# Sinister Composers



## Jord (Aug 13, 2012)

I don't really know what to class it as other than sinister, what's your favourite composers that compose really sinister evil minor music, but not atonal, and your favourite pieces by them?


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## Mephistopheles (Sep 3, 2012)

I think I'm beyond the point now where I listen to music and imagine it exhibiting a character like sinister or evil. No matter how 'dark' or 'ferocious' it may sound, these are really just words to refer to its harmonic language and rhythmic drive. What do words like "sinister" and "evil" map onto? I don't think there's anything in music that corresponds to them, so I would only suggest programme music in which something infernal is deliberately represented, such as Tchaikovsky's _Francesca da Rimini_ or the finale to the _Manfred_ Symphony.


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## Jord (Aug 13, 2012)

By sinister and not atonal i meant music that has a key centre but just makes feel really breathless because of the tonality and just the way it's composed, i can't really explain what i meant, i'll check out those pieces though


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## Jord (Aug 13, 2012)

Very much like Tchaikovsky's _Francesca da Rimini_ :lol:


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

Gesualdo. It could be because I know his life, but really the music sounds ghostly. The opinion therefore has justification in the score rather than only in the life.

Mozart - piano concerto 24 for example.

Verdi - dies irae isn't bad.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

The opening of Poulenc's Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani has some real cloak & dagger, moustache twiddling moments.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Mozart was good at it.


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## Mephistopheles (Sep 3, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Mozart was good at it.


I saw your name and thought you were going to say Ligeti.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Mephistopheles said:


> I saw your name and thought you were going to say Ligeti.


Sinister tonal music in minor keys? I'm not sure. His Requiem certainly is sinister but it's atonal.


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

Jord said:


> I don't really know what to class it as other than sinister, what's your favourite composers that compose really sinister evil minor music, but not atonal, and your favourite pieces by them?







the first movement of the Lieberman sonata op. 23 for flute and piano seems very eerie.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)




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## Mephistopheles (Sep 3, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Sinister tonal music in minor keys? I'm not sure. His Requiem certainly is sinister but it's atonal.


Oh, were we paying attention to the "atonal" requirement? No one even knows what it means.


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## etkearne (Sep 28, 2012)

Bartok never wrote too much "true atonality" so I will throw his name out there, as he is incredibly crafty at writing eerie music. But a lot of people still think of his music as atonal, even though _technically_ it isn't (except a few very sparse sections/harmonies). So I don't know if my response is valid, but I thought I would throw him out there.


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## Clump (Sep 5, 2012)




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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

The ever popular "Night on Bald Mountain" by Mousorgsky/Rimsky- Korsakov. 
Bernard Hermans score for "Psycho"
Schubert "Erlkonig"
Berlioz Witches Sabath from "Symphony Fantastique"
Liszt "Totentanz"
Saint-Saens "Danse Macbre"
Rachmaninof Prelude in C# minor, Prelude in G# minor, Prelude in G Minor, Isle of the Dead.
Liszt "Mephisto Waltz"
Chopin Sonata in Bb minor
Strauss "Dance of the Seven Veils"
Stravinsky Firebird "Infernal Dance"
Sibelius "Tapiola"
Mendelssohn "Fingals Cave"
Frank "Le Chassuer Maudit"
Arthur Sullivan, Ruddigore, "The dead of the nights high noon"
Von Weber "Der Freischutz"


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Wagner for supporting Nazi regime!
Liszt for supporting Devil!
:lol:

For me those composers who change the subject of music from meaningful shapes to meaningless colors.


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

And many, many more.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

To the above lists of "sinister" pieces, add:

-- the Minuet from Mozart's c-minor Serenade.
-- the statue music from Don Giovanni
-- the laendler movement from Mahler's Ninth
-- the opening page of the finale to Mahler's Sixth

On second thought to answer the original question, Mahler would be a good example of a composer whose ouvre excelled in the sinister.

george

Also: The slow movement of Haydn's surprise symphony can devolve into a wonderfully sinister work when played by a middle school ensemble.  (yes, I've heard it.)


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## Jord (Aug 13, 2012)

GGluek said:


> -- the opening page of the finale to Mahler's Sixth





Ramako said:


> Verdi - dies irae isn't bad.


two of the main pieces that really stood out for me, two composers i must start listening to more!


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

So in general it seems that Russian composers were very sinister.

Another find:






<3


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Arsakes said:


> Wagner for supporting Nazi regime!


We only have to find out where he has hidden his time machine.


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## Jord (Aug 13, 2012)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> So in general it seems that Russian composers were very sinister.
> 
> Another find:
> 
> ...


This is exactly the kind of stuff i was looking for, thank you!


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