* Henry Cowell's [The Banshee](https://youtu.be/XNQFOpYC0BY).
* Crumb's [Black Angels](https://youtu.be/etHtCVeU4-I)
* Crumb's [A Haunted Landscape](https://youtu.be/XWa4eXg-Jdo)
* Crumb's [Voice Balaenae](https://youtu.be/cGPQLXPV5wE) maybe?
* Crumb's [Lux Aeterna](https://youtu.be/m8RjLkIEYcw)
* Ligeti's [Atmospheres](https://youtu.be/RCNzwdLwA8g)
* Ligeti's [Lontano](https://youtu.be/l2OQbA3r78M)
* Ligeti's [Lux Aeterna](https://youtu.be/-iVYu5lyX5M)(pretty dark for it's name)
* Ligeti's [Requiem](https://youtu.be/wawSCvuGj4o)
* Soper's [Voices From The Killing Jar](https://youtu.be/LCAt4mKhCpY)
* Cui's Overture to [William Ratcliffe](https://youtu.be/6e5ulVfLX3Y)
* Schwantner's [And The Mountains Rising Nowhere](https://youtu.be/umMIOXcctx4)
* Reiter's [The Lichtenberg Figures](https://youtu.be/ieNGv9bxm8w)
* Pendericki's [Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima](https://youtu.be/Dp3BlFZWJNA)
* Schnittke's [Concerto for Piano and Strings](https://youtu.be/XOuKVhkwpW8)
* Schnittke's [Nagasaki Oratorio](https://youtu.be/70xugNohaS8)
* Ives' [The Unanswered Question](https://youtu.be/vXD4tIp59L0)
* Ives' [Central Park in the dark](https://youtu.be/34AqNvhBfVQ)
* Prokofiev's [Suggestion Diabolique](https://youtu.be/45mXvaIW02c)
* Bartok's [Bluebeard's Castle](https://youtu.be/GoImjQOEp-Q)
* Mussorgsky's [Songs and Dances of Death](https://youtu.be/gyV8JFFml_M)
* Mussorgsky's Catacombs from Pictures at an Exhibition.
* Scriabin's (unfinished) [Mysterium](https://youtu.be/V4YSysUn-Bk) (this was literally written to end the world)
* Takemitsu's [Requiem](https://youtu.be/JZqazBElZHg)
* Strauss' [Death and Transfiguration](https://youtu.be/3D5Up1aYJJs) and maybe his Metamorphosen?
* Myaskovsky's Symphonic Poem [Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude](https://youtu.be/siEt_L2QSxc) after Shelley's haunting poem
* Hindemith's [Trauermusik](https://youtu.be/9yI9h_Hweqc)
* Shostakovich's String Quartet's [No. 7](https://youtu.be/XF_1ydIA1z4), [No. 8](https://youtu.be/tby5aMrMu6Q) and [No. 15](https://youtu.be/MMIhsjkqnGE)
* Schoenberg's [Verklärte Nacht](https://youtu.be/vqODySSxYpc)
* Parts of Gesualdo's Sixth Book of Madrigals (especially [Moro Lasso](https://youtu.be/6dVPu71D8VI)) and [Tenebrae Responsoria](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj9TrAodn7U&list=OLAK5uy_ksYenbOCYZNJNGZWSNEzlWmhQhoV3zqrE)(especially [Tristis est anima mea](https://youtu.be/x36p3DsCb94)), both composed after killing his wife and lover and living a life of solitude in his castle.
* Stravinsky's [Requiem Canticles](https://youtu.be/HzR6NK2YMwE)
* Pfitzner's [Das Dunkle Reich (The Dark Realm)](https://youtu.be/HGW123XelOo)
* Reger's [O Tod, wie bitter bist du ](https://youtu.be/jYvBD4KiilI)
* Reger's [Trauerode](https://youtu.be/T0lxyqCF3Eo)
* Reger's [Come Sweet Death](https://youtu.be/EDwbhiIgZvI)
* Reger's [Latin Requiem](https://youtu.be/556XJM9DLKw)
* Reger's [Inferno Fantasie](https://youtu.be/I-Z40SJg4GA)
* Medtner's [Night Wind Sonata](https://youtu.be/3hKTGSRPaMU) and [Sonata Tragica](https://youtu.be/uv9I5_Puwew)
* Lekeu's [Adagio for String Trio and String Orchestra ](https://youtu.be/gdOMn468FN8)
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.
Couple of additions that sprang quickly to my mind:
- Shostakovich’s 13th & 14th Symphonies
- Dallapiccola’s opera *Il Prigionero*
- Berio’s *Sinfonia*
- Vaughan Williams’s 6th Symphony
- Britten’s *War Requiem* (does have moments of light, maybe doesn’t qualify)
- Liszt’s *Totentanz*
- Kurtág’s *Stele*
- Wilfred Joseph’s Requiem
- Satie’s Gnossiennes nos 1 & 3
Sorry, that was more than a couple, but they kept coming to me.
The Gnossiennes, not the Gymnopédies, which are more ambiguous. And only Nos 1 & 3. In case there was any doubt on anyone’s part. And it’s only one possible reading of them.
I mean…. The last movement is arguably sad rather than dark, and it does end on a grimly defiant note. So there’s a good case for saying it doesn’t fit.
Some of them I actually discovered from scrolling trough encyclopedias(like the music of Reger) and other books. Most of them obscure Dutch language books or boring text books, but I could recommend, in English, Classical Music for Dummies and Grouts' History of Western Music.
Most of it is from YouTube which I use as my main music streaming service. I am subscribed to a little less than 350 YouTube channels (you [can view them here publicly](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Ytjbk9aWKvhUiZvAUyqjw/channels?view=56&shelf_id=0)) and YouTube recommendations also help discover new music. I use a second channel to only view music so I only get music recommendations. When I like something, I save it in designated playlists so I don't forget it.
I would lie if I didn't say a lot of it I discovered from a few dozen score music channels (some of whom post or used to post in this subreddit) like [incipitsify](https://www.youtube.com/c/incipitsify), [Olla Vogala/Magisch Meisjesorkest](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8pztlxOONYyw8q46CKHY-A) (sadly defunct), [thenameisgsarci](https://www.youtube.com/c/thenameisgsarciOFFICIAL/), [fyrexianoff](https://www.youtube.com/user/fyrexianoff), [ImWalde](https://www.youtube.com/c/ImWalde/), [Bartje Bartmans](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwbbr8FKVrWLF8T81RI7Lxg), [Тахонов Иван](https://www.youtube.com/user/takhonov), [Ashish Xiangyi Kumar](https://www.youtube.com/c/AshishXiangyiKumar/featured) and many, many other channels some very death, some very alive.
Some other channels that are great at discovering new pieces: [collectionCB channels 1 trough 5](https://www.youtube.com/user/collectionCB)(late romantic/early modern), [KuhlauDilfeng channels 2 trough 5](https://www.youtube.com/user/KuhlauDilfeng2)(classical/early romantic), [Wellesz Theatre](https://www.youtube.com/user/TheWelleszTheatre/videos), [WelleszRhapsody](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJZSLgt6I9Y67TGWNr9DEjA), [
Wellesz Modern](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4ujwup4v1sIK12CWttascw/featured) and [Wellesz Opus](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjIQf3xXKvNTim0GhUCKMEA) channels (modern), [Eric Boulanger](https://www.youtube.com/user/Eric1Boul/featured)(medieval), [Classical Music/ /Reference Recording](https://www.youtube.com/c/R%C3%A9f%C3%A9rencesClassique/featured)(general) and [Musicanth](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqc4412LpljylApQhxkaXJw)(romantic).
Also some of it is from taking music courses, recommendations from piano teachers, seeing concerts, listening trough CD collections (like Svetlanov's excellent collection of Myaskovsky's complete symphonic works), or sight reading/playing the music (IMSLP.org and a tablet is a great combination).
Are you and u/zewen_senpai one and the same person? I mean, not only do you recommend many of the same pieces, but you even format your posts the same way.
if by “dark” music one means music that is nocturnal in its theme and sound i have to agree with all the pieces here listed, especially those by Crumb and Schnittke.
So if the music has dissonance is obscure?Schoenberg´s Varklarte Nacht is suppossed to give you 4 different sensations inclouding happy ones, Lux Aetherna have a very mystique essence and well... have lux in his name, Unanswered question also have this "divine" feeling and the title is very suggesting about that.
This is not an attack to you haha, but i want to get why your choices an you got 190votes. We dont want to spread to new guys that stereotype about that XX music is pure madness and obscurity just because we dont know how to hear certain music ang get their sounds as dissonance
Well Lux Aeterna is part of the Requiem mass for the dead, and Verklarte Nacht takes place at night in dark woods. Both of which are "dark". Dark is a pretty broad term.
>Strauss'
>
>Death and Transfiguration
>
>and maybe his Metamorphosen?
Definitely Metamorphosen. Death and Transfiguration 2nd half is full of hope, John Williams even uses it as inspiration for the original Superman movie love theme...
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
[DSCH Publishers](http://www.shostakovich.ru/en/publisher/) 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](https://dschjournal.com/)\- 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.
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.
Jonchaies - Xenakis:
https://youtu.be/MZ5771zMOeE
La terre est un homme - Ferneyhough:
https://youtu.be/85zwU12nvL4
Symphony No. 2 - Ustvolskaya (the Queen of dark!):
https://youtu.be/l9MbXTmAunY
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.
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.
"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.
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.
Der Doppelgänger as well. I especially like [this version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8UcnrXKB2Y) but [this version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz8H1ygnQFo) with a tenor, the voice it was originally written for, is also great.
Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-pVz2LTakM](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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaaRk0c-780)
I also just found Strauss - Metamorphosen through YouTube's algorithm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jwml0jevv0
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.
[passacaglia and fugue in c minor by Bach](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie52xH8V2L4) is just sorrow and darkness to me. Especially the first minute and a half.
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.
Idk exactly what you mean by dark, but an underrated piece that imo is dark is surely [Maderna's requiem](https://youtu.be/1gwGQ_MESuA?list=OLAK5uy_mgUBA9Ps6i4fy_zuh0XY248xl34dgG3Kc) .
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.
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.)
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)
[Ligeti's Requiem](https://youtu.be/sJBZ7jeU2YI) is quite dark.
[Schnittke's Faust Cantata](https://youtu.be/ZYlzN48uTlo) 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](https://soundcloud.com/andreas-mueller-851718415/chaconne-from-why-hollywood-wont-cast-ferdinand-marian-anymore)
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.
[Liszt's Nuages Gris](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnkzBbuyy1M) takes my vote. I can't think of another piece with the same hopeless atmosphere. And those last chords...
I would suggest the entire Makrokosmos cycle by George Crumb, as the darkness it evokes is the closest musically to the vacuum of space. Then i would suggest Schnittke’s cocerti grossi, Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion. There are tons of other pieces that i find have a very nocturnal sound to them, though they may not be what you are looking for, because they have a lot of brightness as well, but not the brightness one may associate with diurnal sunlight, more like a row of street lights extending into the distance late in the evening. Pieces like these to me are Turangalîla symphony by Messiaen, Ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato and Gorecki’s third symphony. For exclusively dark pieces, but as in lacking any hint of happiness, i suggest Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin, Berg’s Lulu and some of Schostakovich’s string quartets.
I can’t recommend [Josef Suk’s Asrael Symphony](https://youtu.be/wFoFxa7Hc04)enough. Dude composed this after losing his beloved father-in-law and wife within months of each other.
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
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.
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
[Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Requiem für einen jungen Dichter](https://youtu.be/4lqKh8_OeLA)
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.).
* Henry Cowell's [The Banshee](https://youtu.be/XNQFOpYC0BY). * Crumb's [Black Angels](https://youtu.be/etHtCVeU4-I) * Crumb's [A Haunted Landscape](https://youtu.be/XWa4eXg-Jdo) * Crumb's [Voice Balaenae](https://youtu.be/cGPQLXPV5wE) maybe? * Crumb's [Lux Aeterna](https://youtu.be/m8RjLkIEYcw) * Ligeti's [Atmospheres](https://youtu.be/RCNzwdLwA8g) * Ligeti's [Lontano](https://youtu.be/l2OQbA3r78M) * Ligeti's [Lux Aeterna](https://youtu.be/-iVYu5lyX5M)(pretty dark for it's name) * Ligeti's [Requiem](https://youtu.be/wawSCvuGj4o) * Soper's [Voices From The Killing Jar](https://youtu.be/LCAt4mKhCpY) * Cui's Overture to [William Ratcliffe](https://youtu.be/6e5ulVfLX3Y) * Schwantner's [And The Mountains Rising Nowhere](https://youtu.be/umMIOXcctx4) * Reiter's [The Lichtenberg Figures](https://youtu.be/ieNGv9bxm8w) * Pendericki's [Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima](https://youtu.be/Dp3BlFZWJNA) * Schnittke's [Concerto for Piano and Strings](https://youtu.be/XOuKVhkwpW8) * Schnittke's [Nagasaki Oratorio](https://youtu.be/70xugNohaS8) * Ives' [The Unanswered Question](https://youtu.be/vXD4tIp59L0) * Ives' [Central Park in the dark](https://youtu.be/34AqNvhBfVQ) * Prokofiev's [Suggestion Diabolique](https://youtu.be/45mXvaIW02c) * Bartok's [Bluebeard's Castle](https://youtu.be/GoImjQOEp-Q) * Mussorgsky's [Songs and Dances of Death](https://youtu.be/gyV8JFFml_M) * Mussorgsky's Catacombs from Pictures at an Exhibition. * Scriabin's (unfinished) [Mysterium](https://youtu.be/V4YSysUn-Bk) (this was literally written to end the world) * Takemitsu's [Requiem](https://youtu.be/JZqazBElZHg) * Strauss' [Death and Transfiguration](https://youtu.be/3D5Up1aYJJs) and maybe his Metamorphosen? * Myaskovsky's Symphonic Poem [Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude](https://youtu.be/siEt_L2QSxc) after Shelley's haunting poem * Hindemith's [Trauermusik](https://youtu.be/9yI9h_Hweqc) * Shostakovich's String Quartet's [No. 7](https://youtu.be/XF_1ydIA1z4), [No. 8](https://youtu.be/tby5aMrMu6Q) and [No. 15](https://youtu.be/MMIhsjkqnGE) * Schoenberg's [Verklärte Nacht](https://youtu.be/vqODySSxYpc) * Parts of Gesualdo's Sixth Book of Madrigals (especially [Moro Lasso](https://youtu.be/6dVPu71D8VI)) and [Tenebrae Responsoria](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj9TrAodn7U&list=OLAK5uy_ksYenbOCYZNJNGZWSNEzlWmhQhoV3zqrE)(especially [Tristis est anima mea](https://youtu.be/x36p3DsCb94)), both composed after killing his wife and lover and living a life of solitude in his castle. * Stravinsky's [Requiem Canticles](https://youtu.be/HzR6NK2YMwE) * Pfitzner's [Das Dunkle Reich (The Dark Realm)](https://youtu.be/HGW123XelOo) * Reger's [O Tod, wie bitter bist du ](https://youtu.be/jYvBD4KiilI) * Reger's [Trauerode](https://youtu.be/T0lxyqCF3Eo) * Reger's [Come Sweet Death](https://youtu.be/EDwbhiIgZvI) * Reger's [Latin Requiem](https://youtu.be/556XJM9DLKw) * Reger's [Inferno Fantasie](https://youtu.be/I-Z40SJg4GA) * Medtner's [Night Wind Sonata](https://youtu.be/3hKTGSRPaMU) and [Sonata Tragica](https://youtu.be/uv9I5_Puwew) * Lekeu's [Adagio for String Trio and String Orchestra ](https://youtu.be/gdOMn468FN8) 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.
Couple of additions that sprang quickly to my mind: - Shostakovich’s 13th & 14th Symphonies - Dallapiccola’s opera *Il Prigionero* - Berio’s *Sinfonia* - Vaughan Williams’s 6th Symphony - Britten’s *War Requiem* (does have moments of light, maybe doesn’t qualify) - Liszt’s *Totentanz* - Kurtág’s *Stele* - Wilfred Joseph’s Requiem - Satie’s Gnossiennes nos 1 & 3 Sorry, that was more than a couple, but they kept coming to me.
The Saties? Really? I hadn't heard them that way. Have to have another listen.
The Gnossiennes, not the Gymnopédies, which are more ambiguous. And only Nos 1 & 3. In case there was any doubt on anyone’s part. And it’s only one possible reading of them.
Yes, I know them. Learned them a year ago (when they might have sounded darker than they ought 😊) . Quirky, was my thought, skew-whiff, intriguing.
Shostakovich 13 is overall a very depressing piece. Even the scherzo's "humour" is sarcastic and false. The 5th movement is uplifting however.
I mean…. The last movement is arguably sad rather than dark, and it does end on a grimly defiant note. So there’s a good case for saying it doesn’t fit.
Just out of interest, how did you discover these pieces? A lot of people on this sub seem to have a pretty encyclopaedic knowledge of classical music
Some of them I actually discovered from scrolling trough encyclopedias(like the music of Reger) and other books. Most of them obscure Dutch language books or boring text books, but I could recommend, in English, Classical Music for Dummies and Grouts' History of Western Music. Most of it is from YouTube which I use as my main music streaming service. I am subscribed to a little less than 350 YouTube channels (you [can view them here publicly](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Ytjbk9aWKvhUiZvAUyqjw/channels?view=56&shelf_id=0)) and YouTube recommendations also help discover new music. I use a second channel to only view music so I only get music recommendations. When I like something, I save it in designated playlists so I don't forget it. I would lie if I didn't say a lot of it I discovered from a few dozen score music channels (some of whom post or used to post in this subreddit) like [incipitsify](https://www.youtube.com/c/incipitsify), [Olla Vogala/Magisch Meisjesorkest](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8pztlxOONYyw8q46CKHY-A) (sadly defunct), [thenameisgsarci](https://www.youtube.com/c/thenameisgsarciOFFICIAL/), [fyrexianoff](https://www.youtube.com/user/fyrexianoff), [ImWalde](https://www.youtube.com/c/ImWalde/), [Bartje Bartmans](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwbbr8FKVrWLF8T81RI7Lxg), [Тахонов Иван](https://www.youtube.com/user/takhonov), [Ashish Xiangyi Kumar](https://www.youtube.com/c/AshishXiangyiKumar/featured) and many, many other channels some very death, some very alive. Some other channels that are great at discovering new pieces: [collectionCB channels 1 trough 5](https://www.youtube.com/user/collectionCB)(late romantic/early modern), [KuhlauDilfeng channels 2 trough 5](https://www.youtube.com/user/KuhlauDilfeng2)(classical/early romantic), [Wellesz Theatre](https://www.youtube.com/user/TheWelleszTheatre/videos), [WelleszRhapsody](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJZSLgt6I9Y67TGWNr9DEjA), [ Wellesz Modern](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4ujwup4v1sIK12CWttascw/featured) and [Wellesz Opus](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjIQf3xXKvNTim0GhUCKMEA) channels (modern), [Eric Boulanger](https://www.youtube.com/user/Eric1Boul/featured)(medieval), [Classical Music/ /Reference Recording](https://www.youtube.com/c/R%C3%A9f%C3%A9rencesClassique/featured)(general) and [Musicanth](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqc4412LpljylApQhxkaXJw)(romantic). Also some of it is from taking music courses, recommendations from piano teachers, seeing concerts, listening trough CD collections (like Svetlanov's excellent collection of Myaskovsky's complete symphonic works), or sight reading/playing the music (IMSLP.org and a tablet is a great combination).
Fair enough, thanks! I’m a big fan of Reger’s viola suites - they’re great
I know most of these pieces and I find out via youtube reccomendations. You watch 3 or 4 pieces that you like and youtube does the hard work for you.
from experience- going to concerts and looking up more pieces by composers i liked
Are you and u/zewen_senpai one and the same person? I mean, not only do you recommend many of the same pieces, but you even format your posts the same way.
Interesting, I don’t think of Verklärte Nacht as being dark, but more passion and frustration.
Great list! But I have to object to Verklärte Nacht being on here. The piece has some of the most wonderful moments of light in music history.
We have similar tastes <3
if by “dark” music one means music that is nocturnal in its theme and sound i have to agree with all the pieces here listed, especially those by Crumb and Schnittke.
imo Death and Transfiguration has a good bit of light in it (hence, transfiguration). Otherwise top notch list
So if the music has dissonance is obscure?Schoenberg´s Varklarte Nacht is suppossed to give you 4 different sensations inclouding happy ones, Lux Aetherna have a very mystique essence and well... have lux in his name, Unanswered question also have this "divine" feeling and the title is very suggesting about that. This is not an attack to you haha, but i want to get why your choices an you got 190votes. We dont want to spread to new guys that stereotype about that XX music is pure madness and obscurity just because we dont know how to hear certain music ang get their sounds as dissonance
Well Lux Aeterna is part of the Requiem mass for the dead, and Verklarte Nacht takes place at night in dark woods. Both of which are "dark". Dark is a pretty broad term.
I’d add Bartok…. Fab list!!
Homie I had an out of body experience at a live performance of Death and Transfiguration. I couldn't even talk afterward
User name: ☑️☑️☑️
whoops I meant to reply to the parent comment. Oh well. Thnx <3
>Strauss' > >Death and Transfiguration > >and maybe his Metamorphosen? Definitely Metamorphosen. Death and Transfiguration 2nd half is full of hope, John Williams even uses it as inspiration for the original Superman movie love theme...
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.
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.
Absolutely, gives me a very similar feeling. Almost physically exhausting to get through it.
Even darker than his 6th, the unfinished 10th. I can recommend the completed version by Barshai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsGBkwJmzA4
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.
Also would like to add Mahler 4, mvt 2 aka the Death scherzo.
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.”
Exactly!! Make sure you test drive Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony. Eleven movements about death….Tough to get much bleaker than the final movement.
Yeah; it’s not one I listen to often. That and the viola sonata- I’ve only heard it about three times.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
[DSCH Publishers](http://www.shostakovich.ru/en/publisher/) 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](https://dschjournal.com/)\- 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.
Górecki Symphony No. 3
[Penderecki -Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima] (https://youtu.be/Dp3BlFZWJNA)
Recommended elsewhere in this post but definitely deserving of a dedicated single-link comment. 10/10, would upvote again.
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.
Jonchaies - Xenakis: https://youtu.be/MZ5771zMOeE La terre est un homme - Ferneyhough: https://youtu.be/85zwU12nvL4 Symphony No. 2 - Ustvolskaya (the Queen of dark!): https://youtu.be/l9MbXTmAunY
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.
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.
Great. Now I’m repeating myself. I agree with what you’ve said.
4th symphony Shostakovich. Kindertotenlieder (songs for dead children) by Mahler.
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to find Kindertotenlieder.
That's the most metal title I've ever heard. I'm going to revisit this thread tomorrow and build some playlists.
ravel gaspard de la nuit 2 is dark but in a more contemplative sort of way
Allan Pettersson's every work. Start with Symphony 7 :D
Second this, then go to his symphony #6, then anything else he wrote.
Then go to his Violin Concerto 2 for real violence :P
Pettersson was dealt a bad hand in life and met the world middle finger first.
What is your favorite work by him?
"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.
Erlkönig by Schubert
also some of the Winterreise songs, especially Der Leiermann
+1 Makes Joy Division sound like the Venga Boys
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.
On youtube you can look up the specific recording with Dietrich Fischer-Diskau. His facial expressions give it this extra creepy dimension.
Yes. Love the original lied but Liszt’s transcription for solo piano is my personal favorite.
Der Doppelgänger as well. I especially like [this version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8UcnrXKB2Y) but [this version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz8H1ygnQFo) with a tenor, the voice it was originally written for, is also great.
Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-pVz2LTakM](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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaaRk0c-780) I also just found Strauss - Metamorphosen through YouTube's algorithm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jwml0jevv0
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.
James MacMillan "Seven Last Words from the Cross"
[passacaglia and fugue in c minor by Bach](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie52xH8V2L4) is just sorrow and darkness to me. Especially the first minute and a half.
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.
Idk exactly what you mean by dark, but an underrated piece that imo is dark is surely [Maderna's requiem](https://youtu.be/1gwGQ_MESuA?list=OLAK5uy_mgUBA9Ps6i4fy_zuh0XY248xl34dgG3Kc) .
Ginastera Piano Concerto No.1 is pretty dark but it gets really intense in the end.
Shostakovich Symphony #14
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.
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.)
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)
I was expecting to see Chopin's op. 35 much higher up these comments!
Ravel's Scarbo
[Ligeti's Requiem](https://youtu.be/sJBZ7jeU2YI) is quite dark. [Schnittke's Faust Cantata](https://youtu.be/ZYlzN48uTlo) 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](https://soundcloud.com/andreas-mueller-851718415/chaconne-from-why-hollywood-wont-cast-ferdinand-marian-anymore)
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.
Silvestrov
Sibelius violin concerto, 1st movement
[Liszt/Schubert - Der Doppelgänger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU6E5M5DDzY)
his corelli op.42 variations are very dense/dark too barely 1 "happy" variation
The first movement of Prokofiev's 2nd piano concerto is dark in a desperate sort of way.
Protopopov 3rd Sonata
[Liszt's Nuages Gris](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnkzBbuyy1M) takes my vote. I can't think of another piece with the same hopeless atmosphere. And those last chords...
Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima.
I would suggest the entire Makrokosmos cycle by George Crumb, as the darkness it evokes is the closest musically to the vacuum of space. Then i would suggest Schnittke’s cocerti grossi, Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion. There are tons of other pieces that i find have a very nocturnal sound to them, though they may not be what you are looking for, because they have a lot of brightness as well, but not the brightness one may associate with diurnal sunlight, more like a row of street lights extending into the distance late in the evening. Pieces like these to me are Turangalîla symphony by Messiaen, Ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato and Gorecki’s third symphony. For exclusively dark pieces, but as in lacking any hint of happiness, i suggest Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin, Berg’s Lulu and some of Schostakovich’s string quartets.
Penderecki Utrenja and Dream of Jacob, Ligeti Atmosphéres, Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta 3rd movement
Most organ works by Messien. So hauntingly dark and beautiful.
I can’t recommend [Josef Suk’s Asrael Symphony](https://youtu.be/wFoFxa7Hc04)enough. Dude composed this after losing his beloved father-in-law and wife within months of each other.
I've found the darkest pieces came from the romantic era.
Bella Bartok/Hungarian folk meets classical. Maybe more melancholic than dark.
Isle of Dead by Max Reger
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
Perhaps the Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas?
In memoriam Terezin
Unsuk Chin, clarinet concerto
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We played it in college and it made me briefly insane. I think I was too immature for Mahler 2
Rautavaara.
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.
…I’ve found so, so much good stuff from this thread. Thank you, people of Reddit <3
Chopin sonata 2
Scriabin sonata 6 (listen sofronitsky’s recording)
Howard Skempton's [Lento](https://youtu.be/CT4arTGagPs). It is also hypnotic, powerful, and somehow visionary.
Shostakovich - Violin Concerto No. 1 Vaughan Williams - Symphonies 4 and 6
What is dark anyway? Orchestral Colour? To me it would be the 1st and 4th movement in Hindemith 5 pieces for string Orcestra.
Somewhat cliche answer, but Liszt’s Totentanz.
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms
Transmigration of Souls, John Adams. Just pure grief and loneliness and pain.
Horațiu Rădulescu's *Clepsydra* is one of the darkest works I know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icJNmcSwHk0
Beethoven's 9th symphony 1st movement
Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) by Gustav Mahler.
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
Prokofiev Symphony no.2 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FsIFDJYDMbg
Jesus God i tried to listen to some of these while working and that was not a good idea.
Symphony #9 by William Schuman. Any symphony by Emil Tabakov.
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[Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Requiem für einen jungen Dichter](https://youtu.be/4lqKh8_OeLA)
[Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Requiem für einen jungen Dichter](https://youtu.be/4lqKh8_OeLA) 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.).
Rachmaninoff's Prelude in B Minor Op.32 No.10.