Sonic Overlap in the Horror-Themed Worlds of Alton Towers
Location
Moore Auditorium
Start Date
18-6-2026 10:00 AM
Description
At Alton Towers Resort, the musical identities of individual areas serve principally to immerse guests within themed areas of the park. In turn, this generates a kind of sonic cartography that allows for quick identification of the current themed area through listening alone. Sonic overlap—musical connections between the soundworlds of separate areas—helps to connect these differently themed areas of the park, as well as contributing to a sense of coherence across the entire resort. Much of the music in Alton Towers’ horror-themed areas are united by subtle or explicit variations on Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King (1875), frequently created by production company IMAscore. Through score analysis I reveal the methods used to develop variations of Grieg’s iconic theme to evoke specific themed areas. I also undertake spectral analyses of the same soundtrack music, revealing that unintentional connections between unrelated areas of the park are also being generated in timbre and balancing, undermining the distinctiveness of individual themed areas and aggregating the park’s sonic identity. This presentation considers sonic overlap as both a unifying tool and as an undermining of individual themed areas’ identities. I consider the tension between IMAscore’s commercial agenda—generating a coherent sense of corporate musical identity—with the need for distinctive themed music for rides and areas within the park. The ultimate aim of this presentation is to explicate the notion of sonic overlap in theme parks and to critically evaluate its impact on the sonic cartography of Alton Towers Resort.
Recommended Citation
Wearing, Scott, "Sonic Overlap in the Horror-Themed Worlds of Alton Towers" (2026). Theme Park Music and Sound. 2.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/tpms/2026/thursday/2
Sonic Overlap in the Horror-Themed Worlds of Alton Towers
Moore Auditorium
At Alton Towers Resort, the musical identities of individual areas serve principally to immerse guests within themed areas of the park. In turn, this generates a kind of sonic cartography that allows for quick identification of the current themed area through listening alone. Sonic overlap—musical connections between the soundworlds of separate areas—helps to connect these differently themed areas of the park, as well as contributing to a sense of coherence across the entire resort. Much of the music in Alton Towers’ horror-themed areas are united by subtle or explicit variations on Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King (1875), frequently created by production company IMAscore. Through score analysis I reveal the methods used to develop variations of Grieg’s iconic theme to evoke specific themed areas. I also undertake spectral analyses of the same soundtrack music, revealing that unintentional connections between unrelated areas of the park are also being generated in timbre and balancing, undermining the distinctiveness of individual themed areas and aggregating the park’s sonic identity. This presentation considers sonic overlap as both a unifying tool and as an undermining of individual themed areas’ identities. I consider the tension between IMAscore’s commercial agenda—generating a coherent sense of corporate musical identity—with the need for distinctive themed music for rides and areas within the park. The ultimate aim of this presentation is to explicate the notion of sonic overlap in theme parks and to critically evaluate its impact on the sonic cartography of Alton Towers Resort.