Classical music for metalheads??

[challenge_everything]

Hope this isn't too off topic for this forum but I was interested to hear some opinions from the metal crowd.

How many of you enjoy classical music and if so, what pieces/composers would you recommend for those of us who enjoy dark/beautiful/intense music?

I appreciate classical music for much the same reasons as I appreciate metal - the epicness, the way it generates moods and emotions, and the shifts in emotion, the intensity of it, and the musicianship of course. And the influence is evident in many bands (Arcturus, Dimmu, Emperor, Elend, My Dying Bride, Opeth)

Though having said that I can't stomach most popular classical music (Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi etc).

Have been enjoying Michael Nyman's work lately, also Henryk Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, and Chopin and Rachmaninov are always favourites.

I find it harder to find classical music I like than with metal, I pretty much have to randomly choose things to listen to, so I would like to hear anyone else's suggestions.

 

[byrne]

i dont have anything more than an amateur appreciation for its importance and influence over music. i do enjoy the "popular classics" though (but not on a regular basis). i think you have to be studying music to have a proper appreciation for most of the works from the genre.

i dont really see the "classical" influences in opeth though, nor emperor for that matter - nothing beyond a very basic level anyway.

 

[CAIRATH]

Yeah I don't think there are any. I have never heard Mikael mention being influenced by anything classical. Opeth's influences are mostly prog/folk/metal related.

I have never found much classical music that sits well with me for some reason, eventhough I do want to like it. My mother plays the piano and listens to loads of classical music so I've passively heard a lot of it and nothing ever really did anything for me. Most of it sounds very empty and soulless to my ears.

The only kind of classical music I think I could really enjoy is tranquil, depressing dirgy music (strictly minor chords basically). I'm sure there is piano-driven music like what I am looking for outthere somewhere but I have no idea where to even start looking for it. But normal classical compositions are not my thing.

 

[unknown]

Philip Glass is probably my favorite composer. His piano works are some of the most beautiful compositions I've ever heard. Rattling off some others...
Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on Bald Mountain)
Chopin
Holst (Mars Bringer of war...end of discussion)
Charles ives
Stravinsky
Beethoven
Schoenberg

that's about it. good stuff. and yeah, I can agree with you on that it's hard to find classical music that easily stands out. A lot of it blurs together as a result of composers from the same era and whatnot. I guess that's why I like a lot of 20th century composers because they're pretty distinct (Glass with minimalism, Ives and Schoenberg with atonalism and just off the wall shit).

 

[Fractal_Mortality]

Metallized Classical

Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
Sergei Prokofiev - The Scythian Suite
Gustav Holst - "The Planets" (particularly Mars: The Bringer of War)
Béla Bartók - The Miraculous Mandarin
Edvard Grieg - "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
Carl Orff - Carmina Burana
Edgard Varèse - Arcana
Mussourgsky - "Night On Bald Mountain"
Richard Wagner - Twilight of the Gods

 

[The Heartbreak Kid]

Classical is pretty cool, just to relax to. Mozart and Beethoven i really enjoy

 

[Ender Rises]

Classical is excellent, I enjoy listening to classical very much.
I need more classical. If Limewire would quit being gay...

 

[Dazed and Brutal]

This would go in non-metal, but w/e

Igor Stravinsky is my favorite composer.

 

[wolf]

Does anyone know who the composer is for "Hall of the mountain king" ?

One of my all time favorites.

 

[Thoth-Amon]

Does anyone know who the composer is for "Hall of the mountain king" ?

One of my all time favorites.

Grieg. It's from the 1st Peer Gynt Suite. It's the fourth movement.

 

[Ender Rises]

Grieg. It's from the 1st Peer Gynt Suite. It's the fourth movement.

Impressed

 

[Thoth-Amon]

Impressed

Look at my sig...

 

[wolf]

Thanks. Now I can hear the original.

 

[Thoth-Amon]

Thanks. Now I can hear the original.

 

[Valerie]

No one has mentioned Jean Sibelius

The Swan of Tuonela is probably my favorite classical piece.

 

[PanzerKunt]

Only classical I like is a couple songs by the Great Kat. The rest is just boring.

 

[Trylakos]

I don't know a whole lot but I have some appreciation for Glass, John Adams, Stravinsky, Bartok and Boulez and especially Shostakovich. I only really find the modern classical extremely good.

 

[TylerTheNuke]

Metallized Classical

Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
Sergei Prokofiev - The Scythian Suite
Gustav Holst - "The Planets" (particularly Mars: The Bringer of War)
Béla Bartók - The Miraculous Mandarin
Edvard Grieg - "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
Carl Orff - Carmina Burana
Edgard Varèse - Arcana
Mussourgsky - "Night On Bald Mountain"
Richard Wagner - Twilight of the Gods

Yes. Listen to this guy for "heavy classical". On the rite of spring, you can actually hear some of future metal. The second movement "riff" I heard on many metal songs. Don't know if it is actually metal bands listening to it or a king crimson song which twisted that riff into an early and slightly influential metal song, but I have heard it in several songs.

If you prefer minor and meloncholy, try the moonlight sonata by beethoven. It is beautiful.

 

[Thoth-Amon]

Only classical I like is a couple songs by the Great Kat. The rest is just boring.

No it isn't. Your tastes are simply undeveleoped.

 

[Thoth-Amon]

I don't know a whole lot but I have some appreciation for Glass, John Adams, Stravinsky, Bartok and Boulez and especially Shostakovich. I only really find the modern classical extremely good.

I'm sure you'd get into the Romantic era quite easily. I find the Romantic and Modern overall to be the most interesting but some of my favorite composers can be found in other eras.