# Dark and eerie piano pieces



## MagicMarker

Hi, could you please suggest some DARK and EERIE piano pieces for me? 
I've been researching on the net and have come across these composers:
- Rachmaninoff
- Beethoven
- Chopin
- Tchaikovsky
- Liszt
- Ravel
- Scriabin
They are NOT what I'm looking for. Please do not suggest any works by these people.

I'm looking for pieces that focus on using the lower register of the piano (using lots of low notes - including the really really low notes on the piano). It's difficult to find.

I hope you are able to help me.

Thank you.


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## Curiosity

These maybe?


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## Sid James

I'm thinking *Messiaen's* _*Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus *_(20 Contemplations of the Infant Jesus), (1944). This is quite a dark work written towards the end of WW2, as Messiaen was experiencing the deprivations & bombings & all that in Paris leading up the the liberation. Don't listen to it if you're depressed  !!! I have it on disc played by Michel Beroff. A long work comprising many pieces, it lasts for about 90 minutes at least. I can't recommend any particular piece from the set as I'm not hugely familiar with it as yet, but here's some of it played by Pierre-Laurent Aimard (one of the main bell-like themes comes up slightly after the 4 minute mark) -


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## MagicMarker

Thanks for the suggestions.

I really like this piece.





If you could suggest similar works, that would be much appreciated.


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## Curiosity

I wouldn't call that Nyman piece dark - I'd call it lightweight personally, certainly compared to the depths of darkness the composers listed in the OP have plunged into!


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## Comistra

MagicMarker said:


> Thanks for the suggestions.
> 
> I really like this piece.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If you could suggest similar works, that would be much appreciated.


You might like some of the music from Joseph Rojo's "Dream Seeker" album. There are a few tracks you can listen to in full here, and previews (as well as MP3s for purchase) here. This was the first thing that I thought of upon hearing that Nyman piece.

I'd also recommend Dvořák's Humoresques, but that might just be a personal bias showing through.


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## clavichorder

Brahms makes wonderful use of the base in the piano, and I recommend this piece because I'm listening to it right now 




Medtner can have a certain mysticism to him and he like Brahms is intensely thick and makes use of those base notes.


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## clavichorder

Or perhaps this Medtner piece, its also in A minor like the work you liked above and is really haunting


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## HarpsichordConcerto

_Mists_ (1981) by Iannis Xenakis would work well for a slasher-horror movie? Something chilling about the sounds produced. I'll give it some credit for that.


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## regressivetransphobe

It seems like all I do is pimp Satie lately, but


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## notesetter

Jean Sibelius - 3 Lyric Pieces 'Kyllikki'

Kyllikki was a figure in Finnish mythology, and as with many such legends, is surrounded by a sense of evil. The only problem is that the piece may be too subtle for your desires, but dark and contemplative it definitely is. It's worth a listen:





3 parts - one for each movement


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## kv466

Not exactly my favorite performance of this but very close...Earl Wild did it precisely right


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## Argus

If you find minor seconds dark and eerie, then this is for you:






Or maybe something a bit more melodic:


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## tdc

Maybe try some Rodrigo and Falla:


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## LordBlackudder




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## CMBurns




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## SuperTonic

Much of Barber's Piano Sonata is very dark. Here's the first movement:





Ginastera also wrote a lot of dark piano music. Here are the middle movements from his Piano Sonata No. 1:


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## euhsignor

*Dark/Eerie Along The Lines of Nieman*

You would want to check out Gattaca's Original SoundTrack, which was created by the same man who wrote the music you presented to us for comparison (Michael Nyman).


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## GGluek

Many parts of George Crumb's various sets of "Makrokosmos" would fit your requirements nicely.


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## BurningDesire

I actually have an idea for a dark, eerie piano piece. The subject of the piece would be The Lich, from the series Adventure Time :3 I could share that should it ever get made.

As for other composers' music, I think a fair amount of Ligeti's piano pieces (particularly the Etudes) fit this, and definitely George Crumb. Crumb is a genius with intense, colorful piano writing. Elliot Carter's Night Fantasies is pretty awesome too. Maybe check out Charles Ives' Piano Sonata No. 2, particularly the first and last movements, which have alot of grim intensity to them, but I usually here it more as attitude, rather than something really dark (still one of the best things ever written for the instrument). Erik Satie's Vexations has a very mysterious, eerie quality about it, especially when you listen to one of the elongated versions of it. It makes me wonder if he wasn't just a bit serious about the performance instruction of performing it 840 times in succession. You may also be interested in the piano music of Schoenberg and Webern.


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## DeepR

MagicMarker said:


> Hi, could you please suggest some DARK and EERIE piano pieces for me?
> I've been researching on the net and have come across these composers:
> - Scriabin
> They are NOT what I'm looking for. Please do not suggest any works by these people.


Oh, really?
















/thread


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## Alydon

If you want something eerie try Debussy's,Des pas sur las neige, (Footsteps in the snow) from Book 1 of the Preludes. This piece never fails to chill me - it's haunting yet beautiful.


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## KenOC

Has anybody mentioned the last movement of Chopin's 2nd Piano Sonata? "...like the wind blowing over a graveyard..."


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## drpraetorus

some suggstions:
Bach: Well Tempered Clavier Book 1 Prelude and fugue #8 in Eb Minor


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## drpraetorus

de Falla: Ritual Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo




Gottschalk: Souvenir de Porto Rico




Lecuona: Malaguena


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## drpraetorus

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, piano transcription




Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition: Gnomus




Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition: The Hut on Chicken Legs.


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