Midnight Waltz

While working on this composition, I saw the Portland Opera’s production of “The Shining” based on the Stephen King book. The story is where a family is caretaking a hotel in the Colorado mountains during the winter and the husband becomes haunted by ghosts. Both the story and the eerie music got into my psyche and Midnight Waltz is the result. The music of the introduction portrays a couple at a jazz club. They then wander outside to a park and begin to waltz in a gazebo under the starlight. While the couple is dancing, they begin to see ghosts dancing along side them but don’t think they are real. They go back to their dance, but ghosts intrude again this time taking over the couple’s body and a more frantic dance ensues.