Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews
In addition to her superb Play it Again Piano series for adults returning to the piano (reviewed here ) and ground-breaking Women Composers: Graded Anthology series (reviewed here), Melanie Spanswick is a busy composer with a growing catalogue of titles to her name, including several from Schott Music.
For her latest, Spanswick delivers 24 Imaginative Piano Pieces for elementary to early intermediate players which dive headlong into the world of the macabre. Is there suddenly a chill in the air?
A frightfully good collection…
Ghostly Piano Tales is divided into three sections, progressing in difficulty, and each delivering eight original pieces. They are labelled for Grade 1 (Elementary), Grade 2 (Late Elementary), and Grade 3 (Early Intermediate). As always, the suggested grade levels are a useful guide, and provide a framework for Spanswick’s educational intent.
Introducing the collection, the composer tells us,
“The selection encapsulates a whole host of ghostly and supernatural phenomena from around the world, featuring a compelling assortment of mystical legends, characters and places, some dating back centuries. Every piece contains information about the subject with added performance directions.”
Sure enough, exploring the book it’s immediately clear that the stories and background information about each piece are integral to their meaning and appeal. Playing through the pieces, I soon realised that taking time to appreciate the stories and scenes they invoke is pivotal to the experience.
Spanswick enthuses,
“The stories range from creepy references to the occult, to macabre tales of the underworld. Each one delves into an entirely different realm and one that frequently appears beyond our understanding.”
Brace yourselves for the full list:
- Festival of the Cows
- The Lone Hatif
- The Mort Bell
- Death Comes a Knocking
- Min Min Lights
- Windsor Castle
- Bogey Monster
- King Yan
- Asiman Witch
- Day of the Dead
- The Snow Woman
- Pavan for Anne Boleyn
- Lady Catherine’s Minuet
- Ghost Snake
- Floating Orbs
- The Fairy Cat
- Banshee Blues
- The Grim Reaper
- The Headless Horseman
- Woman in White
- The Lady of Raynham Hall
- Biscornet at the Notre Dame
- Poltergeist’s Polonaise
If some of these titles seem benign enough, don’t be fooled. Spanswick proves herself to be an impressively vivid story-teller, her introductions made the more unsettling by her obvious fascination with the unaccountably peculiar, and by the plausibility she bestows on these bizarre vignettes.
Haunting melodies
Spanswick’s skilful musical depictions of her subject matter makes the collection still more unnerving. Low bass notes recreate The Mort Bell as it tolls to drive evil spirits away; a glissando depicts the Asiman Witch as she swoops high to spot her prey; sustain pedal and echo effects portray the mysterious Floating Orbs that are said to contain the spirits of the dead.
Some of these pieces explore extended techniques to further add to their chill: rhythmically knocking the wood of the piano three times evocatively heralds the arrival of the grim reaper; silently depressing keys allows for the ghostly atmospherics of Henry VIII’s apparition, woefully moaning in the cloisters of Windsor Castle.
Elsewhere, the Una corda and sustain pedals make frequent interventions, and a fortissimo shake between diminished fifths (the interval known as “Diabolus in Musica“) represents the shriek of the Banshee as she heralds the death of a family member; repetitive high pitched notes hovering above chord clusters depict the wailing of the Woman in White.
The music is not consistently morbid however: Day of the Dead, which celebrates the famous Mexican and Caribbean festival, proves to be a lively Calypso, Lady Catherine’s Minuet is a relatively untroubled stately dance, The Fairy Cat is essentially good-natured, and Banshee Blues is swung. The collection certainly benefits from these contrasts.
I will be interested to see how learners respond to the more unusual material here. I can’t help feeling that there is a thin line between the spooky and the downright disturbing, and that the collection should perhaps be recommended with that disclaimer!
The Publication
Ghostly Piano Tales arrives with a deliciously gothic cover that rather perfectly sums up its content, although the AI artwork (the black keys on the piano are frighteningly, if predictably, quite wrong) may divide opinion. Personally, I love the Addams Family vibe.
Within, the presentation is far more sensible, and the 44 pages are printed on luxury cream paper, delivering a sense of true quality and care. The book opens with a scene-setting Preface, and Contents page which reveals the grade levels of the pieces
The scores that follow are beautifully engraved with a spacious and nicely-sized music font, suitable for this level. Fingering suggestions are provided throughout, as are precise pedalling instructions, and being Spanswick’s can be trusted for their educational value.
Beneath each piece, the backstory appears, again in a well-sized font, and in both English and German. The presentation as a whole is spacious, so that where needed, the story of each piece takes the presentation onto two pages, but none of the pieces is longer than one and a half pages, and there are no page turns within pieces.
A QR code and weblink take the reader to the Schott Music product page, which includes Melanie Spanswick’s video performances of all these pieces. For those interested, these can also be viewed on her YouTube channel:
Closing Thoughts
Composing a collection of elementary piano pieces which stand out from the crowd is no easy task, but Melanie Spanswick has certainly succeeded with Ghostly Piano Tales. Definitely weird, often wonderful, this is without doubt one of the most distinctive, creative, and scarily good music books of the year.
While the collection will undoubtedly appeal to some children, it should obviously be recommended with some care; adults will love the lush presentation, meanwhile, and more advanced players may enjoy the pieces as quick studies or as sight-reading: but watch out for the many unexpected twists!
That the pieces, and their accompanying stories, are somewhat closer in tone to Aleister Crowley than they are to Scooby Doo will delight some as much as it perhaps concerns others, but personally I found this publication wickedly enjoyable. There are a number of fun Halloween piano books available, but if you are looking for something a little darker, here it is.
And having sensibly avoided the ‘H’ word, these are pieces which will creep up on you all the year around!
Pianodao Music Club members receive 15% discount from Sheet Music Plus.
Musicroom is joining forces with Sheet Music Plus.
Most Pianodao retail links will redirect you to the new product pages.
Any which don’t will be updated in the coming weeks. Thank you for your patience.
Pianodao includes 700+ free articles and reviews.
If you value this resource, please support the site:
