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Most Powerful, Epic, Angry, Intense Classical Recommendations

472K views 169 replies 82 participants last post by  brucknerian 
#1 ·
I am looking for symphonies and composers that can sound like this: intense, loud instrumentals, fast pace, intense choir singing, and very angry sounding:

Examples of things I am looking for.

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O Fortuna


Any suggestions (If you could find the names of the ones I cannot find also, I would really appreciate it)

Thanks ahead of time!
 
#2 ·
Anything by Mozart is angry, pissed off music with a hard edge and huge, aggressive sound.

Check out Eine kleine Nactmusik. That means " a little night music" and it really is music of the night. Like a forboding Gothic cathedral lit by the evil light of a blood-red moon.

Crank this and let your fantasies of death and distruction take flight.
 
#23 ·
Eine kleine nachtmusik means, a small/little serenade fyi.

Beethoven's ninth symphony is epic, and intense, not angry though, but still. Also a more 'angry' piece of music, in my opinion, is the 3rd movement from his third piano trio, later rewritten as a string quintet I think. Though one of his early pieces, it clearly shows the power in his music and predicts what is yet to come.
 
#3 ·
Well, there may be a deluge of modern classical that would be similar to those you posted. I can mention film composers such as Elfman, Silvestri, Zimmer, Poledouris and Herrmann--all of whom have composed music very similar to what you are looking for.

I keep thinking of new such suggestions every time they have been requested, and now I believe I can honestly say: I am out!
 
#16 ·
Yes, well, we all know Mahler's music is like ten or eleven PANSIES against Mozart's. Mozart is like the biggest bouquet ever made of roses with wicked long, sharp, barbed thorns everywhere. Mozart's first symphony? Most dangerous thing ever written. Nobody believes it, but even the cutest puppies have sharp teeth and claws...
 
#35 ·
Haha, I have just been looking for some that match my description but very few have really met it so far. I have listened to a great deal of classical from other emotions like happiness, sadness, etc., just barely the one I am looking for now.
 
#17 ·
And don't forget that heretic Handel and his blasphemous Messiah...a mordant, disgusting musical rant against Christianity and all that is holy and pure.

Metalheads would love this one...

It opens with an Orff-like chorus, singing in Hebrew, invoking the Lord of the Flies himself, Beelzebub. After that, military-style percussion and post horns herald the arrival of Medusa. Medusa, sung by mezzo-soprano, presides over a firece witch's sabbath scene in which she raises Chernabog from the dead and consignes the soul of Salome to the pit. Medusa then turns into a huge scarab beetle and this is represented by a tambourine being struck with the blunt side of a machete.

After several interludes of trombones and bass drums, all performed ffff, we now come to the famous "Hallelujah" section in which a chorus of daemons blasphemize the name of the Messiah by singing in dissontant, mocking tones. This segues to a crescendo in tutti, complete with organ and a recording of a dump truck driving into a brick wall.

The names Handel, Mozart and that lord of darkness Vivaldi will live on forever...as the most brutal musicians who ever lived...or died.

Thank God for the Second Vienesse School, who rejected these composers of ill-repute and restored beauty back to music.
 
#130 ·
And don't forget that heretic Handel and his blasphemous Messiah...a mordant, disgusting musical rant against Christianity and all that is holy and pure.

Metalheads would love this one...

It opens with an Orff-like chorus, singing in Hebrew, invoking the Lord of the Flies himself, Beelzebub. After that, military-style percussion and post horns herald the arrival of Medusa. Medusa, sung by mezzo-soprano, presides over a firece witch's sabbath scene in which she raises Chernabog from the dead and consignes the soul of Salome to the pit. Medusa then turns into a huge scarab beetle and this is represented by a tambourine being struck with the blunt side of a machete.

After several interludes of trombones and bass drums, all performed ffff, we now come to the famous "Hallelujah" section in which a chorus of daemons blasphemize the name of the Messiah by singing in dissontant, mocking tones. This segues to a crescendo in tutti, complete with organ and a recording of a dump truck driving into a brick wall.

The names Handel, Mozart and that lord of darkness Vivaldi will live on forever...as the most brutal musicians who ever lived...or died.

Thank God for the Second Vienesse School, who rejected these composers of ill-repute and restored beauty back to music.
hahaha.

Prokofiev's 2nd symphony as a Disney's cartoon opening theme ?
Shostakovich's 4th symphony for a New Year's Eve tune ?
Schnittke's piano quintet for child birth music ?
 
#18 ·
Epic music

A lot of the C19th symphonic repertoire can be described as "epic." Some examples, which I don't recall as having been mentioned:

Beethoven - in particular, Symphonies Nos. 3 "Eroica" & 9 "Choral"
Mendelssohn - The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) Overture
Brahms - Symphony No. 4
Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 "From the new world"

And from the early C20th:

Sibelius - in particular The Oceanides, Pohjola's Daughter, Finlandia, The Swan of Tuonela, Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5
 
#20 ·
It doesn't get more powerful, epic, angry, intense than Mahler. I refer to him as Mr. Bi-Polar. One minute you're listening to Symphony No. 2 (awesome symphony) and it all starts off all nice and pretty and then 3 minutes goes by before BAM! You're in the next movement where the strings totally decapitate you. Pretty aggressive....quite scary music indeed.

In addition to Mahler, be sure to check out Shostakovich's symphonies as well. Prokofiev is also pretty intense.
 
#22 ·
Demons' Chorus

Check out # 6 in Part II of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius "Disposessed, aside thrust" wherein the demons in hell conduct a vicious fugal rant against the angels and the whole concept of Heaven. Hell's fury is made up cast out angels -and the all hate it and scorn the "goodies" that were left behind.

Pretty intense choral & orchestral music on either side of the microphones!
 
#27 ·
R-F, my friend, I'm glad to see that most of us, anyway, can enjoy a laugh every so often in this forum. I think "serious" music doens't always have to be so...serious.

I'd love to see what would happen in these fans of aggressive, "depressive" metal actually went out and bought Eine kleine Nactmusic, Carnival of the Animals or the Messiah expecting a sonic blockbuster of carnage and chaos. Would they be dissapointed? Hehehe...
 
#34 ·
Here's some more C20th epic music that I've been able to come up with:

Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra
Bax - Tintagel (tone poem)
Copland - Billy the Kid
Janacek - Taras Bulba; Sinfonietta
Tintagel? Dark and agressive? Naw. Powerful, yes, but not dark. I see it more as a grand statement of light and beauty, not of darnkess.
 
#36 ·
Speaking of the adjective "angry," one work that comes to mind is the Organ Concerto of Icelandic composer Jon Leifs. This is brutal work with aggressive organ playing, complete with grinding dissonances and tone clusters and shockingly loud purcussion whacks that sound like small cannons. This is a work where I really do feel a sense of anger, as opposed to just showy brutality. I guess when it premiered on Germany in the 1930s (I think that's the decade...I'll have to research the liner notes) that it started with a packed house only to end up being nearly empty as the work concluded...people were walking out in droves.

While not beautiful in a traditional sense, and not easy on the ears, it retains a primitive fascination and I like it quite a bit. There is a more lyrical middle section, though, which offers a breather between the out movements, which are quite overwhelming.

If I have a bad day at work, I like blasting this one and it delivers good catharsis.
 
#37 ·
Tapkaara:

I'm still waiting on reply as to where you read that Saint-Saens was a sado-masochist? I find that hard to believe without some concrete proof.
 
#39 ·
I would also put Rued Langgaard in the powerful, epic, angry, intense category in addition to Mahler.

If you haven't heard Langgaard, then you're ears will be in for quite a treat coming March 31st when his symphonies will be together in a box set on the Da Capo label.

It's going to be a thing of beauty.
 
#44 ·
Again, as I said, Mahler and Langgaard personify the music you are requesting, Metalhead.
 
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