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The Music Room => General Classical Music Discussion => The Polling Station => Topic started by: Mirror Image on September 07, 2021, 05:08:04 PM

Title: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Mirror Image on September 07, 2021, 05:08:04 PM
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fkOWpKqmZiI/Tq_HADURMUI/AAAAAAAAC4o/HzvhT6iAd9I/s1600/artwork_images_322_355729_alfred-kubin.jpeg)

I know Halloween isn't until next month, but, hell, let's have some fun anyway! ;D I'll think of my own list later.
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Brian on September 07, 2021, 06:30:17 PM
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"!!
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Mirror Image on September 07, 2021, 06:54:43 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 07, 2021, 06:30:17 PM
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"!!

8) 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".
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: T. D. on September 07, 2021, 07:04:57 PM

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

Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Mirror Image on September 07, 2021, 07:07:07 PM
Quote from: T. D. on September 07, 2021, 07:04:57 PM
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.

8) 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.
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Mirror Image on September 07, 2021, 07:35:58 PM
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
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: T. D. on September 07, 2021, 07:55:07 PM
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... :P
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Mirror Image on September 07, 2021, 08:02:09 PM
Quote from: T. D. on September 07, 2021, 07:55:07 PM
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... :P

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. ;)
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Jo498 on September 08, 2021, 12:16:25 AM
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

Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Brian on September 08, 2021, 07:14:18 AM
Quote from: T. D. on September 07, 2021, 07:04:57 PM
though IMO it requires the visual of the perpetual youth parchment being burned
oooh the climax of Wozzeck counts here too
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: T. D. on September 08, 2021, 07:48:44 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 08, 2021, 07:14:18 AM
oooh the climax of Wozzeck counts here too

True! Meaning to add Wozzeck, need to listen again to nail down which scene(s).
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Brahmsian on September 08, 2021, 10:45:18 AM
Penderecki - Polymorphia
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Mirror Image on September 08, 2021, 01:51:45 PM
Quote from: OrchestralNut on September 08, 2021, 10:45:18 AM
Penderecki - Polymorphia

I hope you'll add more, Ray.
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Brahmsian on September 08, 2021, 02:07:33 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on September 08, 2021, 01:51:45 PM
I hope you'll add more, Ray.

Give me time.
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: vandermolen on September 08, 2021, 03:03:51 PM
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
(//)
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: krummholz on September 08, 2021, 07:23:19 PM
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)
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: foxandpeng on September 09, 2021, 02:30:52 AM
Throwing in large dollops of Pettersson and Tabakov here. Scary symphonic atmos.
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Biffo on September 09, 2021, 03:11:41 AM
If you want creepy/scary try the score Elisabeth Lutyens wrote for the horror movie The Skull
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: vandermolen on September 09, 2021, 04:55:28 AM
Quote from: Biffo on September 09, 2021, 03:11:41 AM
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'.
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Symphonic Addict on September 09, 2021, 01:19:27 PM
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.
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Mirror Image on October 01, 2021, 07:52:38 AM
Quote from: Symphonic Addict on September 09, 2021, 01:19:27 PM
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.

Still waiting on a list from you, Cesar. ;)
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Symphonic Addict on October 02, 2021, 06:42:09 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on October 01, 2021, 07:52:38 AM
Still waiting on a list from you, Cesar. ;)

These works have got that. For now, these five:

Carter: String Quartet No. 5
Lutoslawski: Musique funèbre
Pettersson: Sonatas for two violins
Feldman: Three Voices
Xenakis: La Lègende d'Eer
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Sergeant Rock on October 05, 2021, 09:22:06 AM
Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 13 "Babi Yar" and 14
Mahler Das klagende Lied and last movement of Symphony No. 6 and first movement of Symphony No. 9
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Mirror Image on October 05, 2021, 10:22:53 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on October 05, 2021, 09:22:06 AM
Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 13 "Babi Yar" and 14
Mahler Das klagende Lied and last movement of Symphony No. 6 and first movement of Symphony No. 9

Nice choices with the Shostakovich, Sarge. The Mahler doesn't strike me as creepy, but per usual we just hear different things.
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Sergeant Rock on October 05, 2021, 01:26:55 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on October 05, 2021, 10:22:53 AM
Nice choices with the Shostakovich, Sarge. The Mahler doesn't strike me as creepy, but per usual we just hear different things.

I don't find the Mahler creepy either...but personally scary (the arrhythmic heartbeat motive in the M9, for example).

Sarge
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Mirror Image on October 05, 2021, 01:35:25 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on October 05, 2021, 01:26:55 PM
I don't find the Mahler creepy either...but personally scary (the arrhythmic heartbeat motive in the M9, for example).

Sarge

Ah, yes. Goodness, I love Mahler's 9th!
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Artem on October 18, 2021, 01:54:38 AM
Patterns in a Chromatic Field by Morton Feldman. He has a few other creepy, anxiety inducing pieces.
Title: Re: Your Top 10 Favorite Scariest Or Creepiest Works
Post by: Maestro267 on November 25, 2021, 01:42:47 AM
A lot of that anxiety comes purely when you see the length of those pieces.