Halloween Google Doodle 2019: who wrote the spooky waltz music?

31 October 2019, 15:38 | Updated: 20 June 2022, 11:38

This year’s Halloween Google Doodle is a spooky interactive ‘trick-or-treat’ game – and it’s scored by a lovely, lilting waltz.

Google is celebrating Halloween with an interactive – and surprisingly informative – Google Doodle.

Described as a ‘creature feature’, the doodle was created in partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and celebrates the animals commonly associated with scary films, ghost stories and Halloween decorations.

Behind each door in the doodle, we’re treated to some lovely animated bats, owls, wolves and jaguars, and the option to choose either ‘trick’ or ‘treat’.

And accompanying the doodle is some suitably spooky instrumentation, including an accordion, harpsichord and a xylophone.

Read more: ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ is a Halloween film, says composer Danny Elfman >

The music is all written by Emmy-winning composer Silas Hite, an American multi-instrumentalist who has contributed music to a number of independent films. He’s also written for top-selling video games including The Sims.

To accompany the new Google Doodle, Hite has written a suitably spooky, lilting waltz, underpinned by that lovely ‘oompah’ sound we have all come to associate with the accordion.

Read more: Musicians share their incredibly geeky Halloween costumes >

Hite, who also plays on most of his compositions, employs all the typically ‘spooky’ instruments in the orchestra.

Every few bars he introduces a new one, from some ghostly electronic sounds to the brittle sound of a harpsichord.

Play the Google Doodle (and hear the music) here.