# Music that goes from dark to Joy



## Indy (Dec 15, 2019)

I'm trying to think of orchestral or piano music that moves from a place of darkness toward light, joy, ecstasy, triumph. Anyone have any suggestions?


----------



## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)




----------



## Aurelian (Sep 9, 2011)

Mozart's dark G-Minor Quintet has a happy ending.


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Alfred Schnittke's first cello concerto. I don't know about joy, but certainly emerges some kind of transcendental bliss.


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth
Tchaikovsky's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies
Brahms's First
Mahler 5
Rachmaninoff's Second and Third Symphonies, Third Piano Concerto, Piano Sonata no. 2 
Schumann's Fourth
Shostakovich's Cello Concerto no. 1

There are many, many works that do this.


----------



## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

Bartok's first string quartet (compare the first movement with the third).


----------



## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

Beethoven Pastorale 6th symphony goes to happiness after the storm.


----------



## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Shostakovich 10


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

flamencosketches said:


> Alfred Schnittke's first cello concerto. I don't know about joy, but certainly emerges some kind of transcendental bliss.


Schnittke wrote quite a few dark pieces that have a transformative feeling of redemption and light in the final movements. I can listen through the gloom because there are always so many interesting themes and orchestral sounds going on in the music. I've read some comments on this forum expressing the opinion that his symphonies are his weakest body of work but I disagree with that stance. I find them endlessly fascinating.


----------



## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Indy said:


> I'm trying to think of orchestral or piano music that moves from a place of darkness toward light, joy, ecstasy, triumph. Anyone have any suggestions?


OTTOMH - 
Franck Sym in d


----------



## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

Music that moves from dark to Joy? Here's hoping that Joy is an audiophile! 

Brahms Symphony 1. But it takes a while....


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

There are plenty of multi-movement works with happy endings, but fewer that show us the drama of moving from darkness to light within a single uninterrupted stretch of music. Strauss's _Death and Transfiguration_ comes to mind, and the final movements of some symphonies:: Beethoven 9 (in a way), Brahms 1, Brahms 3 (a bit ambiguously), Tchaikovsky 5, Mahler 1.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

The song Florestan sings in prison after the interval in Fidelio, where he ends up going into raptures about an angel. I can hear it in my head now.


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Bartok: _Concerto for Orchestra_


----------



## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

As many posters have pointed out, this isn't an uncommon theme in music; however, the most memorable 'dark to light' moment, in my mind, is the finale of Mahler's 10th.


----------



## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Albert Roussel's 2nd Symphony first movement. Extended dark and menacing intro then the joy.






Bernard Herrmann's only symphony starts dark and winds up very joyful.






Mahler's 5th, Beethoven's 4th.


----------



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

Berlioz - _Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale_. The titles of its three movements are self-explanatory, although the final movement, as indicated by the title of the work itself, could be interpreted as triumphant rather than joyful:

1. _Marche funèbre_ 
2. _Oraison funèbre_ 
3. _Apothéose_


----------



## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

Beethoven's piano sonata 31? The third movement. I think there are a few Beethoven pieces like this, the triumphant overcoming of despair is kind of his trademark move.


----------



## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

What about the other way around?


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

DeepR said:


> What about the other way around?


Opera.

.......................


----------



## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Bartok Concerto For Orchestra
Beethoven Triple Concerto
Beethoven Symphony 9
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 2
Mendelssohn Symphony 3 "Scottish"
Tchaikovsky Symphony 5


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Aurelian said:


> Mozart's dark G-Minor Quintet has a happy ending.


For some reason I find that ending wistfully sad, especially in the context of the entire piece. It feels somewhat like Mendelssohn's sadness.

28:16


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

A quite literal transformation, Glazunov's tone poem From Darkness to Light op. 53


----------

