Award Date
5-1-2022
Degree Type
Doctoral Project
Degree Name
Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)
Department
Music
First Committee Member
Timothy Hoft
Second Committee Member
Jonathan Lee
Third Committee Member
David Loeb
Fourth Committee Member
Viet Cuong
Fifth Committee Member
Louis Kavouras
Number of Pages
62
Abstract
The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, and the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, have been by far the most prominent of J.S. Bach’s works to evoke evil and horror on screen. This “Horror Bach” association remains exclusively a subculture phenomenon in pop culture (almost universally outside of the classical music world). A historical overview of this cultural phenomenon suggests three factors that made these pieces become horror film music: 1) the popularity of the pieces, 2) the choice of instrumentation, and 3) popular cultural factors. This doctoral document also introduces this pop culture phenomenon of Bach to classical keyboardists, providing them with the information necessary to create “Horror-Bach” concert programs.
Keywords
Horror Film Music; J.S. Bach; Keyboard Music
Disciplines
Music
File Format
File Size
769 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Repository Citation
Yang, Siyu, "Tracing the Shadows of Gothic Bach: An Overview of J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Music in American Horror Films" (2022). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 4490.
http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/31813385
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/