Five Minutes With: Charles Farley, organist at First Presbyterian Church

Some pieces of music just sound haunting -- "The Phantom of the Opera," the first strains of "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" by Bach.

But what makes music scary? Charles Farley thinks he has the answer. First Presbyterian Church's organist will present "Haunting Melodies," a concert of scary sounds Wednesday at the church on Hilton Head Island.

Farley sends chills up our spine.

Question. How did this come about?

Answer. They asked me if I could do this. I had never done anything like this before. I have played a lot of recitals before but not one like this.

Q. What was your first thought when they asked?

A. My first thought was, "Well sure ... what am I going to do(laughs)?" I Googled "spooky Halloween music" and got a bunch of hits. A lot of it was stupid.

Q. Like the "Monster Mash"?

A. I did find some things. "Phantom of the Opera." "Danse Macabre." Everyone always lists "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" by Bach. I've played that piece a lot over the years so that was no problem. And then I just picked some loud, crashy-sounding pieces.

Q. What makes a good Halloween piece?

A. Something kind of loud. That's easy to do at the church because it's a pretty big pipe organ. When you use the word "spooky," how do you make music spooky? If it's in a movie or something like that, it's fairly easy because you have images to go along with it. We don't have that option. The one thing that I've chosen are things that are loud and things that are fast. I've got another piece that's whimsical and playful, and I might just call that "The Little Goblins" or something like that. In fact, a lot of these pieces don't have a lot to do with Halloween, but they make sense.

Q. You have to be in the right mind-set. If you play something called "The Happy Little Elves" but set it up as "The Evil Little Goblins," you could make it work.

A. Yes, and I will be coming in a little bit of a costume. But I'll let that be a bit of a surprise.