Macabre Music Will Fill Baylor’s Jones Concert Hall on Halloween

Music majors will perform selections on the organ that are ‘spooky, funny or related to an imaginary world,’ says associate professor of organ

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WACO, Texas (Oct. 26, 2017) — Mystery and mastery will merge at Baylor University as the School of Music presents its 27th Halloween concert, giving organ students the chance to display their talent with eerie music on Jones Concert Hall’s massive pipe organ.

The free concert will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, at Jones Hall in Glennis McCrary Music Building, 110 Baylor Ave.

The concert was begun by Joyce Jones, D.M.A., Professor Emeritus of Organ at Baylor. Besides offering sinister music, the concert will feature students in costume and a stage decorated with spiders, vampires, pumpkins and ghosts. Audience members often show up in costume, too.

Among the concert staples is Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, written in the 1700s and used in the 1931 film “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and the 1962 film “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Dr. Isabelle Demers, associate professor of organ, plays the familiar favorite — Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

Making the piece particularly showy is the fact that nine organists — including Isabelle Demers, D.M.A., associate professor of organ, will perform. Each will take a turn on the bench, then slide off to make way for the next organist as smoothly as possible. Such maneuvers are not always easy, depending on the musician’s costume.

“We’ve had students do everything from wearing a Phantom of the Opera cape to dressing up like (insurance agent) Jake in State Farm commercials,” Demers said. “We’ve also had people who have tried to play with a mask on, but it was very difficult as they could not see the music or the manuals very well.

“Part of the issues with costumes is that a lot of them are a bit slippery,” she said. “You need to be stable, not have something that’s going to throw you on the pedals. I remember one student who wore a lion costume began to slip, and the page turner had to grab him by the tail.”

Each student chooses his or her music for the concert, which is then approved by Demers.

“It has to be good music — interesting, not merely strange — and it has to be at least loosely related to Halloween,” she said. “Most of the selections are spooky, funny or can be related to an imaginary world.”

Olivier Messiaen’s Tenebrae features “a very low pitch and a 14-note chord that pretty much shakes the hall,” Demers said.

At the other end of the spectrum is music from science fiction movies or the “Harry Potter” films.

For music majors, performing in the concert is a requirement, Demers said.

“In the past, some of the performers were those who took organ as electives, but for this concert, that can be like the pilot of a private plane trying to fly a 747,” she said. “There are a lot of buttons on the Jones organ. It’s hard to have the coordination to do all that.”
Sophomore organ major Jared Cook of Cypress will perform the “Finale” from the third organ symphony of composer and organist Louis Vierne, who died June 2, 1937, at the organ during a performance at Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral. He suffered a heart attack and died, and his foot landed on the low E of the pedalboard — the last note he ever played, Cook said.
Sophomore organ major Jared Cook performs a segment from Vierne’s “Finale.”

Cook’s costume will be on a playful note, in contrast to his performance. He’ll done blue shorts and a yellow polo shirt to resemble Christopher Robin of “Winnie-the-Pooh” fame.
Graduate student Jillian Gardner, who will come costumed as Piglet (also from “Winnie-the-Pooh”), will perform composer Gustav Holst’s “Mars” and “Jupiter” from The Planets.

Graduate student Jillian Gardner performs a segment from Gustav Holst’s “Mars.”

“I try to pick things that will leave you singing or that you’ll recognize,” Gardner said, noting that the music from Holst’s The Planets has been used in movies and other commercial music. “It’s just interesting how you can mimic the sounds (of various instruments on pieces written for an orchestra) on the organ. How do you make all those parts work? It’s fun and very challenging for the organist and very visual for the audience.”

Jones, concert originator, is delighted at the event’s staying power. It moved from its birthplace in Roxy Grove Hall at Baylor to the larger Jones Concert Hall once it was built.

“At Roxy Grove, we usually had to do two performances and one year even did three performances, since it didn’t hold as many people as Jones Concert Hall,” Jones said. “But it was ideal, because we were able to hang skeletons from the ceiling and have them move in time to the music.

“I have videos of most of the first 10 concerts,” she said. “Some of them were a scream. I usually dressed as a witch, but on two occasions, during the playing of ‘Ride of the Valkyries,’ I came out dressed as a character from the opera and sang.”

The program usually started with the Funeral March of a Marionette, during which a student came out dressed as film director Alfred Hitchcock, saying “Good evening” in the manner of the late Hitchcock, known as “the Master of Suspense.”

“Students today might not remember Hitchcock, but he was noted for his deep voice and rotund build,” she said. “Of course, Toccata and Fugue in D minor was always played, and we also usually had a duet performance of Danse Macabre, during which skeletons danced in time to the music. One year a student skated on stage just to turn pages.”

The organ works so well for Halloween because “it’s more aggressive than a symphony orchestra,” Demers said. “You can play an organ super softly. But you pull out all the stops, and it can blow you out of the room. That plus playing in a dark hall . . . You never know what will come out.”

This Halloween, organists and musical selections will include:
• Jared Cook: Louis Vierne’s “Finale” from Symphonie No. 3, Op. 28
• Mitchell Won: Gabriel Pierné’s – Prélude, Op. 29, No. 1
• Yinying Luo: Louis Vierne’s Toccata in B-flat minor, Op. 53, No. 6
• Jillian Gardner: Gustav Holst’s “Mars” and “Jupiter” (from The Planets, Op. 32)
• Hank Carrillo: Two movements from Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose
• Benji Stegner: Olivier Messiaen’s Tenebrae
• All students: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
• Jillian Gardner and Isabelle Demers: P.D.Q. Bach’s Toot Suite
• Hannah Scholz and Catherine Ledoux: Franz Schubert “Marche Militaire” in D Major
• Isabelle Demers: John Williams’ Harry Potter Symphonic Suite

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ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC

The Baylor University School of Music provides transformational experiences that prepare students for careers in music. Our students thrive in a Christian environment characterized by a nurturing resident faculty, an unwavering pursuit of musical excellence, a global perspective, dedication to service, and devotion to faith. They investigate the rich musical and cultural heritage of the past, develop superior musical skills and knowledge in the present, and explore and create new modes of musical expression for the future. While preparing for future leadership roles, the students join with School of Music faculty in enhancing the quality of community life, enriching the larger culture, and making Baylor a place in which heart, mind and soul coalesce. The School of Music of Baylor University is a member of the National Association of Schools of Music and the Texas Association of Music Schools. Degree programs leading to the bachelor of music education degree conform to certification requirements of the Texas Education Agency.