Topic: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works

[Mirror Image]

I know Halloween isn’t until next month, but, hell, let’s have some fun anyway! I’ll think of my own list later.

[Brian]

Bartók - The Miraculous Mandarin
Dvorak - The Noon-Day Witch
Kabelac - The Mystery of Time
Poulenc - Organ Concerto
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 11
Walton - Symphony No. 2

And then probably a bunch of stuff by Ligeti and people like that. Gotta think about this prompt more, it's fun!

Plus of course the first 20 seconds of RVW "The Wasps"!!

[Mirror Image]

Bartók - The Miraculous Mandarin
Dvorak - The Noon-Day Witch
Kabelac - The Mystery of Time
Poulenc - Organ Concerto
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 11
Walton - Symphony No. 2

And then probably a bunch of stuff by Ligeti and people like that. Gotta think about this prompt more, it's fun!

Plus of course the first 20 seconds of RVW "The Wasps"!!

If we can’t have fun with these lists, then there’s little point. I’m sure something from Ligeti will be on my list as well. I’m also trying to make my list distinctive on its own and different from Cesar’s “Top 10 Favorite Darks Works”.

[T. D.]

Kabeláč: Symphony #8 Antiphons
B. A. Zimmermann: Requiem für einen jungen Dichter (much of the creepiness stems from it being essentially the valedictory statement of a suicide)
Janáček, finale of The Makropoulos Case, though IMO it requires the visual of the perpetual youth parchment being burned
Poulenc, finale of Dialogues des Carmélites, when you hear the sound of the guillotine blade repeatedly dropping
Berg: Wozzeck, maybe not start to finish, but many passages are memorably scary and/or creepy
Berg: Lulu, again not start to finish, but I find passages like Du hast ein halbe Million geheiratet! amply creepy
Britten: Death in Venice - live productions I saw were so creepy (playing up the psychosexual angles) that they put me off recordings
Richard Rodney Bennett: The Mines of Sulphur - I saw this obscure Poe-like opera live, and it's both scary and creepy
Busoni: Doktor Faust - I dig weird quirky works, going with this over better-known Faust compositions
Bartók: Duke Bluebeard's Castle

[Mirror Image]

For sure:

Kabeláč: Symphony #8 Antiphons
B. A. Zimmermann: Requiem für einen jungen Dichter (much of the creepiness stems from it being essentially the valedictory statement of a suicide)

Will edit to add any more I can think of.

I’ll have to check out the Zimmermann work. He’s certainly an interesting composer. I’ve heard the Kabeláč work, but a revisit wouldn’t hurt.

[Mirror Image]

Here’s my own list (in no particular order):

Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle
Schoenberg: Accompaniment to a Film-Scene (Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene), Op. 34
Scelsi: Aiôn
Penderecki: St. Luke Passion
Gubaidulina: Alleluja
Berg: Lyric Suite
Ives: Central Park in the Dark
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80
Kurtág: Officium breve, in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky, Op. 28
Schnittke: (K)ein Sommernachtstraum

[T. D.]

Thumbs up to Bartok's Bluebeard and the Kurtag work.
I'm on the verge of adding Bluebeard, but haven't listened in a long time and need to refresh my memory.
Kurtag is an excellent choice, my collection isn't extensive enough to readily pick a selection.
Something by Xenakis ought to work, but I sold almost all my X-man recordings in a long-ago cull...

[Mirror Image]

Thumbs up to Bartok's Bluebeard and the Kurtag work.
I'm on the verge of adding Bluebeard, but haven't listened in a long time and need to refresh my memory.
Kurtag is an excellent choice, my collection isn't extensive enough to readily pick a selection.
Something by Xenakis ought to work, but I sold almost all my X-man recordings in a long-ago cull...

Thanks. Bluebeard’s Castle is my favorite piece of music of all-time and of any genre. This was a hugely important work for me early on and I fell in love it. I should say that while I do find it creepy, it is also a beautiful work. There’s just nothing that has this kind of sound-world. Yeah, I have found that when I cull something, I end up buying it again later on, so it’s best not to part with something you buy, because there is a reason why you bought it in the first-place. This happened to me with Schnittke and Penderecki, although I didn’t quite give everything I had away, just most of it.

[Jo498]

Schubert: Erlkönig
Berlioz: Ride to the abyss from Damnation of Faust (the following Pandaemonium is too much fun to be creepy)
Liszt: Totentanz/Dies irae
Wolf: Der Feuerreiter
Schönberg: Erwartung
Bartok: 3rd movement from Music for strings, percussion, celesta

[Brian]

though IMO it requires the visual of the perpetual youth parchment being burned

oooh the climax of Wozzeck counts here too

[T. D.]

oooh the climax of Wozzeck counts here too

True! Meaning to add Wozzeck, need to listen again to nail down which scene(s).

[OrchestralNut]

Penderecki - Polymorphia

[Mirror Image]

Penderecki - Polymorphia

I hope you’ll add more, Ray.

[OrchestralNut]

I hope you’ll add more, Ray.

Give me time.

[vandermolen]

Ernest Fanelli: The Romance of the Mummy
Liszt: Totentanz
Berlioz: March to the Scaffold
Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Respighi: Ballad of the Gnomes
Miaskovsky: Silence
Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead
Rachmaninov: The Bells (Finale)
Raff: Symphony 5 'Lenore' (final movement)
Bax: Symphony No.2

[krummholz]

Hmm... can't think of more than 7 or 8 off hand...

Mahler Symphony No. 6 - Scherzo and Finale
Mahler Symphony No. 7 - Scherzo
Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 - Coda to the Finale especially
Shostakovich String Quartet No. 13
Holmboe Symphony No. 9 - 2nd movement (not scary per se, but profoundly creepy)
Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 6 - Epilogue (also creepy rather than scary per se)
Brian Gothic Symphony - Coda
Schoenberg Trio (opening depicts composer's heart attack)

[foxandpeng]

Throwing in large dollops of Pettersson and Tabakov here. Scary symphonic atmos.

[Biffo]

If you want creepy/scary try the score Elisabeth Lutyens wrote for the horror movie The Skull

[vandermolen]

If you want creepy/scary try the score Elisabeth Lutyens wrote for the horror movie The Skull

+ Benjamin Frankel's terrific score for 'Curse of the Werewolf', Clifton Parker's for 'Night of the Demon' or Georges Auric for 'Dead of Night'.

[Symphonic Addict]

I really need the works are truly special to get the feeling of "fear" or "scary", so I have to think well about my choices.