Composer: Margaret Goldston
Series: Encore Series
Instrumentation: Piano Solos
Level: Elementary–Late Elementary
Key: Various
Time Signature: Various
Style/Character: Halloween, mysterious, spooky
Concepts: minor, whole-tone scale, chromatic scale, eighth notes, five-finger patterns, pedal
Page Count: Music 15, Total 24
Printing Suggestion: Booklet on tabloid paper, double-sided, stapled
Released:  2025 (second edition)
Additional Info: 

Mysterious Music by Margaret Goldston is a collection of seven spooky pieces and winner of the North Carolina Federation of Music Clubs Lib Terrel Award for teaching pieces for piano in 1988. Based on scales other than major, these pieces are useful as a student’s first experience with minor, whole-tone, chromatic, pentatonic, and synthetic scales in simple five-finger positions. Hand position illustrations in the descriptions help students with understanding the scale in several of the pieces.  First published in 1988 by Galaxy Music Corporation, these mysterious solos are useful for Halloween or any time of the year.

This new edition of Mysterious Music compares various workshop copies of the collection, where Margaret wrote sketches and scripts for her presentations and noted additions and corrections to the printing. The updated engraving includes these updates, as well as the addition of measure numbers.  An extensive foreword is included, and also the original cover art.

Titles include:
Seance
Sneaky Black Cat
The Haunted Organ
Ghost on the Lake
The Bats
Waltz of the Witches
Skeleton Dance

The production of this title is partially funded by a part-time faculty development grant from Columbia College Chicago.