Supernatural Showdown!

[kyjo]

Wait, those aren't just regular folks in Gurre-Lieder?

Here's a plot summary from Wikipedia:

In the first part of the work, the love of Waldemar for Tove and the theme of misfortune and impending death are recounted in nine songs for soprano and tenor with orchestral accompaniment. A long orchestral interlude leads to the Wood Dove's Song which tells of Tove's death and Waldemar's grief.

The brief second part consists of just one song in which the bereft and distraught Waldemar accuses God of cruelty.

In the third part, Waldemar calls his dead vassals from their graves. The undead's restless roaming and savage hunt around the castle at night is thunderously depicted by the male chorus, until the horde, driven by the radiance of the sunrise, recedes back into death's sleep. During this, a peasant sings of his fear of the eerie army and there is a humorous interlude in the grotesque song of the fool Klaus who is forced to ride with the macabre host when he would rather rest in his grave. A gentle orchestral interlude depicting the light of dawn leads into the melodrama The Summer Wind's Wild Hunt, a narration about the morning wind, which flows into the mixed-choral conclusion Seht die Sonne! ("See the Sun!").


Sounds like there's some supernatural elements in there!

[DavidW]

Night on the Bare Mountain.  That was what made Fantasia so metal.

[Sergeant Rock]

Sounds like there's some supernatural elements in there!

Exactly. Zombies! 


Sarge

[mszczuj]

Saint-Saens: 7/10 don't like it as much as the other

Is it the Dutoit recording you listen to?

[Sef]

Rachmaninoff - The Isle of the Dead. Love that piece. I too have fond memories of Danse Macabre from middle school, though thankfully we did not play it, just listened to it.

[kyjo]

Rachmaninoff - The Isle of the Dead. Love that piece. I too have fond memories of Danse Macabre from middle school, though thankfully we did not play it, just listened to it.

I'll add the Rachmaninov.

[kyjo]

BTW if I have left out anyone's favorite, please don't feel like you have to vote for something else! I shall add the piece in question to the poll as soon as I can.

[mszczuj]

Well, most exquisite works are probably works of Dukas and Saint-Saens, but the only real supernatural thrill shakes me always while I'm listening to the still out of the list the Spectre's Bride cantata of Dvorak, when they (the girl and  the spectre) are wandering along the marsh with frogs.

On the other hand without any doubts you should add to the list three tone poems of oLyadov: Baba Yaga, The Enchanted Lake and Kikimora, and Ravel piano cycle Gaspard de la Nuit.

[North Star]

I'm pretty sure L'Oiseau de feu ought to be on the list, and Sibelius wrote a good number of tone poems that could be included: Luonnotar, Oceanides, Tapiola, Wood Nymph.
And on the opera side, Berlioz's Faust, Prokofiev's Fiery Angel, and Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges

[kyjo]

OK, I'll add all those to the poll.

[Brian]

Dvorak: Garland Tone Poems (The Wild Dove; The Noon Witch; The Golden Spinning-Wheel; The Water Goblin); The Spectre's Bride (cheating a bit as this is a sort of cantata.)

These are freaking outstanding pieces. Big part of how I started figuring out 20th century music, in fact.

[kyjo]

These are freaking outstanding pieces. Big part of how I started figuring out 20th century music, in fact.

They are outstanding pieces, but I wouldn't consider them "20th century". Dvorak was definitely a Romantic Era composer.

P.S. Couldn't The Water Goblin (my favorite Dvorak tone poem BTW) be included?

[North Star]

And now one is supposed to choose just one?!