Spooky Fall Mix

We are officially in one of my favorite parts of my favorite season. (It's Halloween week - which is right before Birthday week. I know that makes me a bit of a kid. Whatever.)

I was in iTunes last week listening to my "spooky" mix - a bunch of classical music with dark/Halloween-like themes. I'd been a delinquint in my summer mix CD circle - so I decided to make a holiday mix. Not the "coolest" mix ever, but I've been enjoying it quite a bit as a driving mix. Goes well with the scenery.

Here it is - with commentary:

• Thriller - Marching Illini
  Marching band=fall. I'm not the biggest marching nerd ever (I was only in the MI one year in college) - but it is fun. And this is a really fun song. We did a Halloween show the year I marched; this song involved a "monster step."
• Prologue - Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone (John Williams)
  I'm bummed about the Harry Potter movie getting bumped til 2009. The books are awesome - but I do enjoy the movies (they were my first introduction to Harry).
• Double Trouble - Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban (John Williams)
  Josh's junior high choir is singing this right now... It also reminds me of my senior year of high school when we made a movie of this scene from MacBeth (it involved me trying to say the lines, "Double double toil and trouble" while trying to shoot pool). Good times.
• Great Pumpkin Waltz - Charlie Brown (Vince Guarldi Trio)
  I don't know this Charlie Brown holiday flick as well as the Christmas one - but good music.
• Dies Irae - Mozart Requiem
  Two years ago this November I got to sing the Mozart Requiem with a local symphony chorus and professional orchestra. The music - and the context (Mozart's last work before he died, a requiem) - is definitely spooky.
• Lacrymosa - Mozart Requiem
• Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds
  Oldie
• I Put a Spell on You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
  This one is just bizarre. But it works on the mix.
• Autumn Leaves - Eva Cassidy
  Eva Cassidy's voice has a really calming effect on me. She takes her time on every song - I love it.
• Shadowfeet - Brooke Fraser
  This one maybe isn't necessarily fall-ish and definitely isn't spooky. But it's one of my top songs of the year - and I still love love love it.
• Autumn in New York - Harry Connick Jr.
  I should go to New York in the fall sometime.
• Time Warp - Marching Illini
  A cover from the Rocky Horror Picture Shop (which I've only ever seen clips from) - more marching band.
• In the Hall of the Mountain King - Grieg
  This one has lots of sentimental value. I have memories of listening to this in my kindergarten music class. I tried to pass it on to future generations a while back, with humorous results. ("I saw Mike Myers - and he was CHASIN' me!")
• Defying Gravity - Wicked
  I love Wicked. And this is my favorite song. I may look weird singing at the top of my lungs in my car - but I don't care one bit.
• Imperial March - Marching Illini
• What is Hip? - Marching Illini
  This maybe takes me into gratuitous marching band territory. It's not spooky - it's just one of my favorites.
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Dukas - Philadelphia Orchestra
  This is the longest piece on the mix - it's probably familiar to most as the music from the Disney movie, "Fantasia." We played it in college - and it was so so so much fun.

It may be one of those mixes that has more personal attachments to me than to other people.

(Josh and I have been re-listening to the previous years' Christmas mixes - and I've already started on this year's. Very exciting, the mix CDs.)