# Musical Depictions of Hell



## Polednice

An exciting topic - at least for me!

I am in no way religious, but in every way fascinated by the image of 'Hell'. To me, the epic proportions of the mythical fall of Angels and the Hell inhabited thereafter is a wonderful creation of literary imagination, and I love coming across new explorations and representations in literature and music (being a student of English Literature at university, I have chosen to partly specialise in medieval apocalyptic literature).

Anyway, having felt another yearning to plunge into hellish portraits once more, it struck me that my music library is somewhat devoid of fire and brimstone. So, what pieces of music can you direct me towards that are (in some way) to do with hell?

Tchaikovsky's _Francesca da Rimini_ is most prominent on my list, as the depiction of one of the circles of Hell from Dante's _Divine Comedy_ (and, of course, Liszt's far inferior _Dante Symphony_ ).

As well as this, the last movement of his _Manfred Symphony_ is (arguably) hellish. At the very least, it's demonic! Byron's own description of the related act in his drama sees Arimanes, lord of the underworld, on a fiery throne.

Of course, a Requiem can be good now and then for its _Dies Irae_ (of course, Requiems are always good, but I mean if you're seeking hell-like fulfilment). But where else can I turn? There are certainly plenty of pieces that seem to evoke the end of life or the world, but what compositions are _explicitly_ to do with Hell and/or Judgment?


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## Romantic Geek

One of my favorite piano pieces is actually written with inspiration from text from Dante's Inferno. It's the 5th movement of Edward MacDowell's First Modern Suite Op. 10. It's available on Naxos. The piece sounds incredibly demonic. MacDowell was a master of writing for the lower half of the piano.

"Lasciate ogni speranza / Voi chentrate" translated to "Abandon all hope, ye who enter"

Ligeti's 13th Etude (Book 2) is titled "L'escalier du diable"

I know a few others but not off the top of my head right now.


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## Lukecash12

Scriabin's Vers La Flamme may not be a hell scene specifically, but it certainly ties in emotionally to the subject matter.

Edit: Also, this is a bit of a shot in the dark, but it seemed somewhat relevant. I'm listening to it right now, and I thought I may as well refer it to the topic.


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## emiellucifuge

How about the NIght on the Bare Mountain?

Jon Leifs - Hekla. A symphonic poem depicting the Icelandic volcano Hekla. Ive seen it and trust me its very imposing and quite terrifiying as its still active.


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## Polednice

Romantic Geek said:


> One of my favorite piano pieces is actually written with inspiration from text from Dante's Inferno. It's the 5th movement of Edward MacDowell's First Modern Suite Op. 10. It's available on Naxos. The piece sounds incredibly demonic. MacDowell was a master of writing for the lower half of the piano.
> 
> "Lasciate ogni speranza / Voi chentrate" translated to "Abandon all hope, ye who enter"
> 
> Ligeti's 13th Etude (Book 2) is titled "L'escalier du diable".


Thanks for the recommendations. I was certainly struck by the MacDowell - it deserves a good few, focused listens over the next few days, so it looks like he'll be receiving my attention for a while!

Ligeti was good too - it's quite curious how, even though he falls completely outside my usually stringent tastes, it's still a marvel to listen to a piece like this when I know it's informed by a certain image that I'm very interested in.



Lukecash12 said:


> Scriabin's Vers La Flamme may not be a hell scene specifically, but it certainly ties in emotionally to the subject matter.


I really enjoyed listening to this! Though not explicitly hellish, it certainly fits in if Horowitz is right in saying that Scriabin's inspiration was from his "eccentric conviction that a constant accumulation of heat would ultimately cause the destruction of the world"!



emiellucifuge said:


> How about the NIght on the Bare Mountain?
> 
> Jon Leifs - Hekla. A symphonic poem depicting the Icelandic volcano Hekla. Ive seen it and trust me its very imposing and quite terrifiying as its still active.


I do like _Night on the Bare Mountain_, but it's one of those unfortunate pieces that, for me at least, has suffered immensely through its uses in 'popular culture'  I'll see if I can find the Leifs now...


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## Romantic Geek

The Ligeti is more traditional though than a lot of his other works. I think people can appreciate it for what it is without having to like Ligeti very much.

I still can't grasp how dark the MacDowell is. There is one part that just sounds so demonic. Being a student composer and a pianist, I envy how he can write such a well written piece with most of it being played on the lower half of the piano. I want to learn it one day. It isn't terribly hard to play, but hard to master.

The Scriabin is good too.

My guess is that you (and I) should dig a bit more into the tone poets to find more literal settings of Hell.


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## Ravellian

Hmmm... 

Penderecki - Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima (though I'd be surprised if you hadn't heard it before)
Mahler - Symphony No. 1, last movement
Liszt - Totentanz (especially the beginning )


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## Aramis

Ravellian said:


> Penderecki - Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima (though I'd be surprised if you hadn't heard it before)
> Mahler - Symphony No. 1, last movement
> Liszt - Totentanz (especially the beginning )


He didn't ask for THE MOST POWERFUL HELL LIKE DARK PIECES (I'M METALHEAD WANT TO LISTEN CLASSICAL LIKE DARK POWER MUSIC!!!!), but fot the pieces with infernal theme behind them. Didn't he?


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## Argus

Aramis said:


> He didn't ask for THE MOST POWERFUL HELL LIKE DARK PIECES (I'M METALHEAD WANT TO LISTEN CLASSICAL LIKE DARK POWER MUSIC!!!!), but fot the pieces with infernal theme behind them. Didn't he?


This thread is like the opposite of the metalhead looking for dark epic music thread. Yes, there are plenty of classical pieces inspired by Dante's Inferno, Faust or Paradise Lost but metal has the devil and hell as a foundation. The tritone, the _diabolus in musica_, is the backbone of metal. Just look at the album covers for God's sake:





































If you don't like metal, then fair enough, but the question was musical depictions of Hell and in metal they are a plenty. Obviously it's all tongue in cheek and very much continuing a cliche but it helps define the genre.

Is there anything more infernal than this:






The majority of the song is just a G, it's octave and it's tritone (occasionally trilled) with thunder and church bells in the background. If someone wrote that in Medieval Europe they'd be burned at the stake.

As for classical pieces, I agree the start of _Totentanz_ is pretty evil and also the start of Saint-Saens _Danse Macabre_. I think even though the organ is closely related to the Church and sanctity, some organ compositions can sound truly diabolic. Dissonances just sound extra nasty on a giant pipe organ.


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## World Violist

I think Mahler 8 is closer to the mark (beginning of part two), but I think that's slightly less convincing than Mahler 6 in that regard, even though the latter doesn't have a "program" at all.

Oh, and the ever-popular Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens.


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## sara

How about Stravinsky's very popular Rite of Spring? It may not be specifically about hell but pagan rituals and a young girl dancing herself to death… if that isn't even a little hellish then I don't know what is!

Here is Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting part of the last movement like a man possessed and towards the very end it even looks like (well to me anyway) a tiny bit of head banging ensues.


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## Polednice

Thanks for the general, 'this sounds like hell' suggestions, but Aramis is right to point out that I did ask for recommendations that are _explicitly_ to do with a depiction of the Hell of Christianity itself in a much more academic sense than 'I could describe this piece as infernal'; hence the close of my original post:



ME! said:


> There are certainly plenty of pieces that seem to evoke the end of life or the world, but what compositions are _explicitly_ to do with Hell and/or Judgment?


The pieces I originally cited are explorations of works of literature about characters who descend into the realms of Hell and deal with its torments. At the very least, compositions of relevance will have some kind of openly demonic programme. Indeed, _any_ relevant composition would _have_ to be programmatic because I am not searching for an approximation of devilish emotion, but rather an obvious and formally-stated depiction of Hell or other closely linked ideas.

Thus, any _Totentanz_ or _Danse Macabre_ is relevant (though I would have to say tangentially), for they are a representation of the inevitable fate of every living being; other suggestions of programmatic works based on terrible disasters, while appreciated, don't have much to do with what I am asking for; and, most certainly, absolute music is completely off the mark because it can no way have anything to do with what I wish to explore in music.

I'm not saying that any of these suggestions are pointless, but there's no point in getting diverted into a heated discussion about what is and isn't relevant. If you'd like to stay on topic, then make sure the piece you have in mind is _explicitly_ concerned with a figurative portrayal of Hell or similar ideas, rather than a simply apocalyptic-sounding piece that approximates the same emotions 

---- TIP: I would imagine that any fitting piece is more than likely to be based on a literary source. Ones already suggested are musical imaginings of works by the likes of Byron, Dante and Goethe. So the chances are that if the piece you have in mind _isn't_ based on a literary work, then it probably only resembles what I'm looking for in a not-so-useful way.


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## Argus

Polednice said:


> Thus, any _Totentanz_ or _Danse Macabre_ is relevant (though I would have to say tangentially), for they are a representation of the inevitable fate of every living being; other suggestions of programmatic works based on terrible disasters, while appreciated, don't have much to do with what I am asking for; and, most certainly, absolute music is completely off the mark because it can no way have anything to do with what I wish to explore in music.


Music without any other stimulus but sound can only be absolute. If the music is set to words like an opera or song, or there is a intrinsic visual accompaniment to the sound then an extra-musical idea can be incorporated into the work. Music without these non-sonic factors can't really portray anything as abstract as the notion of Hell or an afterlife. Things like busy/calm, pretty/ugly, natural/artificial could be conveyed by music alone but a made up place is impossible to conjure. So say, a birdsong can be mimicked to transfer the thought of nature but Hell has no base in reality. Therefore any suggestion in this thread is as correct as the next.


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## Polednice

Argus said:


> Music without any other stimulus but sound can only be absolute. If the music is set to words like an opera or song, or there is a intrinsic visual accompaniment to the sound then an extra-musical idea can be incorporated into the work. Music without these non-sonic factors can't really portray anything as abstract as the notion of Hell or an afterlife. Things like busy/calm, pretty/ugly, natural/artificial could be conveyed by music alone but a made up place is impossible to conjure. So say, a birdsong can be mimicked to transfer the thought of nature but Hell has no base in reality. Therefore any suggestion in this thread is as correct as the next.


I entirely understand the point that you are making and I don't in any way disagree, however I am quite sure that you know full-well the point that _I_ was trying to make, and no doubt you are perfectly aware of the kind of music I am looking for. So, please, before we all descend into a totally undesired discussion about what Hell and/or programme music is, let's just accept - even if it offends a sense of academic pedantry - my initial premise. By all means, have such a discussion elsewhere.

If this still isn't understood, then pick up _Paradise Lost_, read it, and there you have a _literary_ depiction of Hell. Now find a piece of music that _explicitly_ states it was based on said literary depiction. There's a relevant composition. The same process applies with the starting point being any other literary interpretation of Hell.


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## Lukecash12

This strikes me as the perfect baroque depiction of hell, at least in the realm of single instrument pieces: 




It's very picturesque, and rather free form compared to other pieces of the genre. And it touches on so many different emotions that one might associate with hell. Also, the phrases begin and end in a spontaneous manner.


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## Il Seraglio

The first movement of Liszt's Dante Symphony springs to mind.


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## Lukecash12

The middle section of Alkan's _Fire in the Neighboring Village_ strikes me as more than a little hellish:


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## sara

Apologies for misunderstanding the topic before Polednice!

For literal depictions of hell you could try listening to Krzysztof Penderecki's opera Paradise Lost (based on John Milton's epic poem of the same name).

Or try Ride to the Abyss and Pandemonium from Berlioz's opera The Damnation of Faust:


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## Polednice

sara said:


> Apologies for misunderstanding the topic before Polednice!
> 
> For literal depictions of hell you could try listening to Krzysztof Penderecki's opera Paradise Lost (based on John Milton's epic poem of the same name).
> 
> Or try Ride to the Abyss and Pandemonium from Berlioz's opera The Damnation of Faust:


No worries, _The Rite of Spring_ was one of the better suggestions 

Thanks for mentioning Penderecki; _Paradise Lost_ has always been one of my favourite literary works. I did a search a while back (admittedly, it must have been a pretty absent-minded search!) for music based on the epic, and I was surprised at the lack of the results. I'm glad my attention has been drawn to this.

It's a good coincidence that you mentioned Berlioz as well; _The Damnation of Faust_ was on BBC Radio 3 just this afternoon


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## Romantic Geek

I don't think they get it Polednice.  But I'm on your wavelength!


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## Polednice

Romantic Geek said:


> I don't think they get it Polednice.  But I'm on your wavelength!


Ha, at least there's one person I can trust 

I just spent a couple of minutes putting keywords into the naxos music library and came across some works that I already knew about but had slipped my mind. Notable for the inclusion of the Devil as a character are Dvorak's _The Devil and Kate_ and Stravinsky's _The Soldier's Tale_. Today though, seeing as it's currently available on the BBC iPlayer, I'm going to give a listen to Berlioz's _The Damnation of Faust_ (and, of course, I'll give another few listens to MacDowell!).


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## SalieriIsInnocent

Don Giovanni has a literal hellish undertone. In the finale, when the dark creatures come after Don Giovanni, it really feels hellish. Siepi was the first Don, that I ever saw, to actually be pulled into an inferno. They usually just fall in, but he was dragged. Even better, was when Kurt Moll dragged Samuel Ramey into hell.


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## Romantic Geek

It's not about undertones. It's about songs directly inspired from hell or literature from hell.

Polednice, I'm sure there are a few works from Crumb that fit in that category, but that's not really your style as I have somewhat figured out. He does some incredible stuff with tunes we know, like the Dies Irae. I'm not familiar with a large portion of his work though.


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## Polednice

Romantic Geek said:


> It's not about undertones. It's about songs directly inspired from hell or literature from hell.
> 
> Polednice, I'm sure there are a few works from Crumb that fit in that category, but that's not really your style as I have somewhat figured out. He does some incredible stuff with tunes we know, like the Dies Irae. I'm not familiar with a large portion of his work though.


With some of the things I've listened to in the last few days, it's been quite interesting hearing pieces that most certainly fall outside the boundaries of my style. They're definitely not things that I would listen to regularly, but for the sake of finding this specific type of music, it's still good to listen to. Of course, there will still be some people that are so far out of my tastes that I just can't listen to them, but (uncharacteristically!) I won't rule anybody out too hastily, so I'll read up on Crumb.


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## Fsharpmajor

It doesn't look like anybody has mentioned Tartini's *Devil's Trill Sonata*. Tartini had a dream in which Satan played it for him on the violin.

Wikipedia article:

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Trill_Sonata*

YouTube clip:

*



*
It's not really a musical depiction of Hell, but it sounds diabolical.


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## kmisho

I'd say the last movement of Britten's War Requiem paints a fairly straitforward picture of a traditional hell, although it is clearly superimposed over an impression of terrestrial war (as the poetry of Wilfred Owen suggests).


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## Polednice

Another I just found to add to the list; I wasn't aware of it, but others might be.

Karl Weigl's 5th Symphony 'Apocalyptic' - the last two movements bear the titles _Paradise Lost_ and _The Four Horsemen_, thus they are explicitly to do with Doomsday, Judgment and Hell (*hint hint* )


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## Fsharpmajor

Here's an article, _On the Relative Difficulties of Depicting Heaven and Hell in Music_.
I found it when I googled the topic.

*http://www.jstor.org/stable/738127?seq=1*


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## Tapkaara

Any one of Mozart's symphonies.


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## Polednice

Fsharpmajor said:


> Here's an article, _On the Relative Difficulties of Depicting Heaven and Hell in Music_.
> I found it when I googled the topic.
> 
> *http://www.jstor.org/stable/738127?seq=1*


Thanks very much for pointing that out; it made an interesting read.

The author certainly seems right when he says that most musical inspiration for depicting Hell or its inhabitants comes from Goethe's _Faust_. Thus, we can add the following to the list:

Rubinstein: _The Demon_
Spohr: _Faust_
Schumann: _Scenes from Goethe's Faust_
Gounod: _Faust_
Liszt: _Faust Symphony_ (which should have sprung to mind when I thought of the _Dante Symphony_!)

I'm sure it's all worthwhile listening, but I can't help but think that all of this Faust-centric music is probably one step too detached from the kind of musical imagery I'm looking for. *sigh*


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Tapkaara said:


> Any one of Mozart's symphonies.


 You must be joking.

One for early music: _Les Elemens_ (1737) by Jean-Fery Rebel (1666 - 1747) is an orchestral suite depicting creation with chaos at the start; not quite hell, but close enough. Interesting French Baroque piece.


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## Romantic Geek

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> You must be joking.
> 
> One for early music: _Les Elemens_ (1737) by Jean-Fery Rebel (1666 - 1747) is an orchestral suite depicting creation with chaos at the start; not quite hell, but close enough. Interesting French Baroque piece.


This person may also agree with this:






I meant Tapkaara by that


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## World Violist

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> You must be joking.


Tapkaara can be serious if he wants to be. I personally think Mozart's symphonies go one step further than depicting hell by recreating the sensation of actually being there...



Romantic Geek said:


> This person may also agree with this:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I meant Tapkaara by that


I totally agree with that and I'm not even really a cellist. Who couldn't agree with such reasoned arguments as this!?


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## Fsharpmajor

Polednice said:


> Liszt: _Faust Symphony_ (which should have sprung to mind when I thought of the _Dante Symphony_!)


Being somewhat ignorant of literature, I thought they were two different names for the same piece. 

I've got the Faust Symphony. I'll have to see about the Dante one.


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## Polednice

Fsharpmajor said:


> Being somewhat ignorant of literature, I thought they were two different names for the same piece.
> 
> I've got the Faust Symphony. I'll have to see about the Dante one.


The first movement of the _Dante Symphony_ is especially interesting if you compare it with Tchaikovsky's _Francesca da Rimini_ as they're both based on the same part of Dante's _Divine Comedy_.


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## Fsharpmajor

Coincidentally, I just stumbled across this one when looking for something else altogether:
*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_von_D._Johann_Fausten_(opera))*

From what I've heard of Schnittke's music, I think he would be quite capable of depicting Hell.

LATER EDIT: I tried googling _Paradise Lost_, thinking that somebody must have set it to music, and Penderecki has:
*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost_(Penderecki))*


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## sara

Glad to be of some help and I hope you enjoyed the Damnation of Faust! 

Here is another hellish work I came across after a quick search:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job:_A_Masque_for_Dancing

It's Vaughan Williams' ballet Job: A Masque for dancing. I'm not 100% sure if it contains literal depictions of hell (there's a possibility of it in the second scene) but there are certainly literal depictions of Satan.


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## Polednice

Thanks very much for all your suggestions so far, it's made for some interesting listening!


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## Fsharpmajor

BTW sara I apologise for posting about the Penderecki opera after you had already done so. I should have gone through the earlier posts more carefully.

The _Faust Symphony_ by Liszt is great! I listened to it for the first time last night (having bought it nearly a year ago, and never gotten around to it until this topic came up).
_
Job: A Masque for Dancing_ is available on Naxos. The shops around here all have that recording. If you are signed up you can listen to part of it on their website.


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## Polednice

Fsharpmajor said:


> The _Faust Symphony_ by Liszt is great! I listened to it for the first time last night (having bought it nearly a year ago, and never gotten around to it until this topic came up).
> _
> Job: A Masque for Dancing_ is available on Naxos. The shops around here all have that recording. If you are signed up you can listen to part of it on their website.


The _Faust Symphony_ does look interesting. I've had the _Dante_ one for a while now, which I really like, but I didn't by the _Faust_ alongside it. I didn't realise until a few days ago that the _Faust Symphony_ is made up of four character-pieces - I think I'll listen to that today.


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## Aramis

Polednice said:


> I didn't realise until a few days ago that the _Faust Symphony_ is made up of four character-pieces


Three, not four? :<


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## Polednice

Aramis said:


> Three, not four? :<


Oh yes, I don't know where I got four from :/ I even looked at some CDs of it this morning, and somehow counted an extra one! Back to basic maths I go...


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## Fsharpmajor

Polednice said:


> I even looked at some CDs of it this morning


Did you see this CD? It's the one I've got:

*http://www.rapidshareindex.com/Liszt-A-Faust-Symphony-Muti-Philadelphia-Orchestra_383016.html
*
If you scroll down the page you'll see a review. It only cost £4 or £5. The recording dates from the early days of CDs, but the sound is really good. You can't go wrong.


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## Polednice

Fsharpmajor said:


> Did you see this CD? It's the one I've got:
> 
> *http://www.rapidshareindex.com/Liszt-A-Faust-Symphony-Muti-Philadelphia-Orchestra_383016.html
> *
> If you scroll down the page you'll see a review. It only cost £4 or £5. The recording dates from the early days of CDs, but the sound is really good. You can't go wrong.


I hadn't seen that one - thanks for pointing it out. It does sound like a good recording, and there's nothing at all wrong with the sound. My version of the _Dante Symphony_ is by Barenboim, so it'll be good to listen to his _Faust_ before I buy anything, even if it's not as good as Muti.


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## emiellucifuge

Polednice said:


> The _Faust Symphony_ does look interesting. I've had the _Dante_ one for a while now, which I really like, but I didn't by the _Faust_ alongside it. I didn't realise until a few days ago that the _Faust Symphony_ is made up of four character-pieces - I think I'll listen to that today.


The Faust symphony is a personal favorite! There are many similarities in style to the Dante symphony, such as orchestration and treatment of the subject, but I guess thats just liszt!

The three movements portray Faust, Gretchen and finally Mephistopheles. 
Personally I find the Gretchen slightly boring, not due its tempo, but i think it is due to the transformational idea that liszt used, it gets a bit repetitive.

However the Faust and Mephistopheles movements are fantastic, the material is used incredibly imaginatively to portray the characters deeper personality. For example chromaticism to portray faust as thinker, or wanderer, maybe a lost soul.

The most enchanting part of the entire the piece is quite possibly the final chorus.. magnificent!

/useless info.


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## emiellucifuge

Romantic Geek said:


> This person may also agree with this:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I meant Tapkaara by that


I found that utterly boring, unoriginal and lame.


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## GraemeG

sara said:


> Or try Ride to the Abyss and Pandemonium from Berlioz's opera The Damnation of Faust:


Yes, this was my proposal as well. A very literal descent into hell. And when the villagers react in fear, the conductor should have them scream properly, not do a sort of gliassando/crescendo thing.

And on the subject of Berlioz, there's the last movement of the Symphony Fantastiue itself, too.
cheers,
Graeme


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## sara

@Fsharpmajor, there's no need to apologise at all but thanks all the same. 

After doing that quick search and only coming up with the Penderecki suggestion and finding 'Job' and a few 'Fausts' I have a sneaking suspicion that there are more literal depictions of God and Heaven than Satan and Hell.


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## Fsharpmajor

sara said:


> I have a sneaking suspicion that there are more literal depictions of God and Heaven than Satan and Hell.


Raising the question of whether the Devil really does have all the best tunes.


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## Stip

Lukecash12 said:


> The middle section of Alkan's _Fire in the Neighboring Village_ strikes me as more than a little hellish:


It's interesting you mention Alkan, the second movement of his _Grand Duo Concertante in F sharp minor, Op. 21_ is literally titled: "_L'Enfer_", which is french for hell. You can't get much more specific when it comes to musical depictions of hell.

...Which in itself is strange, since Alkan was jewish, and jews don't really believe in hell. Guess the christian afterlife was more inspiring to him than the jewish.


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## joen_cph

Langgards Ixion Symphony simply describes a man tied to
an eternally rolling wheel of fire as a severe punishment; 
I think the Stupel recording is more articulated and impressive 
than the Daugsgaard. Good, however, that the music only lasts 
for 6 minutes.
Also there is his piano fantasy with the delightful title
"The Flaming Chambers". 
And there is Lubus Fiser´s "15 Pictures from Dürers Apocalypse", 
for orchestra, an immediately impressive work, and his 4.Piano 
Sonata, The Devil": I think one can find it on youtube.

Personally, however, I have found certain singers the most 
convincing as regards evocating true hell as well as circumstances
you don´t want to return to ...


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## Tapkaara

I suppose, in a way, Sibelius's Swan of Tuonela and Lemminkainen in Tuonela are depictions of hell, or at least, the underworld.

But Tuonela of Finnish myth is nothing like the torturous firepit of Christian tradition, so maybe the analogy is not so great after all.

Notwithstanding, Tuonela is the dark realm in which the dead end up in Finnish myth, and Sibelius depicts it as a great mist-shrouded mystery in his music.


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## JAKE WYB

i do find Lemminkainen in Tuonela the darkest and most chilling piece - far more so for its comparative stillness instead of screaming, firey depictions of hell


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## kanonathena

If you don't mind, try the soundtrack of diablo 2, here is my favorite piece


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## Huilunsoittaja

Prokofiev's 2nd Symphony, particularly the last variations. That's one of the worst musical nightmares I've ever heard, it is worse than Rite of Spring.


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## PianoCoach

Shubert's "Elf King" is as sad and demonic as you can stand, but not directly related to hell.

Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead" would appear by title to be related, but it's not at all. It's a symphonic poem of a painting.


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## Huilunsoittaja

*Haha this is pretty good.*


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## myaskovsky2002

The fiery angel by Prokofiev is evil!


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## myaskovsky2002

of course so is his 3rd symphony because it contains fiery angel music...

Martin


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## Couchie

I would suggest the _Black Angels_ suite by George Crumb (subtitled: "Thirteen Images from the Dark Land").

This first part, _THRENODY I: Night of the Electric Insects_, was used famously in _The Exorcist_.
For the full effect, listen to it in a dark room just after midnight.


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## vamos

Schnittke fits the bill for me.

Nothing, no matter how extreme or loud or bizarre, can top his music in terms of the feeling of "Satanic" influence, for me at least. And I should warn that the things I say in the following paragraph are very hyperbolic and ridiculous, and I'm sure are probably only a figment of my own imagination, as I feel there is a connection between this man and myself, for some reason.

I don't necessarily believe that he was influenced by religion, but at times when listening to his music I detect a very deep demonic torment. I imagine Schnittke to have been in some private moments engaged in communication with spiritual forces (both evil and good?), even if it is only a reflection of delusion. It's like nothing I've ever heard, and it's achieved through a mixture of pure tradition and unheard of experimentation.

Suffice to say, he's my favorite composer at the moment, nobody compares when it comes to depictions of the vast, infinite reality we all experience. That sounds stupid, but that's the kind of value I attach to some of his works.

My favorite is the* Concerto for Piano and Strings*.






I should also mention that it's not all evil, I think you could work out some beauty or something, the beauty in darkness - but that's a whole different thing that I really don't understand yet. I think some of you would know what I'm talking about - maybe I'll make a thread about it!


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## myaskovsky2002

*Romantic geek*

...mentionned this piece. I love it!






Martin


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## Rob Weir

*Franz Schmidt's oratorio "The Book with Seven Seals" (1937)*

Essentially apocalyptic highlights from the Book of Revelations. I have an older recording with Mitropoulos from 1959.


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## myaskovsky2002

> Essentially apocalyptic highlights from the Book of Revelations. I have an older recording with Mitropoulos from 1959.


Could put a part of it?

Martin


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