It’s Halloween -- that time of year when chains rattle, doors creak, skeletons dance, and when even concert music can get a bit spooky.

For example, in 1987, the American composer Libby Larsen composed an orchestral suite titled “What the Monster Saw,” inspired by Mary Shelley’s novel, “Frankenstein.” Says Larsen, “[It’s] is a musical exploration of the second part of the novel, where the monster confronts Frankenstein, his creator.” In 1990, Larsen’s confronted the same monster at greater length, in a full-length opera titled “Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus,” again based on Shelley’s classic tale.

Speaking of monster music, connoisseurs of horror films consider “The Bride of Frankenstein,” released by Universal Studios in 1935, to be one of the classics. It featured Boris Karloff as the monster, Elsa Lancaster as his bride, and a moody film score by Franz Waxman.

Waxman originally composed his Frankenstein music on a pipe organ. His score was then orchestrated by one Clifford Vaughan, who translated many of the organ’s spookiest effects into eerie and effective symphonic colors. So successfully, in fact, that their creation refused to die: chunks of their film score were transplanted into dozens of subsequent Universal Studios thrillers and movie serials.

Dr. Frankenstein would have been proud!