Many composers have depicted the afterlife in their music.
Sometimes those depictions are scary, sometimes they're grotesque, sometimes they're holy and sometimes, in the case of composer William Bolcom, they're simply "benign."
Hear a variety of composers' musical takes on the afterlife, performed by more than eight decades of Interlochen students and alumni.
Music heard in this episode
Camille Saint-Saens, Danse Macabre
Byron Hanson conducting the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, October 31, 1992
Soloist Jonathan Godfrey
Franz Liszt, Totentanz (excerpt)
Joe Maddy conducting the National High School Orchestra, 1937
Soloist Storm Bull
Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique (excerpt)
Michael Francis conducting the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, 2018
Richard Strauss, Death and Transfiguration
Joe Maddy conducting the International Youth Orchestra, 1964
William Bolcom, Three Ghost Rags
Harlem Quartet in concert at Interlochen Center for the Arts, 2018
The archival recordings heard on this program are available thanks in part to The Association for Recorded Sound Collections' Classical Music Preservation Grant, generous support from our listeners, and the Hamer D. and Phyllis C. Shafer Foundation.
Thanks to Michael Culler for audio engineering assistance.
