# Deeply moving, bordering on the disturbing. Help.



## ezydriver

Hello all. This is my first post.

I was wondering if anybody could help me out. I'm looking for some deeply disturbing music. I want very deep and moving. The best I can seem to do is Shostakovichs string quartet no 8 in c minor, and its not enough!! I NEED to be moved, deeply.

Can anybody recommend that ultimate piece?

Thank you all in advance.


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## Oneiros

It depends on your taste. I find much of Bach's music deeply moving, but I don't think many people would consider Baroque music disturbing.


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## ezydriver

Disturbingly moving.


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## Celloman

Listen to Honegger's Symphony #2, performed by Charles Munch and the Orchestra of Paris on the EMI label. It has very powerful, dark music that you don't want to miss.


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## ezydriver

Thanks celloman. I will. This is what I need, peoples suggestions as I've heard everything I know and need a fix.
LOL.


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## Hexameron

Like phatic says, it all depends on what kind of music you're looking for. There is "dark disturbing" music in every period (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, etc). But I'm a specialist listener in the Romantic period piano niche, so I think I have to vouch for Charles Valentin Alkan as a composer of dark, depressing, agonizing music from the abyss. However, you may be looking for atonal stuff and so Alkan wouldn't qualify.

In any case, I must recommend the L'enfer or "Hell" movement from Alkan's Grand Duo concertant in F sharp minor Op. 21 for piano, violin and cello. I don't know what Alkan was thinking when he wrote it, whether the pure evil piano chords mean to depict Hell as a physical place, like a dark void, or whether the mourning violin is referring to Hell as a state of mind, like hopelessness and regret. It might not be your cup of tea if you're into Shostakovich string quartets, but in my opinion, the L'enfer is a masterpiece; it's one of the best musical manifestations of Hell I've ever heard. Unlike Liszt's Dante Sonata/Symphony, Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, or Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain, it doesn't wail and crash with infernal sounds or scherzo-ish demonic noises... it instead focuses on the sickingly disturbing "pain" of being in Hell. I really think it's a grand composition: bleak, slow, dissonant (not atonal) and a real musical excavation into the spiritual suffering one could experience in Hell. 

Overall, it's a "disturbing" and yet lyrical work that I could recommend to anyone for a taste in Romantic period chamber music. But hey, this is just my opinion


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## ezydriver

Thank you Hexameron for your reply.

I'll clarify a little more what I'm looking for. Music similar to.......


Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
Stravinsky - Rite of spring
Shostakovich - String quartet no 8 in c minor

Modern stuff really. Heavy, dramatic, disturbing almost unorthadox.


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## linz

Prehaps Schnittke's concerto grosso no.1 or Schoenberg's 'Verklarte Nacht'

Schnittke is disturbing and modern, but his music is still deeply connected to traditional methods. Schoenberg's 'Verklarte Nacht' is extremely emotional and disturbing in the style of Late-Romantic music.


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## sietek

Hexameron said:


> Like phatic says, it all depends on what kind of music you're looking for. There is "dark disturbing" music in every period (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, etc). But I'm a specialist listener in the Romantic period piano niche, so I think I have to vouch for Charles Valentin Alkan as a composer of dark, depressing, agonizing music from the abyss. However, you may be looking for atonal stuff and so Alkan wouldn't qualify.
> 
> In any case, I must recommend the L'enfer or "Hell" movement from Alkan's Grand Duo concertant in F sharp minor Op. 21 for piano, violin and cello. I don't know what Alkan was thinking when he wrote it, whether the pure evil piano chords mean to depict Hell as a physical place, like a dark void, or whether the mourning violin is referring to Hell as a state of mind, like hopelessness and regret. It might not be your cup of tea if you're into Shostakovich string quartets, but in my opinion, the L'enfer is a masterpiece; it's one of the best musical manifestations of Hell I've ever heard. Unlike Liszt's Dante Sonata/Symphony, Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, or Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain, it doesn't wail and crash with infernal sounds or scherzo-ish demonic noises... it instead focuses on the sickingly disturbing "pain" of being in Hell. I really think it's a grand composition: bleak, slow, dissonant (not atonal) and a real musical excavation into the spiritual suffering one could experience in Hell.
> 
> Overall, it's a "disturbing" and yet lyrical work that I could recommend to anyone for a taste in Romantic period chamber music. But hey, this is just my opinion


This sounds interesting. Know where I can find this song?


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## Hexameron

Here you go, sietek.


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## sietek

Hexameron said:


> Here you go, sietek.


Thanks. That _does_ remind me of hell. I'll have to get that cd.


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## Hexameron

Glad you're intrigued enough to buy that. Alkan is somewhat of a craze in the piano world right now. Chopin, Liszt, Bulow and Busoni always recognized his abilities. Before Chopin died, he gave most of his unpublished drafts to Alkan; Liszt remarked that Alkan had the best technique he had ever seen; Bulow called him the "Berlioz of the piano"; Busoni ranked Alkan as the best piano composer after Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms. Just recently (around 1977 I think) Ronald Smith and Raymond Lewenthal revived his works. Now, pianists like Marc-Andre Hamelin and Laurent Martin have created an even larger stir by recording a good bulk of this enigmatic composer's works.

Regarding that CD, you shouldn't be disappointed if you like late-classical or Romantic chamber music. The quality of these piano trios/duos is startling. Sometimes masterpieces can be forgotten as Bach has shown us, and Alkan is no exception.

Hope you like it.


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## Celloman

Now, if you want to get REAL disturbing, listen to Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima by Krystof Penderecki. The moment you begin listening to it, your ears will experience a wave of sheer, agonizing pain. The first minute of the piece I have dubbed "The Scream." Some of the most beautiful music you will ever hear, nonetheless. Highly disturbing.


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## riverbank

Somebody actually likes that piece by Penderecki?? Good grief, I am almost lost for words. That is the most awful racket I have ever heard.


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## ezydriver

riverbank said:


> Somebody actually likes that piece by Penderecki?? Good grief, I am almost lost for words. That is the most awful racket I have ever heard.


Wow. I am startled. Personally, I think it is an amazing use of strings. I agree, traditionally it is far from orthodox and musical rules. But, the sheer atmosphere of the piece has provoked more emotion from me than anything musical ever. I listen to it a lot and the pure harrowment of the piece is incredibly well demonstrated through the use of the instruments.

Yes, if you like melody and beauty then this piece would seem like a racket. But, in my opinion, I think it is the work of a genius. Music doesn't get much darker.


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## Saturnus

This might be exactly what you are looking for:

Alfred Schnittke - Monologue (a viola concerto) 
Béla Bartók - The Miraculus Mandarin ('Le Mandarin merveillaux')



Other recommendations:
Bartók - String Quartets no. 3 & 4
Ligeti - Atmospheres
Leifs - Organ concerto


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## Lisztfreak

And how about Coriolan Overture by Beethoven? Not that horrifying but surely very grave, leaden and dark.
Liszt's Totentanz? Or it's more diabolically humourous than scary... How about Csárdás macabre?
And I'd say Mozart too can be rather gloomy and thunderous, even though quite seldom. For example Symphony no.40 (well, a far shot...), Requiem, Don Giovanni Oveture...
Oh, and yes, Batók can be really, really scary!


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## Odocoileus

A safe path to take is to buy the compositions that have met with wide popularity. Orff’s O Fortuna from Carmina Burana is the darkest and most evil score that is widely popular. For something that is deep, sweet, sad and sublime I recommend Gorecki’s Symphony #3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. It was by far the best selling classical recording in 1992.


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## Shane

Odocoileus said:


> A safe path to take is to buy the compositions that have met with wide popularity. Orff's O Fortuna from Carmina Burana is the darkest and most evil score that is widely popular. For something that is deep, sweet, sad and sublime I recommend Gorecki's Symphony #3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. It was by far the best selling classical recording in 1992.


I was also going to mention Gorecki actually. Not necessarily the Symphony 3, but his works in general (that I own) often have a deep, sombre feeling to them. I think this is drawn from his deep/intense religious beliefs.


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## Tromboneman

lol its not really music that is recorded, but any chorales are moving to me, especially Praetorius' minor chorales. But as in my post about ur favorite piece, i would recomend Mozart's Requiem in C minor. Deep and moving, with powerful lyrics and equally moving chords.


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## ezydriver

Thank you all for replying to my thread. Some of the pieces of music have been what I'm after. However, I want to point out that it is primarily horrifying music, harrowing music and disturbing music that provokes disturbing images that I'm after.


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## oisfetz

Anything by Wagner. I at least feel horrorified when listen to something by SS Richard


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## orquesta tipica

You want something "deeply disturbing"?

Peter Maxwell Davies' "Eight songs for a mad king"


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## Saturnus

I heard the Eight songs recently and I think it is impossible for music to get more distrubing.


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## orquesta tipica

ezydriver said:


> Thank you all for replying to my thread. Some of the pieces of music have been what I'm after. However, I want to point out that it is primarily horrifying music, harrowing music and disturbing music that provokes disturbing images that I'm after.


Seriously, ezydriver, "Eight songs for a mad king" would be exactly what you are looking for, I'm pretty sure.

Davies composed it in 1969 as a piece for music theatre, and it imagines the madness of King George III in its final stages. In my liner notes it says "One imagined the King, in his purple flannel dressing-gown and ermine night cap, struggling to teach birds to make the music which he could so rarely torture out of his flute and harpsichord. Or trying to sing with them, in that ravaged voice, made almost inhuman by day-long soliloquies...." Now does that pique your interest? Disturbing, aint it? Wait till you hear it! Or perhaps I shouldn't...you don't know what you're in for...

My disc, and perhaps the only one available to my knowledge, is on the Unicorn-Konchana label from a 1987 release, of a 1970 recording performed by the Fires of London, Davies' own group, and Julius Eastman is the singer. It is coupled with another disburbing piece, called "Miss Donnithorne's Maggot" which you might also find fruitful in your endeavor.


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## MungoPark

*If you want bizarre and creepy try*

Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21. It is done in the Sprechstimme style, a strange admixture of speaking and singing. Very grotesque.


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## MarkLV

ezydriver said:


> Hello all. This is my first post.
> 
> I was wondering if anybody could help me out. I'm looking for some deeply disturbing music. I want very deep and moving. The best I can seem to do is Shostakovichs string quartet no 8 in c minor, and its not enough!! I NEED to be moved, deeply.
> 
> Can anybody recommend that ultimate piece?
> 
> Thank you all in advance.


Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony is - for me at least - the most moving and tragic piece of music ever composed. The last movement in particular, is emotionally draining to listen to.


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## MarkLV

oisfetz said:


> Anything by Wagner. I at least feel horrorified when listen to something by SS Richard


Why? Are you Jewish? Your compatriot Daniel Barenboim, who is Jewish, is a great admirer of Wagner, and has a much more mature attitude to music than you, it seems. Please *do not *mix politics with music!


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## captaintim

How about George Crumb's Black Angels?

Its a piece written for amplified string quartet. I played it in a quartet festival a couple of years ago and its just the most intense experience you'll ever have as a perfomer or an audience member. 

Each instrument is amplified but we also had to play different instruments: there are also 2 tam tams including bowing them with a double bass bow. You also have to shout, counting to seven in German and Japanese. But the hightlight was the cello solo accompanied by tuned crystal glasses. if you bow accross the top of a crystal glass (crystal makes the best sound) you can create a beautiful sound. Each glass was tuned by adding a certain amount of water and keeping it covered until it was played to ensure the water didn't evapourate under the stage lights. I'm a cellist so I didn't get to play the glasses in the concert, but I did get to play the amazing cello solo, hopefully pretty well!!!!!!!!!!

You have to hear this piece, I'd recommed a DVD though or find a live performance if possible - its not really something to just sit down and listen to as it really needs to consume you in person.

Perhaps Frederick magle knows of this piece and can back me up on this....


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## ezydriver

Much like _this_ then?


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