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What's your favorite slow/dark/sad/menacing/etc... song for the piano?

I have a hard time finding music I like to play because I tend to lean towards the more obscure stuff. So, no bright, cheery, fluffy ballet-music, please!

Shostakovich, Prelude in E-Flat Minor, Op. 34 No. 14.

Another good one is Prokofiev, Despair, Op. 4 No. 3 (not the famous #4, which is also menacing but much faster).


For something a bit lonely, try Shostakovich's Prelude Op. 34 No. 22. It's not menacing. It's very lonely music.

Very slow and dark in a different way - Messiaen Regard #1

Ravel - Le Gibet from Gaspard

Schumann - Theme from symphonic etudes and some of the variations

Not piano,,, but drone metal bands like Earth, Weed Eagle, and Sleep. They have a very dark, VERY slow, sometimes sad (earth), and usually menacing sound.

Lots of Scriabin is dark and menacing. go to pinaosociety.com and listen to some of his preludes and things. He has lots of haunting melodies.

L'exchange, in that case you need to investigate William Sterndale-Bennett as the Op.13 theme comes from a work of his (can't remember which at the moment though...)

I would personally nominate Liszt's La Lugubre Gondola (version 2)

Second vote for Scriabin -- check out the Sixth and Ninth ("Black Mass") Sonatas. Scriabin himself was scared of the Sixth (he never performed it). If you like the earlier, more romantic Scriabin, check out the last movement (a funeral march) from the First Sonata.
And if you are feeling really adventurous, try Schoenberg's Piano Pieces, Op. 11, specifically #1 and #2 (but not #3, which is a cry of despair).
Faure's late Nocturnes (nos. 9-13) are indeed dark. #12 is a favorite of mine and an unknown gem.
One of most desolate pieces I know is the Sarabande from Bach's Fifth Suite for solo cello (C minor). It's not piano music, but you can easily read through it on the piano. A great way to be expressive with just a single line with no accompaniment.

Chopin - Prelude 2 in Am
Ornstein - Sonata 4, 2nd movement ('semplice')
Scriabin - 6th and 9th Sonatas
Alkan - Concerto 2nd movement
Beethoven - Hammerklavier slow movement
Godowsky - Java Suite: "In the Kraton"
(If you haven't heard the Java Suite, get it!)

Alkan's 'chanson de la folle au bord de la mer' ("song of the crazy woman at the sea shore") for piano solo. Enjoy! (if that's the right word)

Brahms's first ballade op. 10 no. 1 is a good choice too. It is very dark, yet noble.

Speaking of Brahms -
Intermezzo opus 118 #6 in e flat minor
Intermezzo opus 116 #2 in a minor

Probably the darkest piece I know is the 2nd Shostakovich sonata. It's almost never played, but it's a wonderful piece, sort of a big brother (in spirit, not in style) to the Berg sonata (and in the same key.)

If you can play the melody JUST right, Moonlight Sonata, 1st movement.

That is one menacing line.

I second the Alkan 2nd Movement. Also try Gottschalk's Morte!!, Berceuse, and La Savane.

John

Just listened to it and
Wow, good stuff!

Cécile Chaminade is known mostly for her charming salon pieces.

Her dark and brooding Au Pays Dévasté, Op.155 (1919) is very beautiful. This is no salon piece.

Another wonderful dark piece is Tomas Leon's Dolor Profundo.


Mel