October is the most magical month of the year. Oak leaves skitter across the pavement, clattering like skeleton bones. In northern Italy thick fog roils above the vineyards. The vines grow bare as palm-sized green leaves motle yellow and drift to the ground. There is a thinness to the air, and the line between life and death is a little less solid than at any other season. We're on a 31-day countdown to my favorite holiday, Halloween, and 32 days from the bone cookies and graveyard treks of All Saint's Day. To celebrate the season and to put you in the mood for reading and writing in the autumnal atmosphere, here's a list of my favorite October music:
Vocal:
Bargainville by Moxy Fruvous. Right from the first track, "River Valley," you're out in the country on an autumn walk. Maybe Canadian groups just get autumn. If you like Bargainville, be sure to try Maroon by the Barenaked Ladies.
Instrumental:
Amélie: Original Soundtrack Recording by Yann Tierson from the French film Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. Tierson loves to write for accordion and toy piano, and the result is a sepia-toned portrait of childhood suddenly infused with new color and life. The whole album is a September-October delight, but, despite its name, Track 4: "Comtine D'un Autre Ete: L'apres Midi," is the most autumnal of the album. The solo piano notes you hear in this track are actually falling red and gold leaves.
Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits by Vince Guaraldi includes the heart-breakingly cheerful "Great Pumpkin Waltz." George Winston also plays a touching version of this song on his album Linus & Lucy: The Music Of Vince Guaraldi . Winston has an album called Autumn that makes lovely reading, writing, studying music.
Orchestral:
Concerto for Orchestra by Béla Bartók. Bartók wrote this haunting music during the last years of his life in New York.
Night on Bald Mountain by Moussorgsky (you might know this spooky music from Disney's Fantasia).
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