A few years ago I bought a Halloween compilation with a mix of movie themes and dark classical music. After it downloaded, I noticed that the recording for Night on Bald Mountain was actually titled A Night on Bald Mountain. I spent a few minutes trying to google whether adding “A” to the beginning of the title was correct or not (did not find a definitive answer) and didn’t think much of of it after.

Until this summer, when I finally bought a car with a USB connection that lets me connect my phone to my car’s stereo system. By default, it will play the first song alphabetically listed in my music library, which is A Night on Bald Mountain. Mussorgsky’s tone poem is now what I wind up listening to while I back out of my driveway.

Which is fine with me, since Night on Bald Mountain was my favorite part of Fantasia growing up. Leopard Stowoski‘s blending of the piece with Ava Maria is the reason why I chose to walk down the isle to Ava Maria instead of Here Comes the Bride when I got married. It feels especially appropriate to listen to it tomorrow, after spending the end of last week in macabre celebration of Halloween, and then transitioning this weekend to the brighter Thanksgiving holiday.