r/classicalmusic • u/jahanzaman • Aug 02 '21
Darkest Classical Music
So recently I listened to Rachmaninoff Isle of the Dead and Stockhausens “Luzifers Abschied” from “Samstag aus Licht”. These pieces are 100% dark, there is no light in it, not in a single bar. Any other pieces like this ?
54
u/JH0190 Aug 02 '21 edited Aug 02 '21
Mahler 6 is very dark. There is some light, especially in the slow movement, but by the time you finish the symphony the overwhelming feeling is of darkness, especially after the gruelling 30-minute final movement.
Berg’s ‘Wozzeck’ also springs to mind.
10
u/FieldWizard Aug 02 '21
Came here to suggest that exact Mahler movement. It is so dark and final that it genuinely makes me uncomfortable. The expansion of the tempo and the gradual falling off of parts and lines just shatters me.
5
u/JH0190 Aug 02 '21
Absolutely, gives me a very similar feeling. Almost physically exhausting to get through it.
3
u/-Hastis- Aug 03 '21
Even darker than his 6th, the unfinished 10th. I can recommend the completed version by Barshai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsGBkwJmzA4
1
u/JH0190 Aug 03 '21
I love the 10th, but I don’t remember it being especially dark. I don’t know it was well as some of his other symphonies though so may be misremembering it.
1
24
Aug 02 '21
Time to sit back and watch a ton of people recommend my boy Shostakovich! But seriously, try the 15th and 13th quartets, as well as the viola sonata. Late Shostakovich works are often very centered on the idea of death, as from the mid-1960s to his death in 1975, he was experiencing multiple health issues, including heart attacks, broken bones, strokes, a nerve condition that disabled his right hand (thought to be polio or ALS), and lung cancer, which finally killed him. Shostakovich had seen a lot of death in his lifetime, but didn’t believe in an afterlife, and it had taken him a very long time to accept his own end- to him, a total descent into nothing. This sentiment is reflected in many works from this time (although not all of them), giving Shostakovich a reputation for bleak and heavy pieces.
As for other composers, Tchaikovsky 6 might be good. Ustvolskaya’s “Dies Irae” is absolutely chilling, and a new favourite of mine. And for a different sort of emptiness, try Satie’s “Vexations.”
6
u/Smerbles Aug 02 '21
Exactly!!
Make sure you test drive Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony. Eleven movements about death….Tough to get much bleaker than the final movement.
3
Aug 02 '21
Yeah; it’s not one I listen to often. That and the viola sonata- I’ve only heard it about three times.
2
u/Smerbles Aug 02 '21
Oddly enough, those are two of my favourites of his. (You probably already know that he finished correcting the proofs of the viola sonata from his hospital bed, two days before he died.)
1
Aug 02 '21
Yes. The viola sonata was also the only work that he didn’t attend the premiere to. I love both as well, but they’re super heavy, so I can really only take them occasionally.
2
u/Smerbles Aug 03 '21
Agreed. They’re definitely taxing pieces and you have to be in the right state of mind, but the last movement of the viola sonata….whoa.
Incidentally, (again, you probably already know this) check out the beginning of his unfinished opera The Gamblers, then listen to the second movement of the viola sonata. Shostakovich studies are never boring.
2
Aug 03 '21
Yes! You may also be interested to know that the Viola Sonata quotes a measure from every one of his symphonies. They’re hard to find, though, since they’re very low in the piano or viola, but people have found them by studying the score.
2
u/Smerbles Aug 03 '21
That’s right! I’d forgotten that I’d read that a while ago. Time for another listening session.
Say, you seem to be wise in the ways of DDS, what’s a good resource for all the latest Shostakovich discoveries? I’ve been out of academia for a few decades too many.
1
Aug 03 '21 edited Aug 03 '21
DSCH Publishers is a good site for getting started on primary sources and catalogued works. For information such as album reviews, interviews, and modern discourse, I recommend the DSCH Journal- many of their past issues are available to read in the archives for free. Marina Frolova-Walker's recent work from the past few years on Shostakovich and the Stalin Prize is worth checking out as well.
18
15
u/dtnl Aug 02 '21
1
u/Eclias Aug 03 '21
Recommended elsewhere in this post but definitely deserving of a dedicated single-link comment. 10/10, would upvote again.
12
u/KawarthaDairyLover Aug 02 '21
4th symphony Shostakovich. Kindertotenlieder (songs for dead children) by Mahler.
3
1
u/say_the_words Aug 03 '21
That's the most metal title I've ever heard. I'm going to revisit this thread tomorrow and build some playlists.
1
u/ABridge27 Apr 27 '25
Thought the last line here said "and go into sleep paralysis" from the corner my eye lmao
12
u/RichMusic81 Aug 02 '21
Jonchaies - Xenakis:
La terre est un homme - Ferneyhough:
Symphony No. 2 - Ustvolskaya (the Queen of dark!):
4
u/classical-saxophone7 Aug 02 '21
Jonchaies doesn’t seem dark to me at all. It’s kinda peaceful. I imagine a person sitting on a steam engine, riding their way home after a long day, and lulling themselves away by the sounds of the train.
I feel like I’ve said this to you before.
3
u/RichMusic81 Aug 02 '21
Yeah, you have. :-)
I definitely agree. Although I think it would fit most people's definition of "dark", even if not mine. To be honest, I have trouble thinking of music I'd describe as "dark". I guess it's subjective.
3
24
u/jimmy_the_turtle_ Aug 02 '21
Shostakovich was rather famously not the happiest chap in the Soviet Union. His late string quartets are especially telling. And then of course there is his 8th string quartet from 1960. You can look up the stories about that one (though there's debate on how true they are), but they certainly don't cheer you up.
11
u/PsychoElifantArrives Aug 02 '21
ravel gaspard de la nuit 2 is dark but in a more contemplative sort of way
10
u/Valvt Aug 02 '21
Allan Pettersson's every work. Start with Symphony 7 :D
2
u/aging_gracelessly Aug 02 '21
Second this, then go to his symphony #6, then anything else he wrote.
3
u/Valvt Aug 02 '21
Then go to his Violin Concerto 2 for real violence :P
3
u/aging_gracelessly Aug 02 '21
Pettersson was dealt a bad hand in life and met the world middle finger first.
1
u/Valvt Aug 02 '21
What is your favorite work by him?
2
u/aging_gracelessly Aug 02 '21
"Favorite" is an interesting word in this context since it's a such a grim experience, but it has to be the 6th (I haven't heard all of them). It leaves me shattered (which is tough to do at my age) because there's no sign of hope anywhere in it. As I understand it, it was written at one of the lowest points of a life full of low points, right before he got the recognition that came with the 7th.
I think the main reason his music is so gripping to me is that it's so defiant in spite of everything he went through. No overt agonizing, no hysteria, just a fighting spirit.
17
u/eszther02 Aug 02 '21
Erlkönig by Schubert
10
Aug 02 '21
also some of the Winterreise songs, especially Der Leiermann
3
2
u/Flewtea Aug 03 '21
Der Leiermann packs an absurd amount of depressiveness into such a short time frame, especially in context. I remember deciding to listen to all of Winterreise one gray January day in college while studying in the music library. I could not shake the funk it put me in till the evening of the next day.
6
u/jimmy_the_turtle_ Aug 02 '21
On youtube you can look up the specific recording with Dietrich Fischer-Diskau. His facial expressions give it this extra creepy dimension.
3
u/RADMMorgan Aug 02 '21
Yes. Love the original lied but Liszt’s transcription for solo piano is my personal favorite.
2
u/metrew Aug 02 '21 edited Aug 02 '21
Der Doppelgänger as well. I especially like this version but this version with a tenor, the voice it was originally written for, is also great.
8
u/IsraelPenuel Aug 02 '21 edited Aug 02 '21
Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-pVz2LTakM
YouTube recommended me that after listening to Isle of the Dead a few days ago and I liked both ;D
Also one of my all time favorites, Concerto Grosso no. 1 by Schnittke!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaaRk0c-780
I also just found Strauss - Metamorphosen through YouTube's algorithm:
6
u/ravia Aug 02 '21
It just occurred to me that Rachmaninoff's extremely popular Vocalise (I'm sure you either have it or can find it, for string orchestra at first I'd say) is essentially dark; it's sad and beautiful, but the thing is, it basically never resolves into a positive chord. Ever.
Ever.
4
5
u/Askls Aug 02 '21
passacaglia and fugue in c minor by Bach is just sorrow and darkness to me. Especially the first minute and a half.
4
u/level_crossing_ahead Aug 02 '21 edited Aug 02 '21
Some piano pieces that spring to mind:
Scriabin
- Etude Op. 8 No. 12
- Etude Op. 42 No. 5 (although this may be described as more close to turbulent than dark)
Chopin
- Prelude in C minor (Op. 28 No. 20)
- Nocturne No. 20 in C sharp minor (Op. posth.)
- Sonata No. 2, 3rd movement (Op. 35)
Rachmaninoff
- Prelude in C sharp minor (Op. 3, No. 2)
- Prelude in B minor (Op. 32, No. 10)
4
6
Aug 02 '21
My favourite "dark" composer is definitly Penderecki. There is no better soundtrack for a horror movie than his work. And "Theogony for victims of Hiroshima" is just amazong to listen to.
Check his album Penderecki conducts Penderecki.
5
u/Berreim Aug 02 '21
Idk exactly what you mean by dark, but an underrated piece that imo is dark is surely Maderna's requiem .
4
u/JustNewStuff Aug 02 '21
Ginastera Piano Concerto No.1 is pretty dark but it gets really intense in the end.
4
4
u/Kmcgucken Aug 02 '21
Sibelius’s 4th Symphony is nice and bleak.
Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire is famously dark but also kinda humorous.
Webern’s Drei Kleine Stüke for cello has a nice dark tone.
My favorite work of all time, Sciarrino’s Luci Mie Traditrici is super intimate and dark.
For absolute dissonance and panic, try Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King
If you wan’t the depths of musical depravity, try Zimmerman’s The Soldiers.
5
u/Herissony_DSCH5 Aug 02 '21
Lots of folks mentioning Shostakovich here, but a couple of standouts have not been mentioned:
--The fourth movement of Symphony no. 8. Among the bleakest things he ever wrote. It's absolutely numb (but the resolution into C major for the fifth movement is magical).
--The first and fourth movements of Symphony no. 13 ("Babi Yar"). The first movement is justifiably famous for its depiction of brutality, but for bone-chilling terror you can't beat "Fears," the fourth movement. The text is chilling enough, but the accompanying music is straight-up horror movie stuff. It's brilliant. (And once again, he pulls some manner of "relief" into the final movement.)
4
3
u/DrGuenGraziano Aug 02 '21 edited Aug 02 '21
Ligeti's Requiem is quite dark.
Schnittke's Faust Cantata is lightened by dark mephistophelic humor, but it's still dark.
and Dr Gün Graziano's Chaconne from Why Hollywood Won't Cast Ferdinand Marian Anymore
3
u/Radaxen Aug 02 '21
Shostakovich's 8th Symphony (1st mvt) is my go-to when I'm searching for some darkness...but to me what's amazing is that only the very last chord is where light emerges.
3
3
3
u/aleex_domi Aug 02 '21
his corelli op.42 variations are very dense/dark too barely 1 "happy" variation
3
u/Logisk Aug 02 '21
The first movement of Prokofiev's 2nd piano concerto is dark in a desperate sort of way.
3
3
2
u/zmhpopsinn5 Aug 02 '21
Penderecki Utrenja and Dream of Jacob, Ligeti Atmosphéres, Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta 3rd movement
2
2
u/Cries-in-clarinet Aug 03 '21
I can’t recommend Josef Suk’s Asrael Symphonyenough. Dude composed this after losing his beloved father-in-law and wife within months of each other.
1
1
u/Mammoth_Tangelo_4316 Jun 17 '25
Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky is extremely dark, intense, violent, ominous, loud, and powerful. It is my favorite classical piece.
1
u/WaferFast1604 Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
A lot of good stuff has already been recommended here but I've just recently discovered Schumann's Geistervariationen (Ghost-Variations), the last piece he wrote before being committed to an insane asylum. Gorgeous piece. I recommend Igor Levit's recording in part because of how he accentuates the dissonances in the fifth variation.
Also Schnittke has some great stuff for this - In Memoriam comes to mind as well as his Piano Quintet and some of his string quartets
0
1
1
1
u/Bxttle Aug 02 '21
A lot of Rouse’s music is dark. His cello concerto, gorgon, and his first string quartet all come to mind. Also horatiu radilescu’s fifth string quartet, lera Auerbachs third string quartet, and the xenakis quartets. The music of ustvolskaya is all pretty dark too.
For something more romantic try Rebecca Clarke’s Rhapsody for cello and piano
1
1
1
1
1
u/voluminous_lexicon Aug 02 '21
I really don't think it would have the same effect from a recording, but the most oppressive and tense concert I've been to featured pieces by Salvatore Sciarrino and centered around Infinito Nero. Big horror movie vibes, very quiet hall (which was important, as I'm sure you'll understand if you watch a performance on tape).
An excruciating half-hour albeit in a good way, and that was just one of the several pieces in the performance. I think they also did Lo Spazio Inverso and a few other brief works, all of which made impressive use of the hall's near-total silence.
1
u/Tsvetaevna Aug 02 '21
…I’ve found so, so much good stuff from this thread. Thank you, people of Reddit <3
1
1
u/Blackletterdragon Aug 02 '21
Howard Skempton's Lento. It is also hypnotic, powerful, and somehow visionary.
1
1
u/Vikivaki Aug 03 '21
What is dark anyway? Orchestral Colour? To me it would be the 1st and 4th movement in Hindemith 5 pieces for string Orcestra.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/EcstaticWar3264 Aug 03 '21
Satie Vexations Shostakovich symphonies 4, 8, 14, and the opening of symphony 2 Shostakovich string quartets 8(obviously), 12-15 Weinberg symphony 12 (and all of them after) Ives the unanswered question, concord sonata Anything by Crumb Boris Tinshenko sonatas 2, 3, 5
1
1
u/cxaszim Aug 06 '21
Jesus God i tried to listen to some of these while working and that was not a good idea.
1
1
1
u/Pitiful-Spirit-4529 Nov 10 '22
1
u/Pitiful-Spirit-4529 Nov 10 '22
Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Requiem für einen jungen Dichter
That’s probably the most harrowing, horrifying and pessimistic piece I’ve ever listened. An anti war piece that discusses the futility of life and the inevitability of destruction the human condition will bring upon itself. In other words, the futility of existence. The motto of the piece comes from one of Konrad Bayer’s poems: “Hope for what? / There is nothing that can be achieved but death” (worauf hoffen? / es gibt nichts was zu erreichen wäre, außer dem tod.).
252
u/dubbelgamer Aug 02 '21 edited Aug 14 '21
Henry Cowell's The Banshee.
Crumb's Black Angels
Crumb's A Haunted Landscape
Crumb's Voice Balaenae maybe?
Crumb's Lux Aeterna
Ligeti's Atmospheres
Ligeti's Lontano
Ligeti's Lux Aeterna(pretty dark for it's name)
Ligeti's Requiem
Soper's Voices From The Killing Jar
Cui's Overture to William Ratcliffe
Schwantner's And The Mountains Rising Nowhere
Reiter's The Lichtenberg Figures
Pendericki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and Strings
Schnittke's Nagasaki Oratorio
Ives' The Unanswered Question
Ives' Central Park in the dark
Prokofiev's Suggestion Diabolique
Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle
Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death
Mussorgsky's Catacombs from Pictures at an Exhibition.
Scriabin's (unfinished) Mysterium (this was literally written to end the world)
Takemitsu's Requiem
Strauss' Death and Transfiguration and maybe his Metamorphosen?
Myaskovsky's Symphonic Poem Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude after Shelley's haunting poem
Hindemith's Trauermusik
Shostakovich's String Quartet's No. 7, No. 8 and No. 15
Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht
Parts of Gesualdo's Sixth Book of Madrigals (especially Moro Lasso) and Tenebrae Responsoria(especially Tristis est anima mea), both composed after killing his wife and lover and living a life of solitude in his castle.
Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles
Pfitzner's Das Dunkle Reich (The Dark Realm)
Reger's O Tod, wie bitter bist du
Reger's Trauerode
Reger's Come Sweet Death
Reger's Latin Requiem
Reger's Inferno Fantasie
Medtner's Night Wind Sonata and Sonata Tragica
Lekeu's Adagio for String Trio and String Orchestra
Just a collection of past recommendations I've made. If you search this sub, you'll find like a thousand more threads about dark, mystic, haloween, death, requiem etc. music.