Most fatalistic, pessimistic, or despairing composers?

[Rons_talking]

What do you all think about composers like Peter Mennin, George Crumb, George Rochberg, maybe even Samuel Barber? Italics mine

Though I'm a big fan, Samuel Barber's work reflects his perfectionism and dissatisfaction with contemporary music as a whole. His concerti, Piano Sonata and Symphony #2 have a despairing feeling which the composer himself, must have been aware of. Its common knowledge that he composed more music that was angrily tossed into the wastebasket than extant works...too bad. He had his demons and poor health plagued him. Sometimes I have the impression that he was so talented he was almost bored with composing unless he had a deadline.
I have to agree with those who named Shosty as he aged. Also Schnettike.

[chadfeldheimer]

Well, yes, there's all those composers you guys have mentioned....and then, of course,  there's Bernd Alois Zimmermann...

You nailed it. It doesn't get any more fatalistic than his pieces like "Requiem für einen jungen Dichter" or "Ich wandte mich und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne".

[Mirror Image]

I disagree completely.
Xenakis is very positive, music full of energy and vibrancy, even uplifting. Xenakis is feel good As far as Kraanerg is concerned, it was a work composed with the intention to reflect the cultural and technological change as observed by Iannis himself.
Ligeti, as far as the 50's works go, is a very suspended in time/space composer to me (due to his unique manipulation of generally simple rhythms into a very complex all-encompassing timbre) which renders him as more surreal.

Xenakis doesn't exactly paint the aural pictures of rose gardens, though. Full of energy, yes, positive and uplifting, no, but, as with anything, this is purely subjective as what one hears as joyful the other other hears as disturbing.

[Mirror Image]

Well i completely disagree, 100% 

Dissonance is not automatically related to the topic of this thread as some people would like to perceive.
Constant music can evoke the same feelings of despair or agony.

I think that the romantic idiom and film idiom has distorted that aspect of what I guess would be "music psychology".

But I'm really not very interested in this topic to be honest

I think that Xenakis' music captures the chaos of his early days of him fighting against the Brits whenever he was a part of Greek resistance army (where he received that scar). The sheer amount of violence in his music may not put him in the 'most fatalistic, pessimistic, or despairing' category, but it doesn't necessarily exclude him either. And, no, dissonance has absolutely nothing to do with this thread and why I chose some of the composers I did. Dissonance alone doesn't equate to something being aligned to the idea of this particular thread and what it asks of everyone.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

There are quite a few Xenakis works which I personally find utterly beautiful.......

[Mirror Image]

There are quite a few Xenakis works which I personally find utterly beautiful.......

There's only one moment in Xenakis that I find beautiful and it's the last minute or so of Hiketides.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

There's only one moment in Xenakis that I find beautiful and it's the last minute or so of Hiketides.

Ah yes that is indeed a beautiful piece.

Tetora is in a similar vein I think:

https://www.youtube.com/v/sYhDFOpaixk

[CRCulver]

This perception of Pettersson is partly the result of Leif Aare´s biography. Pettersson himself would protest very loudly against seeing his music as merely a portrait of his own suffering.

This perception is also partly the result of the man himself, just watch the documentaries issued on the DVDs accompanying the BIS recordings. It is true that Pettersson had quite the social consciousness and railed against poverty and abuse, but that seems to have been primarily because he himself had had an unhappy life.