# Recommendations similar to Gorecki's third



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Can anyone recommend vocal music similar to that in Gorecki's third? The instrumental portion doesn't have to be similar, but I like the style of the singing. So I'm looking for more music with preferably one singer or two, rather than a chorus. I also enjoyed Suor Angelica the opera, just to give a better idea for my tastes (though I know that has chorus parts). An ideas?


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

Gorecki is rather unique isn't he? 

I like it too, but I suppose what you are referring to, is a vocal style which can use atonal parts. 

His song cycles and songs including 'Valentine' and 'for you Ann-Lil' use that same atonal style - written without any key, using notes with semi-tone shifts in an entrancingly hypnotic and majestic manner.

My guess is that you would find interest in many of the Latvian minimalist composers scored for soloist, as with some of the more avante-garde Polish song cycles by Pawel Szymanski, as well as the Soviet composer Veniamin Basner's song cycles. 

Gorecki's scoring of a soloist against the instrumental 'wall' of sorrow was epic for many reasons; it is a hard symphony to match on the intensely personal and experiential level that he and his country had endured in memory after the second world war. 

There are prob. others who are familiar with song cycles and soloists better than me. I like Georg Sviridov's song cycles which are scored for soloist as well as chorus. Imho - the soloist songs are more engaging.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Maybe Shostakovich's 13th and 14th symphonies? They're really intense and unremittingly sorrowful; very personal. I myself don't know what to think of them as pieces, but I think they're among Shostakovich's most emotional works that I've heard.

Or you could just go to the song-symphony that started it all: Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, one of his greatest works.


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## Gangsta Tweety Bird (Jan 25, 2009)

anders hillborg "...lontana in sonno..." :tiphat:


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

You could maybe try John Tavener's _In Alium _for soprano, strings & tape. It was written around the same era & Tavener wrote in that "holy minimalist" style that Gorecki did also. Some similar works, but not using solo voices (they are choral), try Arvo Part's _Berliner Messe _or perhaps Alan Hovhaness' _Magnificat_...


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## DFa (Sep 6, 2010)

Rachmaninov's Vocalise is beautiful and captures a similarly ethereal mood


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

There's a wonderful vocal solo in Nielsen's 3rd symphony.
Great piece.
cheers,
G


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