Alexander Hawkins Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 I don't know about the major/minor key, but I consider these "dark sounding": Prokofiev's Second symphony (unlike his First). Scriabin's piano sonatas Mahler's 10th symphony (as completed by verious musicologists) ← The Scriabin were what first occurred to me on reading this thread. 'Vers La Flamme' could be included alongside the sonatas. A couple of others: Bartok - 'Bluebeard's Castle' Rachmaninov's 'Isle of the Dead' And a bit of a wildcard: Marcel Dupre - the 'Crucifixus' from the 'Symphonie-Passion' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vibes Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Vaughan Williams, symphony no. 6 is a rather dark piece. Find the Abravanel/Utah Symphony Orchestra version, if you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 I personally don't think of the Satie as "picnic music" in any way, even in comparison to those brood-meisterworks. It's deeper than the surface would seem, not unlike some of the jazz music we love, and I just thought I'd throw it into the mix as I honestly don't feel it will disappoint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Berger Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Damn, Try Bach, Beethoven, etc. Stick to the more austere forms -- solo instruments, string quartets -- and they should at least approximate your cup of tea. Just skip the romantics and you'll be pretty much assured of astringent angst, rectilinear rigor, and depressing dolor. I think Kalo's suggestion of smaller ensembles is right on the money -- in chamber ensembles or solo performances, there's less of the "bombast" that MD wanted to avoid. Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Gone Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Schoenberg, Verklarte Nacht - (spelling?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.A.W. Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Vaughan Williams, symphony no. 6 is a rather dark piece. Find the Abravanel/Utah Symphony Orchestra version, if you can. ← The performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Bernard Haitink (EMI) is my favorite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.A.W. Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Schoenberg, Verklarte Nacht - (spelling?) ← The performances of Verklärte Nacht by the Hollywood String Quartet (Testament), the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (DG), and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan (DG), though very different, are my favorites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Black Angels by George Crumb It's probably already been mentioned by someone, but it's the first thing that came to mind. Doesn't get much "darker" than that. I think that classical music is like wine. You've got to forget the (often pretentious) subculture that surrounds it. Just enjoy what's enjoyable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert J Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Although it becomes a little uplifting in the end with the vocal frenzy, Avro Part's Te Deum has a darkly sonic introduction and sustains that mood throughout (pretty dark for a hymn of praise in fact). Another Vaughan Williams selection, symphony #2, the London Symphony is very dark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Another Vaughan Williams selection, symphony #2, the London Symphony is very dark. ← Compared with VW6 already mentioned it's positively celebratory. It has a bit of the old London fog about it at start and finish but I hardly hear it as dark. Brooding, perhaps, in places. VW4, by contast, is pretty bleak. Very much music written with the threat of WWII in the backround. Walton's First Symphony falls into that same area. Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem too. Frank Bridge's 'Oration' for cello and orchestra, in memory of the fallen of WWI, is another superb bleak piece. I suppose the Britten 'War Requiem' falls there too, though it does attempt some light at the end. Malcolm Arnold's symphonies have a quite different take on bleak - he suffers from terrible depression and has tried to take his own life (there's a family history of this). His music can be incredibly bright and tuneful; but he often deliberately subverts his best melodies with discordant interjections. His last symphony is a real downer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 hey, how did you get that Umlaut? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartyJazz Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Interesting classical music for those who love the near or more avant garde jazz sounds is that composed by Edgar Varese, esp. "Ameriques". Don't know if the Abravanel/Utah Symphony Orchestra version is available on CD, but it's very worth finding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.A.W. Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 hey, how did you get that Umlaut? ← My European keyboard has one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.A.W. Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 hey, how did you get that Umlaut? ← My European keyboard has one ← I don't know if it works with your keyboard, but press the upper case " key first and then the lower case a. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 And then there's Xenakis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Johnson Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 (edited) Close-- type <control :> and then the vowel of choice. hey, how did you get that Umlaut? ← My European keyboard has one ← I don't know if it works with your keyboard, but press the upper case " key first and then the lower case a. ← Edited October 17, 2005 by Peter Johnson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert J Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Bev - you may be right - re VW#2 - I'm going from aural memory here at work. It perhaps was just the intro. I remember playing it for the first time on LP and my roomate called it "morbid". Got to love those business majors! I stand by the Part though. (no Umlauts on my laptop) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WD45 Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 ö Alt + 0246 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Bev - you may be right - re VW#2 - I'm going from aural memory here at work. It perhaps was just the intro. I remember playing it for the first time on LP and my roomate called it "morbid". Got to love those business majors! I stand by the Part though. (no Umlauts on my laptop) ← I seem to recall all classical music sounded morbid to me before it clicked! VW2 goes from foggy London (with chimes of Big Ben) through the bustle of a London morning, a quiet wander round some of the calmer bits and back to something quite triumphant before sinking into the fog again. I could see how the slow movement might seem a bit gloomy to an unsympathetic ear. Another good gloomer is Holst's evocation of Hardy's 'Egdon Heath', complete with phantom morris dancers! The last movement of Mahler 6 is another good wrist-slasher. And how about the whole of Janacek's 'From the House of the Dead'? Or Richard Strauss' 'Elektra' or 'Salome.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalo Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 I personally don't think of the Satie as "picnic music" in any way, even in comparison to those brood-meisterworks. It's deeper than the surface would seem, not unlike some of the jazz music we love, and I just thought I'd throw it into the mix as I honestly don't feel it will disappoint. ← I wasn't meaning to put Satie down at all. I'm a big fan, in fact. He's just lighter and more playful than the others mentioned, which doesn't mean he's less deep in any way. Also, he's French, and somehow I think of picnics as being a French thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.A.W. Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 ...somehow I think of picnics as being a French thing. ← I think picnics are more a French and English thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Clem! Welcome back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2005 Report Share Posted October 18, 2005 There are a number of pieces with dark parts to them, but which aren't completely dark. Symphony Fantastique contrasts light and dark pretty well (and has one *great* dark section) staying in the generally f*cked up as it goes along. But it may be that you've already heard this in movies and such already. Try -- Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain Liszt -- Mephisto Waltz; Totentanz Webern -- Passacaglia for Orchestra (but Webern tends toward the dark in general) Bartok -- Music For Strings, Percussion & Celesta (someone mentioned the string quartets, but those aren't really "dark" so much as wildly dissonant and twisted. This is a genuinely dark Bartok piece). Hmm. May as well grab King Crimson's "Larks Tongues in Aspic" and "Red" while you're at it, too, since I just listed a number of influences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted October 18, 2005 Report Share Posted October 18, 2005 Clem! Welcome back. ← What he said! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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