It's getting close to midnight. Something evil's lurking in the dark… AAACK! It's a special Halloween edition of Classical Classroom! Last year for the holiday, we exhumed some composers from the dead. This year, we kidnapped a living composer, violinist, and maker of scary movies and forced him to introduce us to spooky tunes. Then, we ordered him to tell us why it is that creepy music creeps us out. Jerry Ochoa of Houston's Two Star Symphony does a wicked good job of explaining it, too. Which is why, at the end of the episode, we let him go*.

Audio production by Todd "Terrifying" Hulslander with snargling from Dacia Clay.

Music in this episode:

By Two Star Symphony

– "Goblin Attack", from Love and Other Demons

– "Feast", from Titus Andronicus

– "Dawn Dipple", from Love and Other Demons

By others

– Camille Saint-Saens: Danse macabre, Op. 40, played by the New York Philharmonic

– Modest Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain, played by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

– Bernard Hermann: Psycho Suite

– Franz Liszt: Totentanz, played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra

– Bela Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, played by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

For more about Two Star Symphony: www.twostarsymphony.com

*No Jerry Ochoas were harmed in the making of this episode.