Supernatural Showdown!

[kyjo]

I voted for Night on Bald Mountain. Still sends chills down my spine after all these years!

Please let me know what pieces I have left out! I have doubtlessly left out quite a few as there is no source except my feeble memory I could use to create this poll.

[Brian]

Berlioz: 10/10 amazing and perfect
Mussorgsky ORIGINAL: 9/10 wild and crazy and awesome
Dukas: 9/10 so much fun
Saint-Saens: 7/10 don't like it as much as the other
Mussorgsky ARR. RIMSKY OR STOKOWSKI: 6/10 way inferior to the original

My favorite title for a supernatural piece is Josef Suk's "In the Power of Phantoms."

[PaulR]

Berlioz Symphony Fantastique, closely followed by Night on Bald Mountain (The original, or the one taken out of the Sorochintsky Fair)

[TheGSMoeller]

Berlioz, easy pick.

But a big shout out to Saint-Saens, I played Dance Macabre in high school and have always loved that piece.

[PaulR]

Berlioz, easy pick.

But a big shout out to Saint-Saens, I played Dance Macabre in high school and have always loved that piece.

Same here, it's in 3rd place for me

[kyjo]

Please remember that you are only voting for the fifth movement of the Symphonie Fantastique! The first four movements don't really have supernatural connections.

On the topic of that fifth movement, I remember the first time I heard it when I was just a lad, playing the cello in the local youth orchestra. When the conductor told us this piece was written in 1830, I was like "WTF?" It still amazes me to this day how forward looking this piece (the fifth movement in particular) is. It almost seems to me that some sections in the last movement (especially that creepy sul ponticello fugal passage in the strings) completely look past the rest of the romantic era and ahead to the modern.

[mc ukrneal]

Dukas, though the Bald Mountain and Macabre Dance are like 1a and 1b and almost neck and neck (the three of them).

[Daverz]

I'd add:

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.)
Raff: Symphony 5, "Lenore" (same story as the The Spectre's Bride)
Schubert: Der Erlkoenig

There are lots of opera's with supernatural themes.

[kyjo]

I'd add:

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.)
Raff: Symphony 5, "Lenore" (same story as the The Spectre's Bride)
Schubert: Der Erlkoenig

There are lots of opera's with supernatural themes.

Thanks, Dave. I'm not too familiar with opera, so if someone wouldn't mind telling me which operas have supernatural themes, that'd be great.

[Lisztianwagner]

Could Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen count?

[kyjo]

Could Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen count?

I suppose...I'll add it to the poll.

[Daverz]

Thanks, Dave. I'm not too familiar with opera, so if someone wouldn't mind telling me which operas have supernatural themes, that'd be great.

Well, most Wagner of course.  All those Rimsky-Korsakov fairy-tale operas.  Dvorak's Rusalka and The Devil and Kate.  Weber's Die Freischutz.  Mozart, The Magic Flute!

[mc ukrneal]

Weber's Die Freischutz!

This is the one that comes to mind first, because of the Wolf Glen's scene.

[Sergeant Rock]

These should be in the poll: Mahler's Das Klagende Lied and Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder.

I don't think you should add operas. The list would become unwieldy and...well, there is just no comparing works like Night on Bald Mountain and the Ring. How do you choose between such disparate compositions?

Sarge

[kishnevi]

These should be in the poll: Mahler's Das Klagende Lied and Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder.

I don't think you should add operas. The list would become unwieldy and...well, there is just no comparing works like Night on Bald Mountain and the Ring. How do you choose between such disparate compositions?

Sarge

Well, if brevity is a criterion,  there's no question which one would be the winner hands-down.  Although of course Night on Bald Mountain was originally part of an opera.  And actually,  Wagner wrote more operas with supernatural elements than he wrote operas without them: Feen, Dutchman, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Parsifal, plus the Ring.  Against Liebesverbot, Rienzi, Tristan, Meistersinger

Gurre Lieder brings to mind hunters cursed to perdition,  which brings to mind The Accursed Huntsman.  Although at the moment I can't remember the actual French title, nor the composer.  Franck, wasn't it?

[springrite]

I am usually not into this kind of things. So I voted for Mickey Mouse.

[kyjo]

These should be in the poll: Mahler's Das Klagende Lied and Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder.

I don't think you should add operas. The list would become unwieldy and...well, there is just no comparing works like Night on Bald Mountain and the Ring. How do you choose between such disparate compositions?

Sarge

Good point, Sarge. I'll add the Mahler and Schoenberg pieces to the list.

[springrite]

Good point, Sarge. I'll add the Mahler and Schoenberg pieces to the list.

I am changing my vote to Mahler then.

[Daverz]

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

[springrite]

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

Define "regular". If you live in California then they are regular folks.