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This trending Netflix show gives its classical music soundtrack a new gory meaning - Classic FM

29 September 2021, 12:57

Squid Game
Squid Game. Picture: Siren Pictures Inc. / Netflix

Netflix’s new chart-topping horror show ‘Squid Game’ is filled with classical music. Listen here to the chilling soundtrack which takes on a whole new meaning thanks to the plot of this gory South Korean survival drama.

Squid Game burst onto our screen at the end of September 2021 in a blaze of gore, shock, and mystery. But what audiences probably weren’t expecting, was the appearance of some of classical music's best known works.

The show tells the story of a group of contestants who have the chance to win ₩45.6 billion (£28.5 million) by playing playground games. The catch? If you lose, you die.

Each contestant has chosen to compete in the games as they are in severe debt, giving them the incentive to risk it all for the grand total.

This gory plot is underscored by some familiar pieces from the world of classical music, and after watching this show, you’ll never listen to these works in the same way again...

Read more: The Crown season 5 – what music to expect, and everything we know so far

Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto

Half an hour into the first episode, the players are woken up by the third and final movement of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E flat major.

This piece becomes a chilling theme throughout the rest of the series, garnering the contestants’ attention at critical points and bringing a sense of unease to both the players, and the audience.

The concerto was composed in 1796 for Haydn’s friend, the trumpet virtuoso, Anton Weidinger.

The piece was Haydn’s last major orchestral work, which is clear from the maturity and experience he brings to the composition.

It’s possible Squid Games chose this piece due to the movement’s virtuosic fanfare-style playing.

With fanfares often used to announce important figures, opening ceremonies such as the Olympics, and to sound the start of a war, this work is a suitable choice for a show which combines all three themes.

Strauss’ By The Beautiful Blue Danube

Johann Strauss II’s An der schönen, baluen Donau, also known as The Blue Danube waltz, was originally a choral work, despite the most popular arrangement being for orchestra.

Strauss had been commissioned to write the piece for the Vienna Men’s Choral Society in 1866 in order to lift the spirits of the people of Vienna, due to Prussia’s win in the Austrian-Prussian war, that same year.

Similarly to war, Squid Game has many fatalities, with almost half of all players killed in the first episode.

The clever choice of The Blue Danube as an underscore then for events before and after games alludes to the idea that game makers are trying to lift the spirits of the players, who like the people of Vienna in 1866, have also witnessed tragic losses.

Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings

Tchaikovsky composed his Serenade for Strings in C major from his “inner conviction”.

“It is a heartfelt piece and so, I dare to think, it is not lacking in real qualities,” Tchaikovsky told his patron Nadezhda von Meck in a letter on the work.

Squid Game uses the waltz, the second movement, to mark the end of the second game, and the deliberation involved in the forming of teams for the third.

The waltz is often performed separately to the approximately half-an-hour work as it has gained popularity as a piece in its own right. At its premiere, the movement had to be repeated. Tchaikovsky’s former teacher Anton Rubinstein declared it Tchaikovsky’s best piece.

You can watch season one of Squid Game on Netflix now.

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2021-09-29 11:57:02Z

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