As Darkness Falls
Produced by Sara Prince, 2003
Introductory music:
The Bells of St. Genevieve
Composed by Marin Marais
Moonlight Sonata by Alexander Woollcott
A tale of deadly obsession? According to Woollcott, it was. The story begins with a young English doctor who comes to visit an old friend. This friend, Ellery Cazalet, had recently inherited an old crumbly, English manor house - a sort of place that leaves a man pondering the debts he'd incur by keeping a house "to which he had indignantly fallen heir". When the doctor arrives, Ellery is out for a game of golf and not due back until dark. But the house is not exactly empty.
Moonlight Sonata is from Woollcott's collection of stories and personal reminiscences, "While Rome Burns".
Performed by:
- Geoffrey Morley-Mower
Interlude:
Macbeth, Act III: Ballet music no. 1
Composed by Guiseppe Verdi
A Diagnosis of Death by Ambrose Bierce
It's been said that Ambrose Bierce began his interest in the mysterious after reading a report in an Alabama newspaper in 1854. The story related the disappearance of a man named Orion Williamson, who vanished in full sight of his wife and neighbors while walking across a field. The spot where Williamson disappeared was surrounded by dead grass which was eventually dug up to test whether the ground had been unstable and to search for remains. None were found. For weeks afterwards, Mrs. Williamson claimed to have heard Orion's voice - strongly at first, then quieter and quieter until silent. Oddly enough, Bierce's own end is met with considerable mystery. After making a supposed trip to Mexico during the Revolution, his letters ended, no sightings were reported, and no death recorded. To this day, still no one knows what happened to him.
"A Diagnosis of Death" was originally published in Bierce's collection of ghost stories, "Can Such Things Be?"
Performed by:
- Karen Gerard - Narrator
- Trent Wagler - Hawver
- Thomas King - Dr. Frayley
Interlude:
Danse Macabre
Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains by Edgar Allan Poe
During the time Poe wrote "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains," mesmerism was a popular, if somewhat suspect, science. Poe found it especially interesting and wrote several essays and short stories dealing with the subject. Mesmerism's current form is hypnotism, but in 1844, mesmerism was known as a science that connected the energy of the solar system with the balance of magnetic fluids in the body. Sickness was thought to be an imbalance of fluids, which could only be controlled by a mesmerist who realigned himself and the patient with the magnetism of the earth, the stars and the planets... A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" is centered around one such patient, Bedloe and his mesmerist, Dr. Templeton. The story begins as a retelling of Bedloe's walk through the Ragged Mountains of Charlottesville and the series of unusual events that he encounters along the way. The bizarre twist to the story is in the relationship between Bedloe and Templeton and how one of them winds up as dead (or perhaps, never alive to begin with.)
Performed by:
- Cathy Brookshire - Narrator
- Phillip St. Ours - Bedloe
- George Wead - Dr. Templeton
Interlude:
Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14, V. "Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat"
Composed by Hector Berlioz
Nemesis by H.P. Lovecraft
Dreams were once considered to predict future events in our lives. Nowadays, they are seen as our subconscious letting us know what we are afraid of. Some of the best horror writers have managed to tap into that sense of fear about death, loneliness, and the unknown. Lovecraft is a master - from his tales of supreme isolation to his poems about the absolute unknown.
Performed by:
- Penn Plummer
Finale Music:
"In the Hall of the Mountain King" (From Peer Gynt Suite no. 1)
Composed by by Edvard Grieg