# Genuinely Creepy Classical



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

It may be hot as a furnace in parts of the northern hemisphere, but I sense a change in the angle of the light, a feeling of urgency in my veins. Autumn is coming! Autumn is a time of sweetness, nostalgia and and a crisp optimism in the air, but it can also be a time of unsettling thoughts on mortality and the approaching chills of winter.










I love spooky books, movies, art and music in autumn, but the music can be hard to come by. Saint-Saens' _Danse Macabre_ is often cited, but to be honest this doesn't really do it for me. I find nothing creepy about it. There are of course the examples of Ligeti and Penderecki works used in film.

What other creepy classical works are out there I may not know about?

Here's one I found this weekend, Andrzej Panufnik - Kołysanka (Lullaby). To me that's subtly creepy.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Try Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, here enhanced (IMO) by Shostakovich's orchestration and the beautiful expressive singing of Galina Vishnevskaya:






You'll need the words to get the full effect. Original Cyrillic and translations here:

http://www.lieder.net/lieder/assemble_texts.html?SongCycleId=147


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion, yada yada.

The first movement in particular, only one image comes to me... worms eating you alive:


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## Copperears (Nov 10, 2013)

This always does it for me:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatuor_pour_la_fin_du_temps

Enjoy!


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

I don't recall the name of the piece but it's by Crumb . . . something to do with bats or whatever.

There's also this:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

The Crumb piece is likely Black Angels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sffh9spQopA&list=PLEvr99j7ruPxvl6sZ6EAJchHv3cHQSQTR


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## MrTortoise (Dec 25, 2008)

The last movement of Ligeti's Trio for piano, violin, and horn is a bit dark and intense.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

People in the old days found the slow movement of Beethoven's "Ghost" piano trio pretty creepy. Maybe some people still do.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Weston said:


> Here's one I found this weekend, Andrzej Panufnik - Kołysanka (Lullaby). To me that's subtly creepy.


nice, it sounds perfect for a horror movie|


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

The "Es geschah" section from Schnittke's Faust Cantata - a habanera embellished with phantasmagoria.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Weston said:


> What other creepy classical works are out there I may not know about?


This piece by John Cage is creepy too, the very flat sounding harmony.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Part 3 of Schoenberg's _Gurrelieder_
The end of part 4 of Berlioz' _Le Damnation de Faust_
Franck's _Le Chasseur maudit_


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2015)

Penderecki's "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima" ought to do it...or pretty much any of his pre-1980 works!


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Penderecki's great works for string orchestra are some of my favorites. Some of his vocal works can be more disturbing. The Devils of Loudun, Kosmogonia.






Schnittke has some pretty dark pieces. Symphony No. 2 comes to mind.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

A voting game elsewhere for "Best Devilish Music (Diabolus in Musica)":


1 - Rachmaninov: Isle of the Dead
2 - Saint-Saëns: Danse Macabre
3 - Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit
4 - Franck: Le Chasseur maudit ('Accursed Huntsman')
5 - Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain
6 - Prokofiev: The Fiery Angel (Opera)
7 - Dvorak: The Water Goblin
8 - Dvorak: The Noon Witch
9 - Liszt: Totentanz
10 - Dvorak: The Spectre's Bride


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I've always thought there were some creepy passages in Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring,_ especially the "Sacrifice" movement.

Going more modern, there are some spooky moments in Edgar Varese's _Poem Electronique._


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

The dirge from Britten's Music for Tenor, Horn and Strings. _This ae night..._


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## vampireslugger (Aug 5, 2015)

Ives' Central Park in the Dark, especially slower versions, really creep me out. Not in any macabre way -- just by a kind of intimidating night life that feels always on edge and unsafe. Not sure if that's how Ives intended it, but I can't help hearing it that way.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> The "Es geschah" section from Schnittke's Faust Cantata - a habanera embellished with phantasmagoria.


I was gonna say, there's ought to be a passage in many a Schnittke work that fits the bill.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Herrmann's foray into serialism, the Sinfonietta for Strings. has that creepy vibe. Herrmann recyled some of the Sinfonietta in his latter score to Hitchcock's Psycho.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

All of Britten's opera, The Turn of the Screw. Sinister in the extreme.


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## Sina (Aug 3, 2012)

I know Penderecki sounds an obvious choice but not his cello concertos I guess. _Especially his first_. Arto Noras plays them just great:





Most of Pierre Schaeffer works.

This great piece by a very underrated Spectral Romanian composer: Ștefan Niculescu's Ison II (Concerto For Reeds And Percussion)





Some Feldman's works (beside his famous Rothko Chapel) like two orchestral works "Intersection I" and "Marginal Intersection" on the Mode Records' Feldman Edition 9. Or his last orchestral work Coptic Light, my favorite recorded version is on CPO with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Michael Morgan:








Also his complete The Viola In My Life compositions on ECM
http://www.discogs.com/Morton-Feldman-The-Viola-In-My-Life/release/2579903


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)

These are my recommendations:

Ligeti: Requiem
Feldman: Triadic Memories
Nono: Como Una Ola de Fuerza y Luz
Kurtag: Op. 42 ...concertante...
Pettersson: Symphony No. 9
Globokar: Der Engel der Geschichte


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

KenOC said:


> The Crumb piece is likely Black Angels.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sffh9spQopA&list=PLEvr99j7ruPxvl6sZ6EAJchHv3cHQSQTR


It could also be "A Haunted Landscape".


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Wow! Ask and ye shall receive I guess.

I may not be able to comment on every suggestion so I'll pick a few I didn't already know about.



Morimur said:


> There's also this:


Holy smokes! That's creepier than Lustmord.



MrTortoise said:


> The last movement of Ligeti's Trio for piano, violin, and horn is a bit dark and intense.


I had not heard this Ligeti piece. Thanks.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

All of these suggestions I don't already have are added to my want list.



vampireslugger said:


> Ives' Central Park in the Dark, especially slower versions, really creep me out. Not in any macabre way -- just by a kind of intimidating night life that feels always on edge and unsafe. Not sure if that's how Ives intended it, but I can't help hearing it that way.


Oh yeah. That works. It could be macabre too.



Sina said:


> I know Penderecki sounds an obvious choice but not his cello concertos I guess. _Especially his first_. Arto Noras plays them just great:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yes, that Penderecki is pretty scary. The Niculescu is beautiful -- so of course I want it too.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

I think this piece is _creepy_, contextually. 




And Sibelius' Fourth Symphony, among more renown compositions, immediately came to mind when I thought creepy and spooky. But not frightening so much as just bizarre and mysterious.

Oh, and Hallowe'en!


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## Guest (Aug 10, 2015)

> 1 - Rachmaninov: Isle of the Dead
> 2 - Saint-Saëns: Danse Macabre
> 3 - Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit
> 4 - Franck: Le Chasseur maudit ('Accursed Huntsman')
> ...


This list doesn't surprise me, based on aggregate opinions. But I still can't fathom how or why any of these pieces would feel "creepy".

Already mentioned in full, but specifically give a listen to the exorcism scene at the end of act 1 in _The Devils Of Loudun_...


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Sorry to add even more Penderecki, but De natura sonoris 1:






and 2:






The creepiness for me is admittedly increased by the fact that David Lynch used bits of them in _Inland Empire_, which may be the creepiest movie I have ever seen.


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Schubert "Der Erlkonig." Both words and music.


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## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

How about the beginning of Brahms's First Symphony?






I almost jumped out of my skin, the first time that I heard it. Still a beautiful piece, however.


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## TwoPhotons (Feb 13, 2015)

Creepy from beginning to end!

Also:


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I think this is genuinely creepy...


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Templeton said:


> How about the beginning of Brahms's First Symphony?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I love that intro, but "creepy" is not the right word to describe it at all IMO. More like awe-inspiring.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Wikipedia says it's his last piece... (but I'm not so sure since the set contains 5 pieces).


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## wandelweisering (Aug 5, 2014)

ArtMusic said:


> This piece by John Cage is creepy too, the very flat sounding harmony.


Every other Feldman and Scelsi >>> Thirteen Harmonies (which I find simply... winter-y)

But I see "creepy" is understood here in a range from "seat-grabbing scary" to "mildly mysterious".


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Templeton said:


> How about the beginning of Brahms's First Symphony?
> 
> I almost jumped out of my skin, the first time that I heard it. Still a beautiful piece, however.


Yes, this reminds me of how it might feel to have a heart attack. I am reminded of James Horner's musical cues from the heart attack scene in Brainstorm (for which I cannot find a link).



techniquest said:


> I think this is genuinely creepy...


Now _that_ is genuinely creepy. Scelsi goes on my want list.



DeepR said:


> Wikipedia says it's his last piece... (but I'm not so sure since the set contains 5 pieces).


I have seldom enjoyed Scriabin's piano works, but this too is creepy. Maybe I should invest in that amazing bargain, the Maria Lettberg Scriabin boxed set, after all.


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## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

How's this? Not very creepy, but fun and quirky. Like Halloween masks or scary movies. Nothing too harrowing, but definitely on the spectrum of "spooky."


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## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

Whereas this is one of the few pieces of music that _genuinely_ creeps me out. Makes my skin crawl and I love it. Very deep and beautiful, but "apocalypse" isn't exactly my idea of a good time...


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## Sina (Aug 3, 2012)

Also -how could I forget- this!


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

techniquest said:


> I think this is genuinely creepy...


I read that this was used in Shutter Island. I'm listening to it now and I'm intrigued.


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

I stumbled upon Mosolov's "Zavod" that had been slowed down and stretched very greatly:






Very creepy indeed - Goosebumps and ice-cold shivers....


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