Skip to main content

Monstrous music

Can brass instruments really make anything scary? Two ASU conductors think so — watch our video and see what you think


Brass instrument
October 29, 2018

Scary movies wouldn't be nearly as frightening without the soundtrack. (Try it sometime: Mute a horror film and see whether your heart rate immediately slows.)

String instruments are often the star in scary scores (think the "ee-ee-ee" of the shower scene in "Psycho"), but ASU conductors and School of Music associate professors Bradley Edwards and Deanna Swoboda argue that brass can be boo-tiful — and they're putting their theory to the test on Halloween morning with a concert at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix featuring trombones, tubas and euphoniums playing such frightful favorites as "The Addams Family" theme song, the "Tales From the Crypt" introduction and the "Fantasia" classic "Night on Bald Mountain." 

Edwards and Swoboda argue that brass can make anything scary — even babies and kittens. See what you think in the video below.

Video by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

Learn more at the Musical Instrument Museum website or ASU Events.

More Arts, humanities and education

 

Students seated in a classroom watching K-pop videos.

New K-pop and Korean film classes launch at ASU

The Hallyu, or “Korean wave,” has made its way into Arizona State University classrooms with the arrival of a new professor who is using her own fandom and expertise to educate students on Korean…

Hands holding the book "The Human Story: An Introduction to Anthropology."

New book aims to change how anthropology is introduced to students around the world

With a combination of over a century of experience, five Arizona State University anthropologists wrote a new textbook that they hope will change the way introductory anthropology is taught around…

A female humanities lab student stands in front of an audience while speaking into a microphone

Students host gun culture storytelling event with an intergenerational audience

According to Bobbie Reed — a resident of Arizona State University's senior living retirement community center, Mirabella — guns were much less prevalent in society when she was growing up. “I don’t…