Spooky Music

 

Famous traditional piano composers have a long history with ghost stories, supernatural visions, and spectral musical inspirations.

Frédéric Chopin's Phantoms and Visions

• Cohort of Phantoms: Chopin frequently spoke of being surrounded by a "cohort of phantoms" or seeing his friends as walking dead figures.
• The Funeral March Vision: Before performing his Sonata in B-flat Minor (which includes the famous Funeral March), Chopin reportedly fled a room in terror after seeing a creature or phantom emerge from his piano.
• Medical Explanation: Modern research suggests Chopin's vivid ghostly hallucinations—such as seeing small figures or demons crawl out of his instrument—were linked to neurological events like temporal lobe epilepsy or "Lilliputian hallucinations.”

Robert Schumann's "Ghost" Variations

• The Spirit Dictation: Near the end of his life, Schumann believed the ghosts of Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Schubert visited him and dictated musical themes from the beyond.
• Ghost Variations (Geistervariationen): Schumann wrote his final piano work, the Geistervariationen, claiming these spectral figures brought him the melody.

William Bolcom's "Graceful Ghost Rag"

• The Benign Presence: American composer and pianist Bolcom wrote the popular Graceful Ghost Rag (Ghost Rag No. 1) as part of his Three Ghost Rags.
• In Memory of His Father: Bolcom dedicated the piece to his late father, stating he frequently felt his father's gentle spirit hovering near the piano while he played late at night.