A Creative Introduction to "The Mort Bell" by Melanie Spanswick

This spooky piece comes from "Ghostly Piano Tales" published by Schott

Melanie Spanswick’s new book, Ghostly Piano Tales, is full of spooky pieces that are perfect for this time of year. Each of the pieces is connected to a fascinating creepy story, including gruesome tales of a vampire witch from the folklore of the Dahomey people, the Chinese mythological figure King Kan who decides whether the dead will have a happy or unhappy afterlife, or the ghost snakes that would creep into the houses of Picts and devour whole families. With clear benchmarking from UK Grades 1-3, this will be a useful book if you’ve got a lot of late elementary students this Halloween!

There are lots of great pieces in here, but I was particularly taken by “The Mort Bell”. Here’s a preview courtesy of Schott Music.

Spooky mutations

Here’s a video where I explain some ways you and your students can transform the piece:

Sharpen the knives!

Play all the Gs as G♯s to add some creepy chromaticism

Add a spooky shimmer!

Silently depress the lowest keys of the piano using a heavy object like a book to create a spooky resonance

More Mort Bellringers!

Heighten the drama and practise ensemble playing by turning the piece into a duet or trio. In the duet, the Primo could play the right hand melody in both hands, while the Secondo could play octave Ds at the bottom of the piano. In the trio, the third player could add more octave Ds at the top of the piano.

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Thanks for reading!

Let me know how you get on in the comments.

You can buy Melanie Spanswick’s Ghostly Piano Tales direct from Schott Music or at all good music bookshops.