There seemed to be demand for this...
So, 11 Halloween-themed works that sound scary/spooky/etc, or are scary to play ::)
Have at it!
Quote from: jochanaan on October 17, 2013, 08:25:54 AM
Luciano Berio: Sequenza for Oboe. -- At least it's scary to play! :o :laugh:
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, you know what movement.
Pelleas und Melisande by Arnold Schoenberg has some scalp-shocking sections! :o
Scherzo "vivace", Gothic Symphony, Havergal Brian (absolutely my #1 pick, for this reason (http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12672585/GothicXylophone.mp3))
The Noon-Day Witch, Antonin Dvorak
Der Erlkonig, Franz Schubert
final scenes of Wozzeck, Alban Berg
Symphony No. 6, Bohuslav Martinu (at least in parts)
Symphony No. 10, Shostakovich
If I was having trick-or-treaters come to my door, I would play K.A. Hartmann's Symphony No. 6 and Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra. And a lot of Bach organ music.
Penderecki - Polymorphia!!!!
Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire - I mean, smoking tobacco out of a skull - c'mon! 8)
--Bruce
Quote from: Brewski on October 17, 2013, 09:09:01 AM
Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire - I mean, smoking tobacco out of a skull - c'mon! 8)
--Bruce
And those big black moths!
Quote from: Brian on October 17, 2013, 09:09:47 AM
And those big black moths!
Yeah!
(Now returning to confirm orders of dry ice, rubber insects, Popeye costumes, fake blood and scars, pumpkins)--Bruce
I agree with the mention of Pierrot Lunaire - that is some seriously disturbed stuff.
Other pieces that I find creepy:
Berio: Visage (possibly the single creepiest thing I've ever heard)
Shostakovich: Quartet #13 (only piece to ever give me a nightmare)
A lot of Penderecki: certainly Threnody and parts of Utrenja, as well as The Dream of Jacob, though this last one is probably due to its use in The Shining.
Ligeti's Requiem, the Kyrie thereof (another Kubrick reference!)
At first listen, Bolcom's Black Host for organ...maybe I'll blast this one for trick-or-treaters.
Waxman: 'The Making of the Female Monster' (from Bride of Frankenstein film score)
Night on the Bare Mountain
Danse Macabre
Schnittke Faust Cantata
This last wins my prize. Satan is sung simultaneously by two singers, it is hair raising.
Mike
Wagner - Siegfried - Prelude of Act II
Quote from: ChamberNut on October 17, 2013, 09:05:32 AM
Penderecki - Polymorphia!!!!
Yes! >:D ;D
Put this on near your front porch for trick or treaters, should scare them.
Some that haven't yet been mentioned:
Prokofiev: PC 2, 1st movement
VW: Symphony no. 6, 4th movement
Scelsi: Uaxuctum (hat tip to John! ;))
Leifs: Hekla (or anything else by him)
Kabelac: The Mystery of Time
Nordgren: Symphony 3 or 5 (can't remember which)
Saeverud: Peer Gynt
Kilar: Dracula (film score)
Frankel: The Curse of the Werewolf (film score)
Shchedrin: Anna Karenina (ballet)
Vogel: Thyl Claes (oratorio)
MacMillan: The Confession of Isobel Gowdie
Quote from: ChamberNut on October 17, 2013, 10:32:35 AM
Wagner - Siegfried - Prelude of Act II
The prelude of
Die Walküre is pretty scary, too.
I was thinking of the Finale ('Salve Regina') of Poulenc: besides scary (the repeated sound of the guillotine blade), I find it also very moving.
But of course there's so much more: what about, for instance, Don Giovanni's descent into hell (Mozart)?
Quote from: Marc on October 17, 2013, 11:16:36 AM
The prelude of Die Walküre is pretty scary, too.
I was thinking of the Finale ('Salve Regina') of Poulenc: besides scary (the repeated sound of the guillotine blade), I find it also very moving.
But of course there's so much more: what about, for instance, Don Giovanni's descent into hell (Mozart)?
Agreed, on both counts, Marc! :)
Perhaps an inadmissable entry, but John Carpenter's score to the original Halloween (1978) film.
and
Ligeti - Musica Ricercata, II (Mesto, Rigido E Cerimoniale)
Lots of wonderful entries, and many that I haven't heard yet, I'll certainly listen to some of these around Halloween. :)
Berlioz's La damnation de Faust & Prokofiev's Fiery Angel are pretty Halloweeny operas, I think. Oh, and the glowing head of the Mandarin!
Put tracks 8 and 9 on a loop:
[asin]B0007ACVK0[/asin]
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dR78SQeRiC4&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdR78SQeRiC4
Here it is folks...the Faust...thrill yourselves, scare yourselves. And I dare you to suggest that this is not in a category all of its own. Hell's Tango
>:D
From the opera world there's that one bit in Der Freischütz with the evil bullets. And Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice (technically mythology but whatever) and Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable. An awful lot of Fausts (Berlioz, Gounod, Boito and so forth). From Wagner we have Der fliegende Hollander and I guess Tännhauser. There's also Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. And Britten's The Turn of the Screw... Actually... it might be easier to make a list of operas that don't have a supernatural component :D
Some of mine:
Wagner Siegfried (preludes of Acts I and II)
Leifs Hekla
Shostakovich Symphony No.10
Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1st and 3rd movement)
Penderecki Polymorphia
Mussorgsky Night on the Bare Mountain
Berg Three Pieces for Orchestra
I think Expressionism and atonal works sound particularly suitable for a dark, scary atmosphere; a tense, dramatic music, rich of violent dissonances and haunting, hyptonic rhythms, able to evoke those instinctive forces hidden at the bottom of the human being.
Here are some that quite creepy -
Schnittke: Faust Cantata
Martin: Polyptyque
Penderecki: Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8
Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra
Hartmann: Symphony No. 8
Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin
Schuman: Symphony No. 9, "Le fosse ardeatine"
Kurtag: Stele
...to be continued....
http://www.youtube.com/v/1OIiFNKhtk0
Can't believe I forgot Holmboe's Four Symphonic Metamorphoses, which are quite "scary" in their slumbering, subterranean power.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but has no one mentioned Berg's Wozzeck yet?! ???
Mennin: Symphonies 8 and 9
Tishchenko: Dante Symphonies
Several parts of Webern's 6 Pieces for Orchestra work nicely here, especially the highly disturbed and disturbing #2.
Quote from: Cato on October 20, 2013, 04:18:43 PM
Several parts of Webern's 6 Pieces for Orchestra work nicely here, especially the highly disturbed and disturbing #2.
The word "disturbing" is seriously making me want to go back to this.
No mention of Xenakis yet? ???
Ata is a good one...
Anyone else surprised at this? You could have knocked me over with a Yellow Submarine DVD.
Revueltas' Sensemaya has a sense of looming threat that can be quite "scary" if handled effectively.
I've always thought the first movement of Nielsen 5 is kinda scary, with its "approaching storm" feel and epic side-drum vs. orchestra battle.
Quote from: kyjo on October 19, 2013, 06:05:39 PM
Can't believe I forgot Holmboe's Four Symphonic Metamorphoses, which are quite "scary" in their slumbering, subterranean power.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but has no one mentioned Berg's Wozzeck yet?! ???
Check reply #3 ;)
Don't agree about the Holmboe (wouldn't play it for trick-or-treaters anyway), but Wozzeck is one of the best possible examples!
The opening moments from the second mvt "The Evil God and the Dance of the Pagan Monsters" of Prokofiev's Scythian Suite has always seemed a bit frightening to me >:D
Either that or it's the best example of classical music as heavy metal.
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on October 25, 2013, 04:46:51 PM
The opening moments from the second mvt "The Evil God and the Dance of the Pagan Monsters" of Prokofiev's Scythian Suite has always seemed a bit frightening to me >:D
Either that or it's the best example of classical music as heavy metal.
Amen!
Prokofiev rawks!
The Scherzo in Mahler's 7th is pretty darn spooky. :)
Quote from: ChamberNut on October 17, 2013, 11:23:14 AM
...Ligeti - Musica Ricercata, II (Mesto, Rigido E Cerimoniale)
The one from
Eyes Wide Shut? Only scary by association with the movie. ;D
Quote from: Cato on October 20, 2013, 04:18:43 PM
Several parts of Webern's 6 Pieces for Orchestra work nicely here, especially the highly disturbed and disturbing #2.
I'd go for #4 of those; spooky stuff! 8)
Lutoslawski's Funeral Music is pretty scary, especially the brief section entitled Apogeum, which approaches an (early) Penderecki-like intensity.
Quote from: kyjo on October 27, 2013, 06:44:34 AM
Lutoslawski's Funeral Music is pretty scary, especially the brief section entitled Apogeum, which approaches an (early) Penderecki-like intensity.
Digs out a performance of
Funeral Music....
http://www.amazon.com/The-Darkest-Pieces-Classical-Music/dp/B0048NUUS2/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1382885395&sr=8-1
Quote from: Batty on October 27, 2013, 06:50:51 AM
http://www.amazon.com/The-Darkest-Pieces-Classical-Music/dp/B0048NUUS2/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1382885395&sr=8-1
Cool cover.