Spooky piano pieces

[jas_sorian]

Nothing too hard. I just found Liszt's "Nuages Gris" and I liked it. Chopin's Prelude Op 28 No 2 is also quite disturbing.

[iratior]

For spooky pieces, there's Scarlatti K. 173, Brahms G-minor rhapsody, Liszt's Mephisto Waltz, and Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.  Scarlatti K. 173 is especially worth checking out.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Nothing too hard. I just found Liszt's "Nuages Gris" and I liked it. Chopin's Prelude Op 28 No 2 is also quite disturbing.

You hink that's spooky?  Try listening to these!

Scriabian sonatas 6-10, try listening to these first before everything I mention.  
Ravel's Scarbo
Prokofiev's Diabolique Suggestions
Anything from Schoenberg or atonal

Or actually you can listen to any or Scriabians late works, but I think his Sonatas are the creepiest.  He was scared to perform his 6th one on public.  He would play a few measures and recoil back in fear!  I think that one was named the insect sonata?  So then he composed his 7th one "White Mass" to exorcise the 6th one, but that one is pretty scary as well.  And then there's the 9th "Black Mass" sonata!  That one is soo creepy!!!  I imagine the beginning to sound like people saying their prayers backwards because that's what they do at a black mass, and then it turns into this really weird orgy and people drinking each others blood and pee, slitting each others throats, insects flying everywhere feeding on the dead, it's sooooooo creepy and disgusting!  Those I think are the scariest, but the 8th and 10th are pretty scary as well.  Oh and you should listen to the 5th one!  It's more romantic than scary, but it's like literally about sex and drugs.  The beginning and the end projects a person getting REALLY high!!!  But yeah, if you listen to the 9th or 6th in the dark, you'll be like really creeped out.  

And then there's Ravel's Scarbo!  It was supposed to be the most difficult work in all repertoire, but now we have Petrouchka, Scriabin's 7th, 8th, and 5th sonata, etc.  It's based off of a poem about a little monster running around in the night trolling people.  It's pretty scary, you're like in your bed, and this monster is running around your room, so you hear something, but then you look, and nothing is there!  Or you see a shadow, it gets bigger and bigger, but then it disappears!  this is supposed to be a nightmare to listen to, and play considering it's difficulty.

And finally there's Prokofiev's Diabolique Suggestions!  I don't think it's as creepy as above, but I'm pretty sure this has been used in horror movies.  You're probably really familiar with this once you hear it.
 

Oh wow never mind!  I didn't know it couldn't be too difficult!  Sorry.  But you should listen to them anyways!

[philb]

I think that one was named the insect sonata? 

I believe his 10th sonata was what he called "The Sonata of Insects".

And then there's Ravel's Scarbo!  It was supposed to be the most difficult work in all repertoire, but now we have Petrouchka, Scriabin's 7th, 8th, and 5th sonata, etc.

I would actually say Ondine is much more difficult than Scarbo musically, and perhaps even technically.
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Henry Cowell's Banshee is pretty eerie, if you would could call it a piano piece.

[drkilroy]

Le gibet from Gaspard de la nuit by Ravel is way, way, way scarier than Scarbo. Try listening to it in dark (and check out what it is about ).

Perhaps Scarbo is often refered to as scary because it is scarily difficult. Le gibet is quite manageable, if you have got large hands.

Best regards, Dr

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I would actually say Ondine is much more difficult than Scarbo musically, and perhaps even technically.
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I agree that it's more difficult, but I wouldn't say much more difficult.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Le gibet from Gaspard de la nuit by Ravel is way, way, way scarier than Scarbo. Try listening to it in dark (and check out what it is about ).

How could I forget about Le Gibet?!!!

[taoo]

i have listened to all those pieces suggested but i dont find anything really spooky there..

perhaps some of saties things are a little bit spooky. like some of the gnossienens and the some of the six pieces froides (no 1 & 4.)

hope there will be some more recomendations!!

[cadenza14224]

As mentioned before, just so I can reinforce it more:

-The final Scriabin Sonatas (extremely unsettling and eccentric music)
-"Scarbo" from Ravel's Gaspard De La Nuit (Listening to this makes me extremely uncomfortable for some reason)
-Chopin Preludes Op. 28 no's 2, 14, and 18. (the more morose and stranger of his preludes)
-Movement 4 of Chopin's 2nd Piano Sonata (pretty creepy after the funeral march)
-Rachmaninoff Etude Tableaux op. 39 no. 1 (total rage/monstrosity...more spiteful than creepy)

[rachmaninoff_forever]

i have listened to all those pieces suggested but i dont find anything really spooky there..

perhaps some of saties things are a little bit spooky. like some of the gnossienens and the some of the six pieces froides (no 1 & 4.)

hope there will be some more recomendations!!

They're sooo beautiful!

Try Prokofiev's second piano concerto!  Especially movements one and and three.

The first 20 seconds of the first on you'll be like, 'oh this sounds pretty nice...  What the heck?!  Are you kidding me?!'

I think the world war two images really add to the effect

[sphince]

scriabin's black mass sonata.. obliviously

[49410enrique]

satie was mentioned upstairs this piece has some similarities but somewhow conveys a more erie feeling , to me at least.

bran bal the souless villiage
c. n uematsu

prokofiev was also tagged, this one sorta remeinds me of some of his 'quieter' moments
id mentioned this on a thread before asking a similar question, this one gives me the creeps.
succession of witches
c. n uemtatsu

[stoudemirestat]

These.

[redbaron]

Brahms - Ballade in D minor, Op 10, No 1
Chopin - Funeral March (bit obvious I know)
Debussy - Canope
Mussorgsky - The Old Castle, Catacombs and Cum Mortuis in Mortua Lingua from Pictures at an Exhibition
Ravel - Le Gibet and Scarbo from Gaspard de la nuit
Satie - Gnossiene No 1
Scriabin - The sonatas in general and No's 9 and 10 in particular
Sibelius - Song in the Forest Op 114
Tchaikovsky - The Castle Ruins Op 2

[jas_sorian]

I imagine the beginning to sound like people saying their prayers backwards because that's what they do at a black mass, and then it turns into this really weird orgy and people drinking each others blood and pee, slitting each others throats, insects flying everywhere feeding on the dead, it's sooooooo creepy and disgusting!  

Disgusting. I remember listening to some Scriabin and Ravel while cramming for a paper about classical music. Turns out it was a bad choice.  

Prokofiev's Diabolique Suggestions is quite loud to be spooky.  

I shall listen to the other suggestions later.  

[redbaron]

Le gibet from Gaspard de la nuit by Ravel is way, way, way scarier than Scarbo. Try listening to it in dark (and check out what it is about ).

Definitely

[49410enrique]

Brahms - Ballade in D minor, Op 10, No 1
Chopin - Funeral March (bit obvious I know)
Debussy - Canope
Mussorgsky - The Old Castle, Catacombs and Cum Mortuis in Mortua Lingua from Pictures at an Exhibition
Ravel - Le Gibet and Scarbo from Gaspard de la nuit
Satie - Gnossiene No 1
Scriabin - The sonatas in general and No's 9 and 10 in particular
Sibelius - Song in the Forest Op 114
Tchaikovsky - The Castle Ruins Op 2

Brahms - Ballade in D minor, Op 10, No 1
Chopin - Funeral March (bit obvious I know)
Debussy - Canope
Mussorgsky - The Old Castle, Catacombs and Cum Mortuis in Mortua Lingua from Pictures at an Exhibition
Ravel - Le Gibet and Scarbo from Gaspard de la nuit
Satie - Gnossiene No 1
Scriabin - The sonatas in general and No's 9 and 10 in particular
Sibelius - Song in the Forest Op 114
Tchaikovsky - The Castle Ruins Op 2

great list!! really quite excellent should be a good reference post for whenthe question pops up again in the future

[speedcuber]

what about this?

[opus10no2]

[j_menz]

How could I forget about Le Gibet?!!!

Senility setting in, now you're an old man? 

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Let me add the Marche Funebre from Alkan's Op 39 etudes, and his La Vent from trois morceaux dans le genre pathetique.  The marche funebre is normally played to fast to be either spooky or a funeral march, but slow it down to the pace of the Chopin, and you'll see what I mean.

[pianoplunker]

I once had a nightmare in which Bach Invention #8 was playing in the background. I have always felt creepy about Invention #8 ever since.  I dont know why but in the dream it was just ghastly having that music playing. Up until then in real life it was an innocent piece of music which I had practiced and accomplished.  Another piece of music I find scary/creepy is a rock song from the 1960s called "Riders On the Storm" by a group called "The Doors". 

[gore234]

Lowell Liebermann-Gargoyles op.29 no. 1-4
here is no.4 which is one of my favorites

Carl Czerny op.740 etudes #37, and #50 are pretty cool and sound dark but are not too evil sounding.

Bach prelude in a minor BWV543 (liszt transciption) sounds kinda dark to me.

Rachmaninoff's Musical Moment No. 4 in E sounds dark to me as well.
 

[decryptox]

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=46455.0

About how spooky scriabin's sixth sonata is...

[sophie117]

Bartok's The Night's Music from Out of Doors.
Messe Noir by Scriabin. any late Scriabin really

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

That's one hell of a vid you recommended there, rachmaninoff_forever Cheers!
And to the OP: you might also like Prokofiev's 'Vision Fugitive No.17 Op.22', a rather short piece but so creepy in its own right... :S

Regards,
Musikalischer Wirbelwind