yes! Shostakovich is great! especially the cello concerto (says the cellist)...however, you have to be careful with his work (and most of the Russians) if you're looking for "gothic", a lot of what he did was in that line of things because of his continual fear from being a composer within the Soviet Union, for the same reason he wrote some uncharacteristic, light pieces which was how he avoided the government, his work, as it was for many of the composers in his time and place was a flip flop - he'd write something that got him in trouble, so he'd write something else to get him out of trouble. I'm not saying that other side of his work is not wonderful music, but it could never pass as gothic and lacks a sense of depth that his other music has...

same kind of warning with Brahms, though for different reasons, a lot of his work centers around his ill fated affair with Clara Schumann and feels tragic. However, he had many happy moments in his life and had great interest in folk music, both the happy and darker stuff...a lot of Brahms starts out one way and ends another, dependant on what was happening in his life. Once again, its not bad music, its just not goth, if that's what your looking for.

sorry for the history lesson, I've read too many program notes...

Paul Hindemith's Trauermusik is a nice, dark piece, but I am not so sure if I would call it gothic. Short, the four movements together are under 15 minutes in total. He was a German composer, with a Jewish wife, who happened to be in Britain for a live radio performance at the BBC when King George V passed, and wrote the whole piece in six hours time so he could play it for the occasion instead of what had been planed. An interesting take on it, that I saw on a blog once, said something to the effect that Hindermith had possibly wrote it realizing the darkness of what was to come and that Hindermith wasn't mourning for the King so much as, for the future.

Whatever you call them thei will always be some of the best of classical music!
This list contains a lot of wanderful music to listen too

-- Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:10 pm --



Superb!!! I've always loved it and feel a bit offended of the too many occasions it has been used on tv...

-- Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:17 pm --



I don't know how you call it in english... but I love Igor Stravinskij La sacre du Printemps!

-- Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:19 pm --



Vivaldi is fantastic... especially the 4 seasons... I love winter!

-- Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:26 pm --



May I mention Rigoletto?

I also like Rossini a lot, sorry for not knowing titles in english again:

La gazza Ladra
Semiramide
Il Barbiere di Siviglia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaXEC5xJ5FQ

Maybe not so goth, but still amazingly beautiful.

-- Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:30 pm --

Please forgive me for joining Debussy's lovers... he's so romantic!

-- Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:53 pm --

To get back to the topic... Am I blind or did I find no reference to CARMINA BURANA?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t4ei1khHPI

Orff is absolutely my deepest love when it's about classical music, Carmina Burana is something so beautiful I cannot even find words to describe... it makes every single part of my soul vibrate at the unison with it.

-- Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:03 pm --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESkvgiE_84M

-- Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:05 pm --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LimraJat4

"The Rite of Spring".



Oh, how could anyone miss that? An opera based on texts written by mediaeval monks, about Man's relationship with Nature? O, Fortuna! How gothic does it get?

A lot of the 20th century English composers have powerfully moody, darkly romantic, 'gothic' characteristics, particularly the following.

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Gustav Holst

Frederick Delius

Peter Warlock

Arnold Bax

I find some of the most dark and inspiring pieces are:

Brahms' "Gesang der Parzen"
Brahms' "Alto Rhapsody"
Rachmaninov's "The Isle of the Dead" Op 29 (personally one of my favourites!)
Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 in E minor
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 'Pathetique'
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 'Winter Reverie'
Brahms' Symphony No. 1 in C minor
Rebel's 'Les Elemens' (esp. 'Le cahos')
Haydn Symphony No. 95 in C minor
Mahler Symphony No. 5 (esp. 1st movement the Trauermarsch) and No. 6
-
I hope this helps anyone on a journey of musical exploration into classical! (I am a classical composer so hooray if you are!!)
==
~SamanthaYourDarkShade

Does Gregorian Chant count?

I like music from the Album found on iTunes

Gregorian Chant: Salve Regina

Mozart - Requiem

What could be more appealing to Goths than the title of David Munrow's CD: 'Music of the Gothic Era', a 2-CD set from Deutsche Grammophon's Archiv label.

Since I was looking for it for other reasons, I pass this beautyful piece to you for your delectation (I checked the word in the dictionary, so I'm not sure if the translation is correct)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4dpbk8YBs

A beautiful piece indeed... It sends shivers down my spine... So contemplative, so full of tranquil melancholy

I like their music to , they are amazing.....

has no one heard of Nox Arcana? their album Carnival of Souls is really......interesting.

Wow some really great works listed up here, I have my home work to do.
The classic composers aside, I could put forward slightly off beat nominations for

Dark Sanctuary, who basically straddle a line between opera and classical. They are propably strictly speaking dark/ethereal wave but I cannot imagine them not appealing.

Haggard, if you have not heard haggard seek it out on youtube love them or hate them its unique. Metal performed with a full orchestra with operatic sensibilities.

I have tended to go in more for the infinite? varieties of underground folk over the years so contemporary classical is something I am looking forward to exploring.

Hi,

we made a cover of classical music piece in EBM (or at least cyberpunk version). It is "What power art thou" from Henry Purcell's opera "King Arthur"
Click here to listen (and download) the song: http://soundcloud.com/sportas/

Original is dated on year 1691. Sorry for my punk voice - it was sung in the manner I wanted to.

Have a nice listening!