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Suspiria

Film music / Synthesizers & electronic scores · 1977

Suspiria

Goblin

Suspiria · 고블린

Why listen

Short thematic repetition, unsettling vocal sounds and extended band pieces give the eight-track album a shape beyond its familiar opening theme.

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Tracks · previews

English editorial edition

Album story

Remembering the title theme is not the same as hearing the shape of Suspiria. Opening to the Sighs lasts barely half a minute, while Black Forest and Blind Concert each exceed six minutes. A brief Death Valzer closes the original programme. These different proportions matter when the music is heard away from the screen: the eight selections are not simply interchangeable versions of one memorable tune.

Goblin created the music for Dario Argento’s 1977 film, with Claudio Simonetti, Massimo Morante, Fabio Pignatelli and Agostino Marangolo. Simonetti later described experiments with tabla, bouzouki and sounds the musicians recorded themselves. He also distinguished script-based demos from the final music developed after seeing the finished images. Material used during filming should therefore not be assumed identical to the album recording heard now.

A recognizable pattern with uneasy surroundings

The opening theme offers a short recurring melody that is easy to retain. Attend first to that pattern, then to the vocal and percussive material around it. Recognizability and discomfort need not cancel each other. Imagining a frightening scene is one possible response, but following the relationship between an established figure and sounds that disturb it provides another route through the music.

Preserve the smaller thresholds

Witch leads into the brief Opening to the Sighs and then the much longer Sighs. Keeping the introduction separate lets its scale remain audible. After Markos, Black Forest and Blind Concert occupy individual tracks in this edition. Rather than assigning every title to one scene, follow the alternation between short transitions and extended pieces. Album sequencing and film editing are related but different objects.

Leave the closing dance in place

Death Valzer follows the extended Blind Concert, allowing a short piece to finish the programme. The longest selection need not supply the ending. Anniversary extras offer alternate cues and interviews, but the original eight tracks define this account. A listener need not memorize the film to follow their changing durations and instrumental forces. The sequence itself provides an accessible route beyond the celebrated theme.

The album through its tracks

Follow the brief Opening to the Sighs into Sighs, then compare the long Blind Concert with the short Death Valzer that follows it.

  1. Suspiria

    The opening album track lasts approximately 6:02 here. Short introductions, alternate takes and a celesta-and-bells version share its title on expanded releases, so a title alone would not select the intended recording. Follow the recurring melodic figure before turning toward the sounds surrounding it. Simonetti explained the use of voices in relation to Argento’s wish that the witches remain present even when unseen. That recollection does not assign every album moment to a specific scene. The combination of a memorable pattern and uneasy surrounding material can be followed without reconstructing the film. This is the original Goblin album lineage, not a later recreation or music for the remake.

    Reference · FACT: Claudio Simonetti first-person account of the score

  2. Blind Concert

    The seventh selection runs approximately 6:15 and remains separate from the preceding Black Forest. Preserve that boundary rather than treating the combined film edit on another release as the same master. If the famous theme has dominated your impression of Goblin, follow the rhythm and relationships between instruments through this longer band performance. Recurring movement can continue while the apparent foreground changes. The word Concert in the title does not identify a live recording: this is the seventh track of the original studio album programme. Continue into Death Valzer when it ends, retaining the contrast between an extended piece and the brief actual conclusion instead of stopping one track too soon.

    Reference · Cinevox-linked Spotify programme: first eight original album tracks

Listen next

Continue to John Carpenter’s Halloween and compare another way of organizing horror-film time with a limited set of recurring materials.

Halloween ↗
References & editorial note

Written for English readers. Album facts are referenced below; listening suggestions are editorial interpretations. AI-assisted editorial review; not independently human-reviewed.