i've been wondering, what are some cool satanic/evil sounding classical piano pieces?
to get a little more specific, satanic/evil from my guitar playing is things based around tritones/dimished progressions and dominant phrygian.
but, if you have somethign in mind that you think is evil and isnt based around tritones nor domiant phrygian, i'm still interested.

i posted this in the non classical forum, i figure that there are more evil sounding classical compositions.

I guess you could class Stravinskys Rite of Spring as falling right into this category. It's not so much evil as savage though. Just like humans.

Britten's War Requiem is similar, very uncomfortable listening, but strangely beautiful as well.

How about Dance Macabre by Saint Saens? (I don't know how it will sound on a guitar, though.)
A Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky also comes to mind.

ill suggest the rude poem by villa-lobos. it is extremely harsh. very atonal.

Prokofiev's Diabolical Suggestions: it has tritones and diminished 9ths, even the title sounds evil. Though I wouldn't call it 'satanic.'

that prokofiev piece is also known as his "satanic apparations"

Rachmaninoff- Prelude in C# Minor comes to mind... all my friends think that is the most badass song ever.

Hahaha I like that, about the Rachmaninoff.
Some other ideas:
Liszt Don Juan Fantasy
Beethoven "Moonlight" sonata mvmt. 3
Ravel Scarbo

There is a Lizst transcription of the Saint-Saens mentioned above, although I think it's extremely hard.
The Prokofiev (op. 4 no. 4) and Rachmaninoff (op. 3 no. 2) are great suggestions.

edit: Also, check out The Hut on Hen's Legs from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Countless Scriabin Pieces:
Scriabin - Poem Op. 69 No. 2
Scriabin - Vers la Flamme
Scriabin - Tradgic Poem
Scriabin - any of the Op. 74 Preludes especially no. 4

Not piano but:
Shostakovich - String quartet no. 8 Mov. 2 Woooo!
(This piece scared me the first time I heard it).

For me alot of pieces seem to be very insane, bipolar, evil, devilish. Those include: Appasionata First and 3rd movement, Rach preludes (C#minor, Bflat Minor, C Major, C minor) Tchaikovsky...Im not sure of the name, at my teachers recital long ago it was called 'Puss in boots' its a very freaky melody which gives me goosebumps from the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty when she is walking up to P-rick her finger in the green light...such an amazing work....what else....OH YES, Chopins' B Flat Minor Sonata. Scriabin...lots of works man!

What about the Liszt Faust Waltz (can't remember the proper title). that even has a 'demonic' trill in it, although that might be due to the difficulty rather than the tonality.

John, I think you mean Liszt, Mephisto Waltz No 1

I was wondering when someone would bring up Liszt. He's the most demonic of all. I think you may be talking about his "Mephisto Waltz". The Faust waltz is his transcription from Gounod's ballet but I've never really found it that satanic.

A good CD of Liszt's more fiendish works:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000023D2/103-3838424-2312642?v=glance&n=5174

Don
Kansas City

There is also Liszt's Dante Sonata.

Man, I love Saint-Saens', "Danse Macabre," and Liszt's recording of it later... A friend of mine is a harpsichordist, and I asked him what this would sound like on a harpsichord. He chuckled and said it would sound like two skeletons doing the horizontal mambo on a tin roof.

Yes... Rach falls easily falls in that category.

But one that comes to mind might be... I don't know... possibly the second section of the Raindrop Prelude. That's actually more... suspenseful than anything. Not too demonic or evil. Slightly evil, but there's more "evil" classical pieces out there than the Raindrop Prelude.

I don't think Rachmaninoff fits in the evil/satanic group. Rachmaninoff wrote realatively dark music, but it's more beautiful than evil.

I agree, his music often has a cold feel to it, it's often very angsty, but I don't think it ever portrays evil.

That's the chap. I once saw Steven Hough play this - I was sitting about 2m away from him in someone's house. I was completely blown away, and it really inspired me to continue learning the piano. Still can't play it though.

ive never heard it before, but scriabins "satanic poem" might fall into the group

While I wouldn't call it "satanic", the slow movement from Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta definitely has a very evil, creepy feel to it.

Again. I wouldn't judge it just by its title. There's nothing satanic about this poem.

Skryabin's "Black Mass" sonata
Liszt Funerailles
Chopin Preludes Nos 12 and 16
Pendereshki Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima

I think evil would be a bit of an overstatement, but these pieces certainly are dark, especially the Pendereshki. Maybe try some Schoenberg also, such as Pierrot Lunaire. Note though that the style of singing used is an aquired taste

Liszt's Totentanz is about as chilling as you can get.

Pendereski's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima is the scariest thing I've ever heard. Makes your flesh crawl.

That's because you haven't heard my pounding the piano in one of those New Music, New...Really? Yeah, Sure new music happenings, with people-eating tigers providing the accompaniment by hunting audience members, no, Audience Members (an Eurasian red squirrel, quick fellow, they never catch him, but oh do they make music!). The tigers aren't the scary part, it's the music they make that is scary. Makes your flesh crawl worse.

thx for all your responses
it'll all eventually become a big help.
I've looked up a few of those pieces, and right now im no where near the musical level nor the technical level to even try most of them.

I'll work on my chops a little more; they've been a little rusty, especially since i havent even touched a piano for 7-8 years. But i cant wait till i work my chops back up to speed. It'll be a lot of fun playing some of these pieces.

actually, it looks like satanic/evil isnt the exact direction i want to go in.
It's very interesting music and all, but i realized i want something sad, and tragic. Emphasis on tragic, like if someone listens to it and they are in a good mood, they will be in a sad and gloomy mood for the rest of the day. Tragic like that.

I discovered i don't really like the atonality very much, i would actually prefer more diatonic minor pieces. IF you could help there, that would be really awesome. And ii really appreicate all the help you've given me so far.

Liszt's solo piano transcription of 'Die Stadt' from Schubert's Schwanengesang.

I think you should start another thread for that (sad and tragic pieces)... Usually people here don't react to threads that have gone on a while and changed subjects, etc....