# Not another - Yep, Another - "Find this Style" thread: Creepy/Haunting



## TheBard (Jul 10, 2009)

Alright, I have just recently gotten into classical music, and am slowly falling in love. I spent some time poking around for things I might enjoy, finding threads about "Epic" music (Oh Fortuna, Requiem - Dies Irae, Ride of the Valkyries, Night on the Bare Mountain, Battle on the Ice, etc.) and really enjoyed it. Not to lock myself into one emotional feel, I downloaded some much peppier music as well.

Recently, I found what may be one of my favorite songs yet: Danse Macabre, by Camille Saint-Saens. I ADORE this piece, and could listen to it for hours. My question is:

Can you think of any classical (not modern, I'm very familiar with modern music in this style, such as - but trust me, not limited to - Danny Elfman) music along the lines of Danse Macabre, with that kind of creepy, twisted, enjoyable sound?


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Liszt, Totentanz.


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## Bach (Jun 2, 2008)

Yes, Les Préludes by Liszt is a good choice.. 

The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky. If you haven't heard this, you don't know music.


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## TheBard (Jul 10, 2009)

Interesting timing, just got finished listening to Liszt's solo piano interpretation of Danse Macabre, thanks for the tip! Also, any specific songs anyone can think of would be helpful as well.


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## TheBard (Jul 10, 2009)

I've definitely heard the Rite. And I agree with you. Fantasia was actually responsible for that introduction, as well as Night on the Bare Mountain the first time I ever heard it.


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Danse macabre is a song???


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## Guest (Jul 11, 2009)

You could try Rachmaninoff's tone-poem "The Isle Of The Dead" - that has the same kind of atmosphere?


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## Zanralotta (Jan 31, 2009)

Schubert's Erlkönig...

I remember when I first heard the poem by Goethe. I was 11 and couldn't sleep for 2 days. 

I've no idea how scary it is for people who don't speak German.
Try this or another version.
Lizst did a transcription for orchestra and mezzo sopran.


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## kg4fxg (May 24, 2009)

*Music that goes bump in the night.*

On this CD:
Night on Bald Mountain (Noch' na Lïsoy gore), symphonic poem, edited by Rimsky-Korsakov 
Composed by Modest Mussorgsky 
Performed by Philadelphia Orchestra 
Conducted by Eugene Ormandy

Danse macabre, symphonic poem in G minor, Op. 40 
Composed by Camille Saint-Saens 
Performed by Orchestre National d' Ile de France 
Conducted by Lorin Maazel

Peer Gynt Suite for orchestra (or piano or piano, 4 hands) No. 1, Op. 46 In the Hall of the Mountain King 
Composed by Edvard Grieg 
Performed by London Philharmonia Orchestra 
Conducted by Andrew Davis

Funeral March of a Marionette, for piano or orchestra in D minor 
Composed by Charles Gounod 
Performed by Philadelphia Orchestra 
Conducted by Eugene Ormandy

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (L'apprenti sorcier), symphonic scherzo for orchestra 
Composed by Paul [composer] Dukas 
Performed by Orchestre National d' Ile de France 
Conducted by Lorin Maazel

Toccata and Fugue, for organ in D minor, BWV 565 (BC J37) Toccata 
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach 
with E. Power Biggs

Hänsel und Gretel, opera Witch's Ride 
Composed by Engelbert Humperdinck 
Performed by Gurzenich-Orchester 
Conducted by John Pitchard

Symphonie fantastique for orchestra ("Episode de la vie d'un Artiste...en cinq parties"), H.48 (Op. 14) March to the Scaffold 
Composed by Hector Berlioz 
Performed by Cleveland Orchestra 
Conducted by Lorin Maazel

The Planets, suite for orchestra & female chorus, Op. 32, H. 125 Mars - the Bringer of War 
Composed by Gustav Holst 
Performed by Orchestre National d' Ile de France 
Conducted by Lorin Maazel

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), opera, WWV 86b Ride of the Valkyries 
Composed by Richard Wagner 
Performed by Philadelphia Orchestra 
Conducted by Eugene Ormandy

Hallowe'en, for string quartet, piano & optional drum, S. 71 (K. 2B13) 
Composed by Charles Ives 
with Gilbert Kalish

Mephisto Waltz, for orchestra No. 1 (Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke; Episoden No. 2), S. 110/2 (LW G16/2) 
Composed by Franz Liszt 
Performed by Philadelphia Orchestra 
Conducted by Eugene Ormandy


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## TheBard (Jul 10, 2009)

Excellent ideas from that CD kg4fxg, thanks! Zanralotta, I've actually known that song awhile, and never knew the name! Glad I can find it with ease now. Reiner, as I write this, I'm listening to Isle of the Dead, probably for the hundredth time. I was unfamiliar with Rachmaninoff - I owe you for the introduction. 

Forgive my lack of knowledge Tapkaara, is Danse Macabre a "Tone Poem"? What exactly is a Tone Poem? I see that term a lot, and have never heard it before coming here (I admitted my previous lack of exposure to classical).


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## kg4fxg (May 24, 2009)

*Tone Poem (Good Question)!*

Symphonic poem
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in one movement in which some extramusical program provides a narrative or illustrative element. This program may come from a poem, a story or novel, a painting, or another source. The term was first applied by Franz Liszt to his 13 one-movement orchestral works in this vein. They were not pure symphonic movements in the classical sense because they dealt with descriptive subjects taken from mythology, Romantic literature, recent history or imaginative fantasy. In other words, these works were "programmatic" rather than abstract.[1] The form was a direct product of Romanticism which encouraged literary, pictorial and dramatic associations in music. It developed into an important form of program music in the second half of the 19th century.[2]
A symphonic poem may stand on its own, like a concert overture, or it can be part of a series combined into a suite (in the Romantic rather than the Baroque sense). For example, "The Swan of Tuonela" (1895) is a tone poem from Sibelius's Lemminkäinen Suite. A symphonic poem can also be part of a cycle of interrelated works, such as Vltava (The Moldau) as part of the six-work cycle Má vlast by Bedřich Smetana.
Musical works such as tone poems based on extramusical sources are often referred to as program music[3] while music which has no such associations may be called absolute music.[4] Also, while the terms "symphonic poem" and "tone poem" have often been used interchangeably, some composers such as Richard Strauss and Jean Sibelius have preferred the latter term for pieces which were less symphonic in design and in which there is no special emphasis on thematic or tonal contrast.[2]

The Dance of Death (1493) by Michael Wolgemut, from the Liber chronicarum by Hartmann Schedel, evoked musically in Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre.


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## JAKE WYB (May 28, 2009)

I fin dcerainpassgaes from
JANACEK STRING QUARTETS quite ererie and creepy - spidery - but you get that as part of a quite schizophrenic emotional camnvas

in regard to sant saens canse macabre, Ive understood its creepyness, macabreness or visual relation to skeletons its quite genteel as far as ive ever heard

A very atmopsherically haunting piece is SIBELIUS - Lemminkainen in Tuonela from the lemminkaionen legends - very dark indeed but the visceral drama makes itall the more gripping and chilling

DVORAK - noonday witch also portrays the noon witch very disturbingly indded with muted strings and a bass clarinet...


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## redroseggs (Sep 3, 2009)

Hi there, Would a new one like me be welcome here?
Thanks so much in deed.

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## tahnak (Jan 19, 2009)

TheBard said:


> Alright, I have just recently gotten into classical music, and am slowly falling in love. I spent some time poking around for things I might enjoy, finding threads about "Epic" music (Oh Fortuna, Requiem - Dies Irae, Ride of the Valkyries, Night on the Bare Mountain, Battle on the Ice, etc.) and really enjoyed it. Not to lock myself into one emotional feel, I downloaded some much peppier music as well.
> 
> Recently, I found what may be one of my favorite songs yet: Danse Macabre, by Camille Saint-Saens. I ADORE this piece, and could listen to it for hours. My question is:
> 
> Can you think of any classical (not modern, I'm very familiar with modern music in this style, such as - but trust me, not limited to - Danny Elfman) music along the lines of Danse Macabre, with that kind of creepy, twisted, enjoyable sound?


Yes... Dukas' 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' and Saint Saens' himself Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila; Berlioz's Hungarian March from La Damnation de Faust and Liszt's Les Preludes, Rimsky Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol, Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.


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## Yoshi (Jul 15, 2009)

Does anyone else find Moonlight sonata 1st mvt backwards a bit creepy?


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Rather crappy.


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