Composer George Streicher has done it again. Following up 2022’s Music of the Macabre is Music for Halloween Night. A sort of love-letter to the Halloweens of 30 years ago, his newest album offers 11 tracks to bring you back to plastic Halloween buckets, crisp autumn fog, jiffy-pop and candy corn bowls, and that playful, nostalgic feeling that All Hallows’ Eve provides. He has once again managed to capture what it feels like to be a kid ruling the night on October 31st.
Opening – Halloween Night
Windswept leaves transport you into the world of Halloween. As the church bell tolls, a striking melody and rhyming narration really sells it. Tonight is when the portal to the world of ghosts and ghouls is most thin!
Eye of Newt
A fantastical, high-energy jaunt that has me thinking of children running through the streets in search for the house that gives full-sized candy bars, not knowing there are actual monsters about.
Trick or Treat
A song to eat candy to. Strings, clarinet, oboe, bassoon — I am picking through my treat bag as we speak.
Curse of the Full Moon
The title is a giveaway to the hairy adventure we are seeing. Slower in tempo and with a touch of mystery, I can imagine a Romani wagon pulled through foggy forests as something lurks in the darkness — watching and waiting.
The Séance
If werewolves aren’t your thing, perhaps speaking to the dead is. Gather around the table, close your eyes, and open your mind to the presence coming through this tune. Who — or what — could it be?
The Halloween Shoppe
A golden October day is the perfect time to visit the shoppes. Another bout of narration, we can clearly see what wonders lie on the dusty shelves of this establishment.
The Witches Fly
Witches be near, flying through the skies! Watch out, they’re on a mission to grab youngsters out too late. Cauldrons bubbling and black cats about, I feel the wind flowing through my hair as I picture myself on a broom with them.
Flick or Treat
The pièce de résistance, in my opinion. As a 90s kid, this screams everything Halloween night means to me. Television tunes, that quintessential ghost toy, plenty of Theremin — this is Halloween.
The Headless Horseman
Tonight, the headless Horseman rides again. Galloping through town, we can almost hear the trampling footsteps of a black horse and firery cackling of a pumpkin head.
Goodnight, Jack-O-Lantern
After a night full of spooky wonder, this lullaby sweeps you off to dreamland. The fog has lifted to reveal a beautiful moonlit sky.
Closing – All Hallows’ Eve
And we close out with a poem that brings us back in the present day. This song serves as a memory keeper to our childhood days of trick-or-treating. I hope to return someday.
In the horror community, pretty much everyone’s favorite holiday is Halloween. That said, some love it more than others (me being one of them). Halloween is truly a lifestyle for us, a thing that “it’s just one day a year” people just wouldn’t understand. But not George Streicher — Music for Halloween Night evokes such a strong feeling of a certain time, a certain sound, a certain place. Music for Halloween Night is magical, bringing a sort of sadness for bygone times as well as an excitement for newer generations finding that same magic we once did. A beautiful symphony of orchestral instruments, narration, and retro sound effects, Music for Halloween Night is a Beistle skeleton hanging from your childhood front door, or the smell of pumpkin pie wafting into the living room while you’re watching Goosebumps. It is a replay of my favorite October memories in the span of 35 minutes.
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