# The Noisiest Composers



## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

I thought Khatchaturian's Third Symphony for orchestra, organ, and fifteen trumpets was loud, but his Bulgarian contemporary, Pancho Vladigerov has him beat hands down. His Heroic Overture is twenty minutes of practically unrelieved _f f f f _and must be murder for the orchestra to play. Actually, I like Khatchaturian and Pancho's music, their works are bright, colourful, picturesque and melodic. And you can always turn the volume down.


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Galina Ustvolskaya comes to mind.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

György Ligeti — "Étude No. 13 (_L'Escalier du Diable_) contains a passage marked _*ffffff*_ (6 _*f*_s) that progresses to a _*ffffffff*_ (8 _*f*_s) and his opera Le Grand Macabre has _*ffffffffff*_ (10 _*f*_s) on a percussion part."


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## AaronSF (Sep 5, 2021)

How about Bernd Alois Zimmermann; e.g., his piece "Dialoge."


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Beethoven Symphony 5


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

Mahler, Wagner come to mind


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy


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## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

Xenakis?


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Christopher Rouse. One orchestra playing his music called in OSHA because orchestra members thought the volume level was too _loud_ and, therefore, unsafe. In scores, he indicated fortissimo with six “f”s instead of the usual two.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I had thought that Jon Leifs was supposed to be the loudest. To me the designation signals composers or works to avoid.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> In scores, he indicated fortissimo with six “f”s instead of the usual two.


That's like pasting go-faster stripes on your car and expecting it going faster for reals.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Solti playing pretty well anything


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Mandryka said:


> Solti playing pretty well anything


You can feel it just by watching


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

hammeredklavier said:


> You can feel it just by watching


Keep that man away from illicit drugs.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I was once four wheeling in the woods when a B-52 went overhead at tree top level. The sound was so large you couldn't tell what direction it emanated. Only time I had the same sensation in the concert hall was at the end of Mahler's Resurrection symphony. Happy Easter!


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