# Music for the end of the world



## Ivanbeeth (Nov 30, 2015)

I have a fascination with tragic endings. I used to listen the Olyimpia act finale in Les contes or the ending in the Symphonie Fantastique or, of course, the Götterdammerung finale. Then I discovered Sibelius and I found that his 1st, 4th, 5th and 7th finales depict an ending of the world for me. Beethoven's Ninth also sound to me like an ending, but right now I'm interested in tragic endings. Which ones comes to your mind?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Gustav Mahler's 8th Symphony - Final Movement






Leontyne Price "Libera me Domine" Verdi Requiem

Those two springs to mind immediately, hope it gives you inspiration.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Tragic ending = Mahler: Symphony no.6


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## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

*Scriabin's Mysterium*

The Messianic delusionary, visionary, modernistic, half-crazy Russian composer Scriabin was working on a piece that he believed would end the world. _Mysterium_ was (from Wikipedia) "to have been a grand week-long performance including music, scent, dance, and light in the foothills of the Himalayas Mountains that was somehow to bring about the dissolution of the world in bliss."

The piece was left unfinished at his death. A realization by Alexander Nemtin _Preparation for the Final Mystery_is on Decca set 289 466 329-2 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. An excerpt from the notes: "Of the _Mysterium_'s performing forces he [Scriabin] told a friend: 'There will not be a single spectator. All will be participants. The work requires special people, special artists and a completely new culture. The cast of performers includes an orchestra, a large mixed choir, an instrument with visual effects, dancers, a procession, incense, and rhythmic textual articulation. The cathedral in which it will take place will not be of one single type of stone but will continually change with the atmosphere and motion of the _Mysterium_. This will be done with the aid of mists and lights, which will modify the architectural contours."

I have played the piece a time or two. Although my office experienced some pretty major rumblings, there was no structural damage apparent.

Here's the YouTube version Scriabin/Nemtin, Mysterium. Prefatory Action (Ashkenazy)






Enjoy?

:tiphat:

Kind regards,

George


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## Agamemnon (May 1, 2017)

I am not sure this is the type of music you are looking for but Messiaen of course literally composed a piece of music "for the end of time":


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

In the TV Mini series "Childhood's End" they used Vaughan Williams' "A Lark Ascending" as the last music played while the Earth is destroyed.

A brief video...


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Beethoven's Coriolan Overture has a tragic ending, in contrast to the joyful finales that occur in many of his works. Perhaps the ending depicts Coriolan's death, foreshadowing the conclusion of the play for which the overture was written.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

Nereffid said:


> Tragic ending = Mahler: Symphony no.6


The obvious choice, but I think there may be a _subtler_ choice in Mahler: _Der Abschied_, from _Das Lied von der Erde. _ In the sixth, the "protagonist" is _destroyed_ by the end of life and hope, but in _Der Abschied_, the protagonist/speaker must confront the oh-so-gentle inevitability of having to consciously and with intention _accept_ the end. One must, of course, decide for oneself which outcome is the more tragic.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

The last movement of Tchaikovsky 6th Symphony (Pathetique). It's so emotional and the music fades at the end demonstrating that he is slowly dying and it is the end of the world for him!


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Lots of choices here... I'll choose Schmidt's _Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln_ for the ultimate end of the world. I find it very complex and unique emotionally, a definite personal favourite for me.


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## David OByrne (Dec 1, 2016)

Nereffid said:


> Tragic ending = Mahler: Symphony no.6


Tragic? it sounds anything but tragic, it's beautiful if anything


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

How about Richard Strauss, Death and Transfiguration (well, we can end on a hopeful note)

(It hardly seems necessary for such a well known piece, but here is a link: 



 )


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## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

Vaughan William's 6, 4?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bettina said:


> Beethoven's Coriolan Overture has a tragic ending, in contrast to the joyful finales that occur in many of his works. Perhaps the ending depicts Coriolan's death, foreshadowing the conclusion of the play for which the overture was written.


Wouldn't mind going out with that in the background.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Nereffid said:


> Tragic ending = Mahler: Symphony no.6


Though it may not be within the purpose of this thread, I'm moved to ask: What is tragedy? Is it synonymous with great misfortune or disaster, as implied by the word's popular usage? Or does it have a more specific and a deeper meaning?

The finale to Mahler's 6th seems intended to _portray_ a tragedy - the hammer blows of fate and so forth - yet I find it misses the _spirit_ of tragedy, which in literature and drama induces, and may depict, a deep, sympathetic reflection upon the incongruity between our aspirations and the flaws which prevent their realization (as in the "tragic hero" destroyed by the blindness of his overweening ambition). In this music, humane pathos is undercut for me by Mahler's anxious hyperactivity and obsessive drivenness, which leave little mental space for reflection: the furious march rhythms and clipped phrases, the shrieking high orchestral sonorities, the repetitive episodes of wild hysteria building and collapsing upon themselves... It's a portrait of tumultuous, reeling desperation that's finally, after three blows, cut off, leaving us stunned. A portrait of a disaster it certainly is. But a tragedy?

For me, neither Mahler's nor Tchaikovsky's 6th symphonies, though they be the usual examples chosen for the designation "tragic," express the Olympian perspective of true tragedy. Both works exude more than a whiff of autobiography, and one cannot be one's own tragic hero. "Pathetique" is a more suitable title than "Tragic" for Tchaikovsky's dying fall; I'm not sure what name I'd give to Mahler's elaborately wrought-up dramatization of his life's slings and arrows. But "Martyrique" might do as well as any.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

http://www.talkclassical.com/20255-music-apocalypse.html


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Woodduck said:


> Though it may not be within the purpose of this thread, I'm moved to ask: What is tragedy? Is it synonymous with great misfortune or disaster, as implied by the word's popular usage? Or does it have a more specific and a deeper meaning?
> 
> The finale to Mahler's 6th seems intended to _portray_ a tragedy - the hammer blows of fate and so forth - yet I find it misses the _spirit_ of tragedy, which in literature and drama induces, and may depict, a deep, sympathetic reflection upon the incongruity between our aspirations and the flaws which prevent their realization (as in the "tragic hero" destroyed by the blindness of his overweening ambition). In this music, humane pathos is undercut for me by Mahler's anxious hyperactivity and obsessive drivenness, which leave little mental space for reflection: the furious march rhythms and clipped phrases, the shrieking high orchestral sonorities, the repetitive episodes of wild hysteria building and collapsing upon themselves... It's a portrait of tumultuous, reeling desperation that's finally, after three blows, cut off, leaving us stunned. A portrait of a disaster it certainly is. But a tragedy?
> 
> For me, neither Mahler's nor Tchaikovsky's 6th symphonies, though they be the usual examples chosen for the designation "tragic," express the Olympian perspective of true tragedy. Both works exude more than a whiff of autobiography, and one cannot be one's own tragic hero. "Pathetique" is a more suitable title than "Tragic" for Tchaikovsky's dying fall; I'm not sure what name I'd give to Mahler's elaborately wrought-up dramatization of his life's slings and arrows. But "Martyrique" might do as well as any.


Excellent analysis there my friend, I really liked it! Mahler's tragedy (or whatever we may call it) may have more in common with Kafka's, a sort of modern tragedy which doesn't really jive with what Aristotle and the Greek tragedians thought of it. The Greeks always believed that the system of the universe holds true, just the individual is crushed because of his misconceptions. This opens the potential for heroism (through _apatheia!_), or at least sympathy. The moderns have fears that the whole system may collapse, or, like Kafka, believe that meaning may be there but we're cut off from it (he reportedly answered, to a question of whether there may be any hope for us, something like "Oh, there is hope, hope unending - but alas, not for us!"). So "tragedy" becomes a sort of backtracking of how the whole house of cards fell down, whereas Greek tragedy told us how the hero ran to the solid brick wall and crushed his skull (and how he went on from there).


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Barelytenor said:


> The Messianic delusionary, visionary, modernistic, half-crazy Russian composer Scriabin was working on a piece that he believed would end the world. _Mysterium_ was (from Wikipedia) "to have been a grand week-long performance including music, scent, dance, and light in the foothills of the Himalayas Mountains that was somehow to bring about the dissolution of the world in bliss."
> 
> The piece was left unfinished at his death. A realization by Alexander Nemtin _Preparation for the Final Mystery_is on Decca set 289 466 329-2 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. An excerpt from the notes: "Of the _Mysterium_'s performing forces he [Scriabin] told a friend: 'There will not be a single spectator. All will be participants. The work requires special people, special artists and a completely new culture. The cast of performers includes an orchestra, a large mixed choir, an instrument with visual effects, dancers, a procession, incense, and rhythmic textual articulation. The cathedral in which it will take place will not be of one single type of stone but will continually change with the atmosphere and motion of the _Mysterium_. This will be done with the aid of mists and lights, which will modify the architectural contours."
> 
> ...


and don't forget about his "Vers la flamme".

_According to pianist Vladimir Horowitz, the piece was inspired by Scriabin's eccentric conviction that a constant accumulation of heat would ultimately cause the destruction of the world.[1] The piece's title reflects the earth's fiery destruction, and the constant emotional buildup and crescendo throughout the piece lead, ultimately, "toward the flame"._

Considering the global warming, it sounds like a eerie premonition.


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

The Grosse Fugue ends with a feeling that it can never be equalled let alone usurped as one of the strangest, but amazing, pieces of music ever written, considering the time it was written in. If that was the last piece I heard before the apocalypse I would demise with a tear and a smile on my face.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Ivanbeeth said:


> *I have a fascination with tragic endings.* I used to listen the Olyimpia act finale in Les contes or the ending in the Symphonie Fantastique or, of course, the Götterdammerung finale. Then I discovered *Sibelius* and I found that his 1st, 4th, 5th and *7th *finales depict an ending of the world for me. Beethoven's Ninth also sound to me like an ending, but right now I'm interested in tragic endings. Which ones comes to your mind?


The ending of the Sibelius Seventh Symphony as an example of a tragic ending? First time I've ever heard that. For me, that ending is pure ecstasy.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I would go along with the ending of Götterdämmerung, "redemption through love" as music accompanying the ending of the current world and hopefully, the beginning of a great brave new world filled with compassion, eternal peace and love.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

norman bates said:


> and don't forget about his "Vers la flamme".
> 
> _According to pianist Vladimir Horowitz, the piece was inspired by Scriabin's eccentric conviction that a constant accumulation of heat would ultimately cause the destruction of the world.[1] The piece's title reflects the earth's fiery destruction, and the constant emotional buildup and crescendo throughout the piece lead, ultimately, "toward the flame"._
> 
> Considering the global warming, it sounds like a eerie premonition.


I agree it's one of the ultimate apocalyptic pieces, especially the way Horowitz performs it. The intensity, the radiation, it's almost palpable. Such a visceral piece. Gives me goosebumps everytime. But if you listen closely, I think it ends in a positive way. As if some kind of transformation took place. After the fire that engulfs everything, there is renewal, a rebirth.


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## Lenny (Jul 19, 2016)

Xaltotun said:


> Lots of choices here... I'll choose Schmidt's _Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln_ for the ultimate end of the world. I find it very complex and unique emotionally, a definite personal favourite for me.


That's very ultimate indeed! While waiting for total armageddon, I'd listen to Bach's solo violin sonatas.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OP: The very ending of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Peaceful resignation to the inevitible we must all face one day.

"Ewig.....ewig..."

Each of us will have our own "end of the world" experiences, sad to say, but inevitible.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Probably already suggested: the Epilogue to Vaughn Williams' 6th Symphony always puts me in mind of the end of things. A sustained, tense pianissimo that has no comforting cadences and resolutions, just an evocation of emptiness. And I offer that last phrase as the working title for the next Bond film.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Rossini's William Tell Overture after all the boring slow stuff, beginning with the Lone Ranger theme, to remind me to hurry and get the hell out of there!! Who the heck wants to be caught on a planet about to become a black hole? Not me, homie!!


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## nature (Jun 25, 2017)

Jon Leifs - Hekla, Op. 52 (1961) for orchestra and percussion

While the theme is not necessarily about the end of the world, the work depicts the eruption of a volcano. It definitely sounds monumental and apocalyptic.


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

hpowders said:


> OP: The very ending of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Peaceful resignation to the inevitible we must all face one day.
> 
> "Ewig.....ewig..."
> 
> Each of us will have our own "end of the world" experiences, sad to say, but inevitible.


I duuno, you familiar with the work of Hugh Everett III at all?


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## Vox Gabrieli (Jan 9, 2017)

If you allow me to break the rules for a moment, I would like to pick the best piece for the creation of the world.

Shostakovich Symphony No. 12 Final Movement: Dawn of Humanity.

Very fitting! 

To jump on the band wagon, Das Lied Von Der Erde.


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

I like the idea of a quiet ending - a wimper rather than a bang - so definitely the close of VW's 6th, and Faure's Requiem.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Arvo Pärt's _Tabula Rasa_, particularly the last half, strikes me as perfect music for the end of the universe - if one believes, as some cosmologists have suggested, the end will be endless expansion, dispersal of galaxies until none is perceptible from another, and all will grow cold. Forever.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

_Viimeiselle,_ "To the Last Living Being" (Aarre Merikanto).






The text is too long to type out, but the last stanzas read:

Open your starving mouth and cry,
you searing spark
from the spent fire of life!

Take him, the Unknown,
our tears and our frustration
and our everlasting curse,
we, whose dust and whose names
no one knows, no one.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Eleanor Steber "Au cimetière" Berlioz

And at the very end we all (well, most of us) ending up at the cemetery.
Peace and quiet, at last.


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## Ivanbeeth (Nov 30, 2015)

Thank you all for your suggestions!!! I'll try to listen to most of them, because there are so many, I'm currently listening to Mahler's 6th, and its andante depicts for me a hardworking village that is being destroyed.


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

Here comes the end of the world - British Invasion Style:




Here it comes again:




and again, this time with Orff doing the honors:


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## KJ von NNJ (Oct 13, 2017)

The final movement of Mahler 9. Not that I hear it as the end of the world. It's really more individual-based to an "end". 
The end of the world would most likely take a lot of time after the fatal blow, whatever it might be. So, the end of Mahler's 9th in this context would be the ebbing away of life on the planet. The earth becoming like Venus, Mars or the Moon. It is a horrific thought. Yikes! I very much prefer the 9th's final movement to be what I hear it to be; a farewell to love, or an individual's farewell to the world. The consoling aspect is that it could be anything one wishes it to be upon hearing it.

I'm not sure of the exact quote by Mahler, but he suggested quite simply that the 9th was "a nice addition to my little family". I feel that the first movement of the 9th is the greatest movement of music Mahler ever wrote. He was composing on a remarkably high plain when he wrote it. Like a great arch, structurally advanced and miraculously arranged.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

When (If) the end comes...maybe the Yellowstone plateau blows up, the nut job in N. Korea loses control, some new horrific virus starts to wipe us out...I'm going to listen to Franz Schmidt's 4th symphony. There's nothing more appropriate to take me into the next world...if there is one.


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