09-12-2020, 11:39 AM
Going to go with 3 of my favorite somber pieces of music I listen to:
1. Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber:
This piece was an arrangement of the 2nd movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11, written in 1936. This arrangement was written in the same year; it's one the most famous classical pieces of music, as it is somewhat America's song for mourning. It was performed at FDR's funeral and after JFK's assassination. Spotify has Leonard Bernstein's performance of this piece, which is probably the best recorded performance out there, but this one by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra isn't bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3MHe
2. Anakin's Betrayal by John Williams:
For context, this piece is in the movie Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It is played at the scene of "Order 66" being executed. I can listen to the first 1:30 of this piece for hours. In fact, I've done it before; it's such a dramatic piece, and I love every bit of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2p-im7cxa4
3: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem in D minor (K.626):
The entire requiem itself is 55 minutes long (which is probably much longer than what most of you listen to), but I really think it is worth the time (at least, the Introitus, Kyrie, and Sequentia are). A quick rundown of what a Requiem is: It is a Mass written for the death of someone. Some people theorize that he wrote this for himself, but it's not confirmed. Anyway, the sections of Mozart's Requiem in particular are the Introitus, Kyrie, Sequentia (Sequence), Offertorium, Sanctus and Benedictus, the Agnus Dei, and the Communio. Most orchestras stop after the Lacrimosa in the Sequentia because that is the last portion of the Requiem that Mozart wrote; the rest was written by Franz Sussmayr, a composition student of Mozart's. It's nowhere near as good as the first 3 parts of the Reqiuem.
There are two movements inside one portion of this Mass that are my favorite. They both occur in the Sequentia: Confutatis maledictis and Lacrimosa dies illa. If you scroll down to the description of the video, you can just time skip to these movements. If nothing else, listen to those two movements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPlhKP0nZII&t=2770s
Confutatis: 22:13
Lacrimosa: 24:32
1. Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber:
This piece was an arrangement of the 2nd movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11, written in 1936. This arrangement was written in the same year; it's one the most famous classical pieces of music, as it is somewhat America's song for mourning. It was performed at FDR's funeral and after JFK's assassination. Spotify has Leonard Bernstein's performance of this piece, which is probably the best recorded performance out there, but this one by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra isn't bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3MHe
2. Anakin's Betrayal by John Williams:
For context, this piece is in the movie Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It is played at the scene of "Order 66" being executed. I can listen to the first 1:30 of this piece for hours. In fact, I've done it before; it's such a dramatic piece, and I love every bit of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2p-im7cxa4
3: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem in D minor (K.626):
The entire requiem itself is 55 minutes long (which is probably much longer than what most of you listen to), but I really think it is worth the time (at least, the Introitus, Kyrie, and Sequentia are). A quick rundown of what a Requiem is: It is a Mass written for the death of someone. Some people theorize that he wrote this for himself, but it's not confirmed. Anyway, the sections of Mozart's Requiem in particular are the Introitus, Kyrie, Sequentia (Sequence), Offertorium, Sanctus and Benedictus, the Agnus Dei, and the Communio. Most orchestras stop after the Lacrimosa in the Sequentia because that is the last portion of the Requiem that Mozart wrote; the rest was written by Franz Sussmayr, a composition student of Mozart's. It's nowhere near as good as the first 3 parts of the Reqiuem.
There are two movements inside one portion of this Mass that are my favorite. They both occur in the Sequentia: Confutatis maledictis and Lacrimosa dies illa. If you scroll down to the description of the video, you can just time skip to these movements. If nothing else, listen to those two movements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPlhKP0nZII&t=2770s
Confutatis: 22:13
Lacrimosa: 24:32
