"I don't know, Scoob, I don't think we should explore that quicklime-filled elevator shaft."

March 9, 2006 6:50 PM

A question about a spooky musical composition.

There is an oft-used musical sequence that (usually) accompanies someone walking on tip-toe or cautiously advancing through a theoretically haunted household, or is used to "sweeten" an animation during which the main characters take long pauses in action to deepen the suspense/meet budgetary constraints. You will find more about this, and a sample "mp3" file, here.

I'm not sure that it actually has a name, but I figure it's been used enough that some name may have been slapped on it by now for easy identification.

posted by user92371 to media & arts (6 comments total)

1, b3, 5, 8, b6-----------,54b321

It's an ascending minor arpeggio followed by a quick (minor) diatonic walk from the 5th to the root.

A name? I dunno.
posted by sourwookie at 7:01 PM on March 9, 2006

To me, the lyrics are, "We are here you scare you-ho-ho-ho!" which seems to be part of this kids' poem, The Pumpkin Seed. Probably has other origins beyond this...
posted by lalalana at 8:52 PM on March 9, 2006

Oh, wow. I was wondering this the other day. I was a cartoon thief for Mardi Gras (racoon mask, striped shirt, etc.) and was humming this while sneaking past people. No answer here, but eagerly awaiting one.
posted by brundlefly at 8:55 PM on March 9, 2006

I did some googlin' with Lalalana's lyric and found this excellent page which has an mp3 as well! "Haunted House Blues," Bessie Smith, 1923! Who knew. Lotta good stuff on that website there.
posted by user92371 at 9:13 PM on March 9, 2006

There's also a discussion about this exact musical phrase -- what they dub the "minor motive," on Dr. Mysterian's blog here. Nobody, it seems, knows the exact source of it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:28 AM on March 10, 2006

But at least they've pushed it farther back to a 1915 vaudeville sketch found here at the Library of Congress website. Thanks for finding that!
posted by user92371 at 10:57 AM on March 10, 2006