# spooky classical



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

Ockay you heard me on Messiaen quator for the end of time and turangalila scared me to death i dont know why.

But is there far far worst than Messiaen , what about his students, if Messiaen not scary than what scary than, im not asking for cliche question on what satanic ,only on spooky classical composer, symphonie that made you have bad trip or nightmare?

Name composers and the symphonies that scared the living hell out of you?
*any composer that i should avoid if i fear Messiaen afored mention symphonies?*Anyone here on talk classical were creep out by Messiaen music, i acknowledge not every thing is dark in his works.

Greating folks :tiphat: it's been a while i post here


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

There are quite a few sections in Bruckner's symphonies that are spooky if not downright terrifying. I sometimes lay down when I'm tired and listen to _Bruckner's 9th_ (Giulini, VPO) while I'm half asleep and the experience is surreal sometimes. The 1st mvt is mysterious while the 2nd movement is menacing.

I would say some of Schubert's music is "spooky" too, for instance, parts of the 1st movement from _Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"_

Depending on which recording you listen to, but some of Mozart's _Requiem _ can be haunting, perhaps not spooky, but definitely hauntingly beautiful.

- Tchaikovsky's 6th can be dark, depending on how you read it.

- Berlioz's _Symphonie Fantastique_ - "The symphony is a piece of program music that tells the story of "an artist gifted with a lively imagination" who has "poisoned himself with opium" in the "depths of despair" because of "hopeless love." (from Wikipedia)

- Last but not least, Mozart's _Eine Kleine Nachtmusik_. :lol: (I'm joking with this one, of course)


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

Try the scherzo of Mahler 7, perhaps.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Some Ligeti and Penderecki works creep me out


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Scelsi. That's all you need know.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Some 12 tone works scare me...


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Der Leiermann said:


> Some 12 tone works scare me...


That's because only _real_ men listen to 12 tone -- That's right, I went there.


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## Guest (Aug 5, 2014)

Of course I don't find any of this to be too terrifying, but it's certainly "spooky".

Ligeti - Requiem
Ligeti - Volumina
Scelsi - Uaxuctum
Tan Dun - Water Passion (particularly the cackling lady that plays the devil in the temptations)
Penderecki - (Various Vocal/Choral works from early period - most recently for me, the exorcism scene at the end of Act I of the Devils Of Loudun)

I suppose some Nono/Berio vocal works would work too, but like I said, what starts as terrifying becomes purely enthralling with repeated listens.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

The Dirge from Britten's Serenade.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Cosmos said:


> Some Ligeti and Penderecki works creep me out


What this guy said but I love it. :devil:


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## Whistler Fred (Feb 6, 2014)

When I was very young (probably before I started school) and in the middle of a nap, I had a nightmare involving homicidal cartoon characters while my mom was listening to Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave back in the waking world. It took years for me to be able to hear this not-at-all frightening warhorse without getting seriously creeped out.


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## belfastboy (Aug 3, 2012)

Gets me every time!


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## DrMuller (May 26, 2014)

Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Some George Crumb for spooky!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Try some of Liszt's weird late piano music. Or the "transformation music" from Act 3 of Wagner's _Parsifal_: the way the bass line seems to wander in and out of the tonality, already unstable, as the rest of the orchestra wails and moans, the deep bells toll, and the timpani pounds out a procession of death - I don't know anything in music more seriously disturbing.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Bartok, music for strings,percussion,celeste sections.
Shostakovich sting quartet movements, symphony movements.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Opening of St John Passion is spine tingling and a bit creepy
Prokofiev's Fiery Angel is sustained supernatural creepiness
Miraculous Mandarin is super gross and freaky - in a premeditated sexual violence sorta way (also try Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk) 
Sciarrino's vocal writing can be a bit spooky - try the tense and psychological Luci mi Traditrici


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Kwaidan, or Ghost story, was a Japanese horror film in 64 that was an anthology of Japanese folk stories that incorporate different elements of Shinto and animism. It isn't visceral and it doesn't use silly camera angles to make the film seem tense. What it does do is give a pretty convincing representation of pretty eery folk tales, and they did surprisingly well considering that they didn't use much in the way of special effects. For example, in Japanese folklore shades/apparitions actually look like flying, flaming spheres.


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## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

I bought Scelsi ''natura renovatur'' quite dark, i like it, the thing is some music scared me and i unconsciously like it
and it serve it purpose if it were design to do .And i like violin :tiphat:


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Bartok's _Bluebeard's Castle_. "Teardrops, Judith, teardrops..."


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Night on Bare Mountain by Mussorgsky was always played to introduce a horror movie show on Saturday nights when I was a kid. Scary stuff.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

dgee said:


> Opening of St John Passion is spine tingling and a bit creepy
> Prokofiev's Fiery Angel is sustained supernatural creepiness
> Miraculous Mandarin is super gross and freaky - in a premeditated sexual violence sorta way (also try Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk)
> Sciarrino's vocal writing can be a bit spooky - try the tense and psychological Luci mi Traditrici


Creepy Bach...An original observation! I will check that out.

Bartok really knew creepy, didn't he? I believe he described the subject matter of _Mandarin_ as "beautiful."

Brrrrr!


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Itullian said:


> Bartok, music for strings,percussion,celeste sections.
> Shostakovich sting quartet movements, symphony movements.


And there you beat me to it. Bartok was the master of creepy and/or ghostly. I would add here the slow movement from his second piano concerto, and bits and pieces from the Concerto for orchestra.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Spooky can mean different things. Some good examples have already been listed (the Bartok _Music..._, some Ligeti, Penderecki, Shostakovich ....

To contrast two kinds of "spooky", I will suggest on the one hand Galina Ustvolskaya's Symphony No 5 "Amen", which is music from the gulag if ever there was any. This stuff makes even Shostakovich at his darkest seem like happy music. And there's a lot of this sort of stuff around ... and a lot of it from Soviet Russians!

But another kind of spooky is even more indelible to the soul. The finest example of that is the closing fugue of Bach's magnificent but incomplete final work, _Die Kunst der Fuge_, where the "Fuga a 3 Soggetti (Contrapunctus XIV)" literally stops in mid measure, leaving nothing but haunting silence. This is Bach's final statement, which he didn't live to complete. The spookiness takes on an even more profound aura when one realizes this fugue is based upon the B-A-C-H motif -- B-flat, A, C, B-natural -- which spells the master's name and has since supplied one of the most recognizable motifs in classical music. I still recall the first time I heard this closing effect, after listening to a complete performance of the _Die Kunst der Fuge_. When the music simply stopped, I was stunned, and mesmerized. I recall not being able to move for several minutes. It was a truly profound experience. Truly spooky. _Truly_ spooky.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

You mentioned Messiaen, but I think his creepiest work is this one:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

brianvds said:


> And there you beat me to it. Bartok was the master of creepy and/or ghostly. I would add here the slow movement from his second piano concerto, and bits and pieces from the Concerto for orchestra.


Well, night music anyway, and, if you're afraid of the dark...


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Lope de Aguirre said:


> That's because only _real_ men listen to 12 tone -- That's right, I went there.


__________________________


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Everything a listener finds creepy depends upon the context of the person and music. Much is found creepy simply because it is out of the realms of a listener's listening experience or habits.

I think _someone_ may find any of these 'creepy / scary' where I find them lyric, 'beautiful,' maybe with a haunting emotional quality but not 'spooky,' etc.

Ingram Marshall ~ _Fog Tropes_





Nico Mulhy ~ _Mothertongue- I. Archive /Mothertongue: III. Hress_









This one, though most everyone finds seriously disturbing:
Luciano Berio ~ Visage (doubt if the OP will make it through the ca. 20 minutes of _this..._




Turn the lights off, listen to in the dark, and good night and sweet dreams 

I suppose a number of the more cliche 'classics' to excite, disturb, and maybe found creepy, scary, terrifying, hair-raising (lol. and on and on) have been given, but if not, here are but a few.

Prokofiev ~ _Scythian Suite_ / the segment from his cantata _Alexander Nevsky, The Battle on the Ice_
Stravinsky ~ _The Firebird, segment, "Infernal Dance"_


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

PetrB said:


> Everything a listener finds creepy depends upon the context of the person and music. Much is found creepy simply because it is out of the realms of a listener's listening experience or habits.
> 
> I think _someone_ may find any of these 'creepy / scary' where I find them lyric, 'beautiful,' maybe with a haunting emotional quality but not 'spooky,' etc.
> 
> ...


A great example of that would be Schoenberg's _Verklärte Nacht_ (Transfigured Night). If you didn't know it's theme from the poem by Dehmel, or that it was written about his future wife, I'm sure could sound pretty creepy. Knowing what it's about, it seems more ethereal than creepy.








> English translation of Dehmel's poem:
> 
> _Two people are walking through a bare, cold wood;
> the moon keeps pace with them and draws their gaze.
> ...


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Lukecash12 said:


> A great example of that would be Schoenberg's _Verklärte Nacht_ (Transfigured Night). If you didn't know it's theme from the poem by Dehmel, or that it was written about his future wife, I'm sure could sound pretty creepy. Knowing what it's about, it seems more ethereal than creepy.


I don't know if I hear it as creepy, really. Turbulent, a little mournful in the beginning, but it really doesn't sound creepy to me at all. The last half is mostly in major keys, and the end, where the opening theme returns in the major, sounds very restful.

It's interesting that so many of Schoenberg's early works centered on infidelity (Verklarte Nacht, Pelleas und Mellisande, Gurrelieder), and then only a few years later, his wife ran out on him for his painting teacher.

Edit: But then again, maybe it doesn't sound creepy to me because I'm completely familiar with the idiom and hear it as expressive rather than alien. Even something like this seems rather normal in some ways:
Hosokawa - Landscape I for String Quartet


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Mahlerian said:


> I don't know if I hear it as creepy, really. Turbulent, a little mournful in the beginning, but it really doesn't sound creepy to me at all. The last half is mostly in major keys, and the end, where the opening theme returns in the major, sounds very restful.
> 
> It's interesting that so many of Schoenberg's early works centered on infidelity (Verklarte Nacht, Pelleas und Mellisande, Gurrelieder), and then only a few years later, his wife ran out on him for his painting teacher.


Yes, it's very sad and ironic.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Creepy Bach...An original observation! I will check that out.
> 
> Bartok really knew creepy, didn't he? I believe he described the subject matter of _Mandarin_ as "beautiful."
> 
> Brrrrr!


Some of his organ music can play that edge too.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Lukecash12 said:


> Yes, it's very sad and ironic.


Even when she returned to him, the relationship was strained until the end of Mathilde's life.

It's a good thing his second marriage to Gertrud was so much happier. Those years after his re-marriage in the 20s and before the wave of antisemitism that forced him to emigrate were some of the happiest in his life.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Maybe I'm the only one, but I find the funeral march in Schumann's Piano Quintet sort of creepy.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Mahlerian said:


> Even when she returned to him, the relationship was strained until the end of Mathilde's life.
> 
> It's a good thing his second marriage to Gertrud was so much happier. Those years after his re-marriage in the 20s and before the wave of antisemitism that forced him to emigrate were some of the happiest in his life.


And it's pretty clear how he felt about her when you hear Verklarte Nacht, those moments when he chooses to use enharmonics leave quite the impression. When you hear such beautiful things inside another person's head, you think "how could they not appreciate that person", but then again we don't know the person. It still baffles me that people can marry each other and then do things like that, how commonplace it is for us to be pathological and callous. Of course we can thank that for some great art it's produced. It blows my mind that Schoenberg wrote something that great and didn't even realize it for a second. "Cannot be performed", I mean are you kidding me?

While I normally don't like wiki all that much they included something interesting this time:



> Verklärte Nacht was controversial when it was premiered in 1902. This was due to the highly advanced harmonic idiom as well as, perhaps, Dehmel's explicit references to sexual themes in the poem. The work does indeed employ a richly chromatic language and often ventures far from the home key, though the work is clearly rooted in D minor. A particular point of controversy was the use of a single 'nonexistent' (that is, uncategorized and therefore unpermitted) inverted ninth chord, which resulted in its rejection by the Vienna Music Society. Schoenberg remarked "and thus (the work) cannot be performed since one cannot perform that which does not exist".


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

I think I've mentioned this somewhere else on this forum that Universe (Scriabin/Nemetin), paticularly the conclusion of the work with its choral dissonances and bells, really is creepy. This work, in my opinion, is the musical eqivalent of Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men, or perhaps his Star Maker.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Well, night music anyway, and, if you're afraid of the dark...


I hasten to add that creepy or not, I find it absolutely magically beautiful. So much so I just gave it a quick listen.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Alright it may not be strictly classical but this little tune has always been a bit creepy to me.... although it could have something to do with the context it's from a scene in Barry Lyndon, but I believe it's some traditional Irish music called "tin whistles":






It very unsettling to me, especially when the second whistle come in. Chills.


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