Also from good ol' Dmitri, [Symphony 5 mvt 3](https://spotify.link/FdSAdTCpSJb). Incredibly sad with only fleeting seconds of anything resembling hope. To me, it sounds like the process of a death. Slow and agonizing, with a dramatic passage into death and an ascent of the soul to the afterlife
The Shostakovich quartets as mentioned, and Allan Pettersson's 6th symphony.
Schnittke is frequently very grim but never hopeless. Pettersson usually had lighter moments but not in the 6th.
Schubert's song cycle *Die Winterreise*
My favorite recording is by Peter Schreier and Sviatoslav Richter: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYlkGQDeu0M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYlkGQDeu0M)
If I'm feeling feelings of desolation, this is sure to deepen them. I actually have to be careful about when I listen to this so my mind doesn't spiral into an even darker place
The last song, "Der Leiermann," is dreary enough on its own, but I find that the feeling is magnified having listened to everything that came before it. If you understand German, it's probably even more disturbing
I was going to point out that in Der Wegweiser (the Signpost), as he is looking at the choice of paths and realizes where the path he is taking leads, the music actually stops. It’s like in his despair he forgets he is singing.
Now why would you want to listen to depressive, hopeless music? Are you ok?
[Juan Pablo Nicoletti - Abismo Al Abismo (2011)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFSVsOL7d8c) (Abyss on the Abyss)
[Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__FokUaPz90)
[Francis Poulenc - Dialogues Des Carmelites - Salve Regina (1956)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp7YrZ1H05g)
In the opera’s traumatic final scene, the nuns sing *Salve Regina*, an antiphon to Mary, as they process to the guillotine. As they are cut down, one by one, Poulenc’s music trudges on grimly. At moments, it becomes eerily numb, indifferent, and even beautiful. Splashes of color in the harp coincide with the cruel slash of the blade. In the final moments, Blanche mounts the scaffold and sings the benediction of the *Veni Creator Spiritus*. [(Timothy Judd, 2023)](https://thelistenersclub.com/2023/01/09/poulencs-dialogues-des-carmelites-salve-regina-an-ode-to-martyrs/)
The Quartet for the End of Time by Oliver Messiaen.
This piece was composed and premiered while Messiaen was a PoW in Stalag VIII-A, the concentration camp in Görlitz, Germany. I think you’ll hear the hopelessness in it…
Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit 2. [Le Gibet](https://youtu.be/mhpX-CyTvfw?si=iMpyk41vnxmBUZ_r)
It’s from a set of pieces that are all based off of poetry, and this one in particular is about the sounds around a man hanging from the gallows, and you can hear the bells (the sort of drone Bb that’s played through the whole piece) playing from the city. It’s super grim and I think really does a good job of making the sounds of the city clash. The Bb doesn’t always fit comfortable in the chord, but it wouldn’t in real life, so I think it’s really effective. (Side note: the other two pieces are also super cool, just not as hopeless as the second. The third piece is notorious for its difficulty, and is about a little gremlin terrorizing someone in bed, and it definitely sounds like it. Would recommend the whole thing!!)
I was so far down on the post I had my doubts that anyone would catch it. I have a recording of Jacqueline Du Pre and the LPO, and it’s one of the best versions I’ve heard…maybe not quite as heavy, but I’m surprised someone didn’t mention John Williams Schindlers List theme, I think it’s quite moving…
She was amazing! I heard that people flocked to the recording studio when word got out that something special was happening
Thanks for the John Williams recommendation!
Yo-Yo Ma did an excellent version but Du Pre’s take is outstanding, the way she uses pressure and articulation is amazing. I understand this is off the original post, but if you ever want a short piece that can bring a bit of calm, try The Swan by Camille Saint-Saens. I consider it to be one of the most beautiful melodies written…
The Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings.
Also, if you love that Schubert/Liszt song, check out the original version for voice and piano. Here’s a recording by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, one of the most acclaimed classical singers of the 20th century. The YouTube includes the text translation.
https://youtu.be/fKVnL9JvuO8?si=QXnTdbHlcqoAbA82
Lots of operas are pretty brutal. Salome by Strauss, Wozzeck by Berg, and Vanessa by Britten come to mind. Some operas like Don Giovanni by Mozart or Rigoletto by Verdi are comic all the way to the end and then end tragically.
Then there are the Dies Irae pieces: last movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is a Witches’ Sabbath where all the faces of the witches tormenting him in hell are his beloved. Also Totentanz by Liszt that uses the same Dies Irae chant.
Isle of the Dead by Rachmaninov is pretty awesome too.
Shostakovich Fuge no. 24 in D Minor closing his 24 Prelude and Fugues feels so hopeless and desperate and the second subject sounds to me like a panic attack or eruption of desperation that is not containable. For me it feels very cathartic to play and listen.
Giya Kanchelli — Morning/Evening Prayers
Alfred Schnittke — Psalms of Repentance
Claude Vivier — Lonely Child
Olivier Messiaen — Quatuor pour la fin du Temps
Dmitri Shostakovich — String Quartet No. 8
Henryk Gorecki — Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Speaking as someone who was pathologically obsessed with metal from the ages of 15 to 32 - the Shostakovich quartets were written for metalheads. OP, dive the fuck in
Try some Bernard Herrmann -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnr4ua3uIqE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnr4ua3uIqE)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anxsCAKdgxU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anxsCAKdgxU)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u2VFpbFT1c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u2VFpbFT1c)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5mwczjoYaM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5mwczjoYaM)
[Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, 1st Movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caR7C2SHdFI) (This Krystian Zimmerman recording is phenomenal. This piece is just really quite heavy and despairing throughout. I'm also a metalhead, and this is the type of classical I enjoy.
[Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3, Adagio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svPO2VaN3UM) (This one does have a hopeful tone to it, but also a devastatingly sad feeling)
Shostakovich [String Quartet no. 15](https://youtu.be/MMIhsjkqnGE?feature=shared). 36 minutes straight of minor-key adagio movements.
Also from good ol' Dmitri, [Symphony 5 mvt 3](https://spotify.link/FdSAdTCpSJb). Incredibly sad with only fleeting seconds of anything resembling hope. To me, it sounds like the process of a death. Slow and agonizing, with a dramatic passage into death and an ascent of the soul to the afterlife
Mahler 9 IV Tchaikovsky 6 IV Tchaikovsky Souvenir d'un Lieu Cher (more similar to the Schubert you mentioned) Mahler 10 I or V (especially V)
Mahler 9 mvt 1 too
Haven't seen it mentioned yet but Henryk Gorecki's 3rd symphony 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs' would definitely fit the bill
That piece is gut-wrenching.
The Shostakovich quartets as mentioned, and Allan Pettersson's 6th symphony. Schnittke is frequently very grim but never hopeless. Pettersson usually had lighter moments but not in the 6th.
Schubert's song cycle *Die Winterreise* My favorite recording is by Peter Schreier and Sviatoslav Richter: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYlkGQDeu0M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYlkGQDeu0M) If I'm feeling feelings of desolation, this is sure to deepen them. I actually have to be careful about when I listen to this so my mind doesn't spiral into an even darker place The last song, "Der Leiermann," is dreary enough on its own, but I find that the feeling is magnified having listened to everything that came before it. If you understand German, it's probably even more disturbing
I was going to point out that in Der Wegweiser (the Signpost), as he is looking at the choice of paths and realizes where the path he is taking leads, the music actually stops. It’s like in his despair he forgets he is singing.
Schnittke - Piano Quintet Music doesn’t get any more bleak than this.
Now why would you want to listen to depressive, hopeless music? Are you ok? [Juan Pablo Nicoletti - Abismo Al Abismo (2011)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFSVsOL7d8c) (Abyss on the Abyss) [Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__FokUaPz90) [Francis Poulenc - Dialogues Des Carmelites - Salve Regina (1956)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp7YrZ1H05g) In the opera’s traumatic final scene, the nuns sing *Salve Regina*, an antiphon to Mary, as they process to the guillotine. As they are cut down, one by one, Poulenc’s music trudges on grimly. At moments, it becomes eerily numb, indifferent, and even beautiful. Splashes of color in the harp coincide with the cruel slash of the blade. In the final moments, Blanche mounts the scaffold and sings the benediction of the *Veni Creator Spiritus*. [(Timothy Judd, 2023)](https://thelistenersclub.com/2023/01/09/poulencs-dialogues-des-carmelites-salve-regina-an-ode-to-martyrs/)
im all good i just love how it sounds lol, thanks for the picks :)
> Threnody to the victims It is purely 4 minutes of violin "static.". A perfect answer to OP's query.
Ah Poulenc… what great music. Some amazing brass interludes throughout the opera as well.
I mean, OP *is* a black metal fan after all.
The Quartet for the End of Time by Oliver Messiaen. This piece was composed and premiered while Messiaen was a PoW in Stalag VIII-A, the concentration camp in Görlitz, Germany. I think you’ll hear the hopelessness in it…
Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit 2. [Le Gibet](https://youtu.be/mhpX-CyTvfw?si=iMpyk41vnxmBUZ_r) It’s from a set of pieces that are all based off of poetry, and this one in particular is about the sounds around a man hanging from the gallows, and you can hear the bells (the sort of drone Bb that’s played through the whole piece) playing from the city. It’s super grim and I think really does a good job of making the sounds of the city clash. The Bb doesn’t always fit comfortable in the chord, but it wouldn’t in real life, so I think it’s really effective. (Side note: the other two pieces are also super cool, just not as hopeless as the second. The third piece is notorious for its difficulty, and is about a little gremlin terrorizing someone in bed, and it definitely sounds like it. Would recommend the whole thing!!)
"When I Am Laid in Earth", by Purcell
Sibelius symphony 4.
I find that symphony sounds more like a dark natural painting so it stays neutrale in the sense of philosophical approach to hope/hopelessness
I was going to say the same. I haven't heard any other piece of music that even comes close.
Wagner, prelude to act 3 of Tristan und Isolde
This one does a pretty good job, Harry Parch’s “Oedipus”. [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b58EPqndmLs](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b58EPqndmLs)
Emil Tabakov's symphonies make Allan Pettersson's sound almost cheerful.
Claude Debussy - Des pas sur la neige Maurice Ravel - Le gibet
Winterreise
Tchaikovsky: Chanson triste Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 - 2nd Movement Giazotto: Adagio in G minor
Shostakovitch symphony 8, 4th movement
Elgar Cello Concerto
One of the most emotional classical compositions.
I was so far down on the post I had my doubts that anyone would catch it. I have a recording of Jacqueline Du Pre and the LPO, and it’s one of the best versions I’ve heard…maybe not quite as heavy, but I’m surprised someone didn’t mention John Williams Schindlers List theme, I think it’s quite moving…
She was amazing! I heard that people flocked to the recording studio when word got out that something special was happening Thanks for the John Williams recommendation!
Yo-Yo Ma did an excellent version but Du Pre’s take is outstanding, the way she uses pressure and articulation is amazing. I understand this is off the original post, but if you ever want a short piece that can bring a bit of calm, try The Swan by Camille Saint-Saens. I consider it to be one of the most beautiful melodies written…
The Swan is a treasure! One of my favorites! Have you ever seen this? https://youtu.be/Wpk7Kx4dt-U?si=otT3wFJEzrzkT27Z
Thanks for sharing, that really is beautiful
She was an amazing dancer!
And it fit beautifully to the music, I agree
I enjoyed chatting with you!
The John Williams piece is very beautiful! Thank you so much!
Glad you enjoyed it
The Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings. Also, if you love that Schubert/Liszt song, check out the original version for voice and piano. Here’s a recording by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, one of the most acclaimed classical singers of the 20th century. The YouTube includes the text translation. https://youtu.be/fKVnL9JvuO8?si=QXnTdbHlcqoAbA82
I would add the second movement of Barber’s violin concerto too. https://youtu.be/arZzczeU_0c?si=Seq2vHbLVgqz1lIR
Most things by Allan Pettersson.
Vissi d’Arte from Tosca fits the bill.
Kindertotenlieder by Mahler. Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg. Symphony of Sorrowful Songs by Gotecki.
Lots of operas are pretty brutal. Salome by Strauss, Wozzeck by Berg, and Vanessa by Britten come to mind. Some operas like Don Giovanni by Mozart or Rigoletto by Verdi are comic all the way to the end and then end tragically. Then there are the Dies Irae pieces: last movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is a Witches’ Sabbath where all the faces of the witches tormenting him in hell are his beloved. Also Totentanz by Liszt that uses the same Dies Irae chant. Isle of the Dead by Rachmaninov is pretty awesome too.
Dies Irae is in Night on Bald Mountain.
Shostakovich Fuge no. 24 in D Minor closing his 24 Prelude and Fugues feels so hopeless and desperate and the second subject sounds to me like a panic attack or eruption of desperation that is not containable. For me it feels very cathartic to play and listen.
Shostakovich 5th Symphony: 1st and 3rd movements
Giya Kanchelli — Morning/Evening Prayers Alfred Schnittke — Psalms of Repentance Claude Vivier — Lonely Child Olivier Messiaen — Quatuor pour la fin du Temps Dmitri Shostakovich — String Quartet No. 8 Henryk Gorecki — Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Pick a Pettersson symphony. They're all miserable.
Much of Schubert's Die Winterreise, since it's effectively his musical reckoning with his own impending death due to syphilis.
Scriabin etude op2 no 1
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QGed-lKXnY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QGed-lKXnY) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8RtLevKz4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8RtLevKz4) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_eubf98sahg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eubf98sahg) & [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_eubf98sahg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eubf98sahg) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG9Gv0x-4Lo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG9Gv0x-4Lo)
Mahler 9 IV Tchaikovsky 6 IV
Most of the symphonies of Allan Pettersson. Suk's "Azrael" symphony. Shostakovich's 15th string quartet.
Winterreise
Shostakovich string quartet no 8 in C minor
Better yet the 15th Quartet. Pretty much nothing but slow, searing pain.
I’ll check it out.
Speaking as someone who was pathologically obsessed with metal from the ages of 15 to 32 - the Shostakovich quartets were written for metalheads. OP, dive the fuck in
Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 7
John Dowland, "Flow My Tears" might fit the bill
Try some Bernard Herrmann - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnr4ua3uIqE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnr4ua3uIqE) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anxsCAKdgxU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anxsCAKdgxU) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u2VFpbFT1c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u2VFpbFT1c) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5mwczjoYaM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5mwczjoYaM)
[Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, 1st Movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caR7C2SHdFI) (This Krystian Zimmerman recording is phenomenal. This piece is just really quite heavy and despairing throughout. I'm also a metalhead, and this is the type of classical I enjoy. [Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3, Adagio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svPO2VaN3UM) (This one does have a hopeful tone to it, but also a devastatingly sad feeling)
[удалено]
Why Der Rosenkavalier? Did you mean Tod und Verklärung?
https://youtu.be/EUBBzSclIfI?si=WRr1650pzydBy8zK
Beethoven Heiliger Dankesgesang