"Brutal" piano music?

[Bob]

I was listening to the soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean, I was wondering if there is any piano music in a similar style?  Or anything even close?

The CD I'm listening to is Pirates of the Caribbean, composed by Klaus Badelt, but is very similar in style to Hans Zimmer's Gladiator.  The CD cover says the music was "overproduced" (whatever that means) by Hans Zimmer.

Is there any piano music like this?  Or even any piano music that sounds like movie music?

The music is very rhythmic and has a more burtal, savage quality to it.  I would imagine something on the piano would have to use the piano in a much more percussive way to achieve a similar effect.


Sidenote: After reading about the gender differences in playing and performing, this style of music I would definite say is masculine.  (I don't mean to insult anyone by saying something is masculine or feminine.  I do think there are certain characteristics emphasized by either gender, whether it's genetic or something society has developed in us though.)  There does seem to be some deep powerful oomph to the music that is satisfying to listen to (and probably to play).  Kind of like slamming a ball just the right way with a baseball bat -- If this feeling is genetic, then I would imagine only the guys would understand this and the ladies wouldn't have much of a clue of what I'm talking about.  Maybe it's music for energizing morale or taking out your agressions.


Sidenote:  It does seem like certain ensembles have certain types of music.  And those ensembles (or instruments) are stuck in those styles.  I wonder why you can't successfully transfer a style to a different instrument.  (like this brutal style to piano)

[rachlisztchopin]

try some bartok music like allegro barbaro and romanian dance no.1 those are both amazing pieces! and they are very percussive
a lot of modern classical music seems to be percussive...even prokofievs stuff...im still exploring modern composers though
i plan on transcribing lord of the rings symphony to piano someday ....and thats a very percussive piece

[presto agitato]

Porkofiev´s Toccata 
Liszt´s Trascendental Etude num 8
Chopin´s Etude Op 10-4

Those are exmaples that what id call "brutal piano pieces"

[bernhard]

Ornstein - Wild Man’s Dance
Barber – Sonata Op. 26
Sorabji – anything .

[m]

Schostakowitch, Prelude and fugue in D flat Major. I don't know anything more "brutal" in terms of music, execution, and just... memorizing. His 1st Sonata is also quite a piece.

[fnork]

Villa-lobos - Rudepoema (dedicated to Rubinstein. It translates "Savage poem"), one of the most brutal pieces I can think of.

[Nightscape]

Stravinsky - 3 Movements from Petrouchka

Rzewski - Winnisboro Cotton Mill Blues (from North American Ballades)

[DarkWind]

Ornstein - Wild Man’s Dance
Barber – Sonata Op. 26
Sorabji – anything .

Took the words right out of the mouth. This was basically exactly what I was going to say. Also, add Suicide in an Airplane for Ornstein.

[Derek]

Liszt's Funerale is definitely brutal. so is a couple of his transcendental etudes. and...several things by Scriabin and Rachmaninov. Try some of Rachmaninov's etudes-tableaux, or Scriabin's late sonatas like the Black Mass.

[jpowell]

Among the brutal more recent pieces, there is A corde (1996) by Gilberto Cappelli. It is pretty tough stuff, published by Ricordi.

[jcromp78]

Some   Alkan can be pretty brutal.Try his Festin D'esope or second movement of his op 33 Grand Sonata. Prokofiev can be pretty brutal as well, especially the Second Concerto cadenza, WOW.

[hodi]

if u look for BRUTAL piano music try rachmaninov and liszt

[shasta]

Brutal piano music:  How about that black-key-only knuckle thing played by a group of 7 year olds on their elementary school honky-tonk upright...   

[Troldhaugen]

Stravinsky - 3 Movements from Petrouchka

I've never thought Petrushka as a "brutal" piece though there are some measures that could be so. But, otherwise children would've not liked it.

I second Prokofiev's Toccata. How about Liszt's Transcendetal Etude No.6?   

[DarkWind]

Also, if you want more than piano, try Roussel's Piano Concerto. Now THATS brutal!

[anda]

Porkofiev´s Toccata 
Liszt´s Trascendental Etude num 8
Chopin´s Etude Op 10-4

Those are exmaples that what id call "brutal piano pieces"

ok, prokofiev (and not just the toccata, try sonatas 6 and 7 or certain passages in his concertos), ok liszt (many many many of his works), but chopin op.10 no.4?

[anda]

iranyi - de profundis
haciaturian - cadenza of the concerto 1st part
prokofiev - etude no.4

[m1469]

Kind of like slamming a ball just the right way with a baseball bat -- If this feeling is genetic, then I would imagine only the guys would understand this and the ladies wouldn't have much of a clue of what I'm talking about.

I would not be too sure about that if I was you 

[DarkWind]

How about Antheil's Sonata Sauvage? At one point it says "with fist."

[anda]

How about Antheil's Sonata Sauvage? At one point it says "with fist."

col pugno - also in prokofiev 5th somewhere in bars 4-8

[Bob]

Just so everyone knows, I'm talking about music that has a savage emotion -- not "brutally" difficult.

I don't know if I should ask but here goes -- m1469?  What do you mean?  You mean women have that same feeling?

[m1469]

 

[anda]

Just so everyone knows, I'm talking about music that has a savage emotion -- not "brutally" difficult.

prokofiev 1st
skrjabin - all sonatas
brahms 1st, 2nd, violin concert, double concert, violin sonatas, viola sonatas, cello sonatas, all 4 symphonies, and pretty much everything else

[ravel]

prokofiev piano concertos  specially no.2 , bartok piano concerto no.1,2  bartok piano sonata, prokofiev piano sonatas, speically 6,7,
debussy prelude " what the west wind saw" i dont know which one it is, but its from book one just before the girl with the flaxen hair,  a lot of lizst, etc etc etc, oh and scriabins sonatas

[Inscape]

I'd say that Dance of the Dwarves by Ornstein is pretty brutal.  Also  Feux d'artifice by Debussy is brutal.

[Bacfokievrahms]

I don't know, most of the pieces mentioned so far I'd compare to like some kind of dog with a tear in its right eye and a knife in its left eye (i.e. they lack brutality). I recommend Franz Schuberts Erlking but only if you learn to sing it and play it at the same time cuz the tempo is pretty brutal but the lyrics are like a tank that's cooking your mind in a frying pan (i.e. obviously brutal).

[burstroman]

Brutal:  Shostakovich, Sonata # 1
             Chavez, Sonata # 2
            Ornstein, "Suicide in an airplane"

[e60m5]

Liszt - Totentanz.

No question.

[Etude]

=

[opus10no2]

Schostakowitch, Prelude and fugue in D flat Major. I don't know anything more "brutal" in terms of music, execution, and just... memorizing. His 1st Sonata is also quite a piece.

Richter owns this, agree.

m1469 is right, women know how to be brutal too

The aesthetic of black and death metal is an interesting place to take influence from.

Undeniably brutal music much of the time, and much of this aesthetic is of course due to distortion and sonority, but the primal element is a constant crushing rhythm.

One of the reasons this is difficult to reproduce on a piano is fatigu...

Bartok's piano and percussion sonata is a very interesting format, actually allowing for a relatively similar brutal aesthetic to that of more extreme metal.

An unpitched percussion set makes brutality so much more effective and easier 

[gymnopedist]

The Danza Criolla from the American Preludes by Ginastera is very brutal. Actually, a lot of Ginastera is brutal, or at least very percussive.

[nolan]

The first and fourth movements of Corigliano's Piano Concerto can be pretty brutal.

[maxreger]

Xenakis- Synaphai... not sure what is more brutal than that. I love the piece, and "Brutal", "Grotesque", and "Violent" come to mind.

I dont agree with much of anyones list so far. Rudepoema is a good one too I think, at least in parts.

Non piano music I would go with the Penderecki- threnody.

I love all 3 works very much.

[mephisto]

You would not agree with Ornstein's Danse Sauvage?

[maxreger]

-Sorry, missed Ornstein...

[pita bread]

Villa-Lobos - Rudepoema

[oscarr111111]

Dethklok.

[danny elfboy]

Kind of like slamming a ball just the right way with a baseball bat -- If this feeling is genetic, then I would imagine only the guys would understand this and the ladies wouldn't have much of a clue of what I'm talking about.

I'm sure ladies can relate with this pretty well, it's just an individual thing, there are guys that wouldn't and girls that would. After all girls too like violent video games, horror stories, bodybuilding, boxing, martial arts. It's absolutely not genetic just cultural that's why emancipation is showing people are individual and that whatever gender has the potential to appreciate whatever thing according to individual sensitivity and tastes, if it was genetic then emancipation would have changed nothing and all girls would still be frail, scared and subservient. An analysis of history shows on the other hand it was just internalized cultural manipulation. Sorry to disgress just felt the need to say this.

[counterpoint]

if u look for BRUTAL piano music try rachmaninov and liszt

very good advice   

[christiaan]

Try Liszt TE#10, hungarian rhapsody no. 12 or chopin`s oktave study.  E von Sauer`s Piano Concerto in e is a good example of BRUTAL PLAYING. O yes, and don`t forget Turina`s Rhapsodia Simfonica for piano and orchestra.

[jacobwynn]

The Khachaturian Piano Concerto is as brutal as it gets, especially played by the wonderful William Kapell.
Not played nowadays much, more's the pity. An interesting concerto.

[retrouvailles]

Wow, these choices are so light. Sometimes I laugh when i read some of them. Xenakis and Finnissy surely can have some of the most brutal music ever. Also, I've heard some Messiaen works that can push the envelope, such as Vingt Regard No. 6.

[danny elfboy]

Wow, these choices are so light. Sometimes I laugh when i read some of them.

You all are focusing on "brutal" but the author referred to "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "The Gladiator".

It means that he is looking for tribal-primordial music. Xenakis and Finnissy imo have nothing to do with that nor some of the other suggestions here. In my opinion what is closer to the style the author of the post is talking about is Bartok and Stravinsky.

[retrouvailles]

I'm sorry, I didnt read that. In that case, I would agree with the mention of Stravinsky. I would like to add Ginastera though. His Piano Concerto No. 2 is very tribal sounding and is one of the most brutal pieces I have ever heard.

[infectedmushroom]

What about Prokofiev's Toccata Op. 11 in D minor?... Or isn't that Brutal enough? 

[failed]

Rachmaninov Op.33, No.9 ?!

[maxy]

To learn anything by Bach is a brutal experience, I find. 

[soliloquy]

Stockhausen Klavierstuck XIII, Barrett Tract or something playable: Cowell Harp of Life.

[sof]

prokofiev sonata no.7 3rd mov.

[fnork]

Villa-Lobos - Rudepoema

good choice! what a piece...