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Chapman Challenge: What’s the Spookiest Instrument?

Chapman Challenge Spooky Music Culture Arts Alive Blog Instruments

Our Alan Chapman has a lot to say about music, but can he say it in 60 seconds? That’s the Chapman Challenge. We ask a question and Alan has a minute to answer it.

Today’s question is in honor of Halloween. And the question is what is the spookiest instrument?

Hit play below to listen to the Chapman Challenge.

Chapman Challenge: What’s the Spookiest Instrument?

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I think a very good candidate would be an electronic instrument invented in the 1920s by a Russian named Leon Theremin, who named the instrument after himself. This is what a theremin sounds like:

That’s not spooky but listen to this: Bernard Herrmann using two theremins to create an unearthly sound in the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Now, if by “spooky” you mean “scary,” I’ll go to Bernard Herrmann again. He showed us that you can make violins sound scary if you know what to with them, as he does in a famous scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Happy Halloween!

Chapman Challenge Spooky Music Culture Arts Alive Blog Instruments

Written by:

Alan Chapman

Published on 10.31.2024

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