# Looking for droning heavy string music



## djames (Aug 2, 2015)

Hi all,

I am enjoying my time on the site. I am more a metal head, but getting deeper in the classical world.

I am after some heavy dissonant cello based music, brooding and droning, nice deep cellos or bassy strings.

Any pointers would be fab. Thanking you all.


----------



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I would suggest any string music by Scelsi, Ligeti, Feldman, Tony Conrad, La Monte Young and others. Since you also mention that you enjoy brooding cello music, you might give Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin and also his Cello Suites a try. Biber's Rosenkranz Sonaten are brooding, reflective violin works. Further music that is often described as brooding is much late Romatic Era music, such as the music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. How about Brahms' Cello Sonatas? Even Beethoven's Violin Sonatas and his Cello Sonatas. Hindemith's Cello works.

Don't overlook the piano. Try Piano Sonatas by just about any composer to get started. In general, much chamber music for strings would have some of the qualities you are after.

I could go on and on


----------



## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I'm not totally sure I understand what you're looking for, but I'll try.

Arvo Part - Fratres, version for 12 cellos: 



 (not really dissonant, but certainly brooding and droning)

Gyorgy Ligeti - cello concerto: 



 (continues in the next video in the album playlist)


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Dumitrescu: Hyperspectres, maybe (bit of a stretch though)


----------



## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

I think you'd LOVE Shostakovich's String Quartet no. 8

Here's the original version, which is visceral and harsh

Here's the same music for string orchestra dubbed Chamber Symphony which is a bit smoother and more sentimental, imo


----------



## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

Pärt's Cello Concerto "Pro et Contra", maybe?


----------



## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Bartok's String Quartets, especially 4th and 5th, and the 5th movement of the 4th is probably the best/most metal of them all:


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Penderecki's Threnody, maybe?


----------



## TwoPhotons (Feb 13, 2015)

You should give Ornstein's Piano Quintet a try (particularly his 3rd movement):






And Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead:


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Try Wagner's "Siegfried's death and Funeral music" from Götterdämmerung. Give it a minute or two to get warmed up.






I often associate brass with metal myself, so low strings with a lot of brass gives me some of the same feelings as metal.


----------



## Sina (Aug 3, 2012)

Gloria Coates' string quartets:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB17D9033CDE27576


----------



## Guest (Aug 12, 2015)

Sina said:


> Gloria Coates' string quartets:
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB17D9033CDE27576


Oooooo I've just ordered the box set and I do love a good drone.


----------



## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

Glass - Symphony for eight (cellos).


----------



## FPwtc (Dec 3, 2014)

It doesn't get more droning than Tony Conrad. His work with Faust (the german band) is pretty cool.

With Faust





I also have this box set:
http://www.discogs.com/Tony-Conrad-Early-Minimalism-Volume-One/release/680710


----------



## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

You definitely should explore this:


----------



## Norse (May 10, 2010)

Not only low strings all the way, but pretty 'dark'.


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I was gonna say Tony Conrad, too.


----------



## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Schnitke string quartets, but I'm thinking also in Mahler's 9 th symphony (first and last movements) and the adagio of the 10th. Very intense string music.


----------

