

The effectiveness of works related to terror is based on generating combinations that seek to make the listener uncomfortable, both in rhythm, melody, harmony and sound. In this work, what stands out is the use of a not very strange measure such as the 5/4 (5 strokes accentuating the 1st and 4th beats, this reveals the internal construction of the measure as 3/4 + 2/4)

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The melody is an ostinato (sequence of notes that is repeated during the work) that changes abruptly according to the new tonality through which it passes. This main motif has the following sequence using acoustic indices (System that helps us to specify the height of the note, basically if the number is higher it is played more acute):

C # 5 F # 4 F # 4 C # 5 F # 4 F # 4 C # 5 F # 4 D5 F # 4

MichaelMyers

In the first block, the ostinato in F # m is observed in 2 bars and abruptly changes to Fm. This musical idea is repeated. Accompanied by the following chords:

| F # 5 | A5 | Bb | % | x2

In a second block the ostinato travels abruptly to Em for 2 bars and breaks the stability of the tone again to travel Ebm, repeating this sequence with these chords:

| E5 | G | Eb | % | x2

madhouse

The last section is in Bm for a long time, this is valid since it allows the listener to rest melodically so that when these abrupt changes in tonality come again, they will be felt again with the same intensity of the beginning.

| B5 | D5 | E5 | F # 5 | x4

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Social Media Author: Pablo Bobadilla Rider