# Bechara El-Khoury -- prince of darkness



## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

Bechara El-Khoury is perhaps the darkest, gloomiest classical composer I am aware of.

I was first introduced to El-Khoury, way back in 2006, in a Naxos podcast dedicated to the composer. (It's hard to find old Naxos podcasts, but you can grab some while you can on archive.org). Here's that podcast:
https://archive.org/details/NaxosClassicalMusicSpotlight_21
Definitely worth 19 min of your time!

Hats off to Naxos for offering El-Khoury's material. Some of the recordings are from as far back as the early 1980s (recorded in France).
There are only about half a dozen CDs avail, and the composer has a small opus. But, IMO, all of high quality. If you're interested in El-Khoury's music, you can sample on YouTube.

One of the composer's most notable works is New York: Hope and Tears. A tone poem depicting the 9/11 Twin Tower attack. Note, *each* Tower hit is depicted.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

In 2003 there was a composition contest called the Masterprize [sic] where there were 6 pieces published on a CD and the public got to vote on the winner. I have the CD which was distributed by Classic FM and the Gramophone magazine. One of the pieces was by El Khoury 'Les Fleuves Engloutis', a 14minute work from 2001 where the 5 movements were 'Fog, "Song of Silence', 'Alert', 'Struggle' and 'Song of the Rivers'. I don't know all the results of the contest other than it was won by Christopher Theofanidas with 'Rainbow Body'.


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