Any classical music geeks out there?

[TroubleBrewing]

I need a couple of classical piece suggestions for a game I'm running.

1) The most fear-inducing piece of classical music you've heard. Like, spine-tingling, cold-shivers-across-the-scalp scary. I'd prefer to keep away from contemporary stuff, but if that's what you've got, I'll take it.

2) I'd like a suggestion for a very moving piece. A real tear-jerker. I'm thinking Chopin, but I'm blanking.

Thanks for all your help, playground.

EDIT: Found my fear piece. "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima", by Penderecki. Seriously chilling stuff.

[Kalirren]

1) I remember going to see the Verdi Requiem when I was young. The transition into the Dies irae, dies illa made me shrink into my seat.

2) Even if you were to find the right piece, a lot of this depends on finding the right recording/interpreter. How would you be using the piece, what sort of occasion for?

[TroubleBrewing]

2) I'm killing off a former PC that's since become a rather beloved NPC. Her death is meant to push the players into buckling down and choosing sides in a long-running conflict that will decide the fate of a city. They'll find her body inside their now-destroyed base, and the villain will have left whatever piece I choose playing on repeat.

[Kalirren]

2) So it's an IC use of music, not mood music? That's completely different from what I was expecting then.

Now I'm asking what sort of motivation the villain has. Why would the villain leave a tear-jerker? Was the villain some sort of "If I can't have you I'll kill you" maniac? It really sounds like you want something that shows what kind of a villain the villain is, not a tear-jerker, which is more like what the PCs would play for her...

[TroubleBrewing]

Well, the villain is a former hero. It's not like he WANTED things to turn out like this; it's just come to this due to circumstances.

[Kalirren]

Okay. I follow. What was his relationship to the deceased, and opinion of her? Is this an iRL/WoD campaign? If so, how religious was he? (I ask because the requiem literature is pretty extensive, and the religious one even more so.)

[TroubleBrewing]

Ha! Good guess. Yeah, it's a Mage game. Their relationship is one of a former alliance brought low by their diversion in paths: they began working together because of a mutual interest in the "spiritual", she through the Spirit arcanum, and he through Death. After five years apart, they re-connected during a battle in Chicago, and she was horrified to find that in the interim time, his fear of dying had lead to his becoming a Tremere Lich. They've been adversarial for the last five sessions or so, and it's come to a head now. He's sorry about it, but it's him or her, and his newfound ruthlessness is going to come out in a big way.

Religion doesn't really come into it, TBH.

[Kalirren]

Brahms, 6 pieces, Op. 118, composed 1893. Anywhere in there will do. It's a longing tribute to a deep, passionate friendship, of minds that evolved in parallel for many, many years.

Reputedly, those were the last pieces that Clara Schumann played before she died.

[Dihan]

You could try Death of Ase by Edvard Grieg.

[supermonkeyjoe]

Classical in style but not in age "An End Once and for All" from the Mass effect 3 soundtrack always gets me going. It may not work if any of your players have played the game as they may associate it with the terrible ending and fly into an unstoppable fury

[Slipperychicken]

2) If you need tears jerked, Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is for you. Disregard the video, close your eyes, and let it take you places. You might recognize it from some movies or games, but it was written in 1936. Also try the choral arrangement. Amazing.

[SassyQuatch]

2) If you need tears jerked, Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is for you. Disregard the video, close your eyes, and let it take you places. You might recognize it from some movies or games, but it was written in 1936. Also try the choral arrangement. Amazing.

No one's left. Everything's gone. Kharak is burning.

Yeah, that was what I was going to go for, right in the old heart button.

[TroubleBrewing]

No one's left. Everything's gone. Kharak is burning.

Homeworld reference? Here, have an internet. Well done.

Incidentally, rather than choosing between any of these excellent options, I've instead decided to just slap them all together into a playlist and use them for the entire session.

Good show, playground.

[Raum]

2) I'd like a suggestion for a very moving piece. A real tear-jerker. I'm thinking Chopin, but I'm blanking.

Taps .

[Slipperychicken]

Homeworld reference? Here, have an internet. Well done.

Is that game any good? I only heard about it when researching Adagio for Strings in anticipation to play it in a competition.


EDIT:
2 for 2) Kevin Macleod has some pretty sad stuff. Would probably go better for a PC death, though.

[Leshy]

For number two, try

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7rxl5KsPjs

[TheDarkSaint]

Vocalise by Rachmaninoff for tear jerkers.

For ominous music, check out Neptune or Saturn by Holst from The Planets.


Mars from the Planets is another good one for battle scenes.

[TroubleBrewing]

Ooooo... The planets. I'd forgotten about that!

[Adoendithas]

2) If you need tears jerked, Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is for you. Disregard the video, close your eyes, and let it take you places. You might recognize it from some movies or games, but it was written in 1936. Also try the choral arrangement. Amazing.

You should also listen to Nimrod from the Enigma Variations. I've played that one myself so I'm a bit biased, but I find it even more touching than the Adagio.

[Slipperychicken]

You should also listen to Nimrod from the Enigma Variations. I've played that one myself so I'm a bit biased, but I find it even more touching than the Adagio.

Oh yes, it's amazing. I played it myself back in high school. Elgar was a genius.

[Rondodu]

For 1), the Don Giovanni scene where the Commandatore comes back always gets me. Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima makes me more tense than anything else; this gives me the chills even on youtube on my crappy loudspeakers.

For 2), Adoramus Te Domine, from El Cancionero de Montecassino. I only know of one version, by La Capella Reial de Catalunya, dir. Jordi Savall.

[hymer]

Albinoni's Adagio is badly overused. But if your players haven't heard it much before, it's definitely the go-to for heart-quivering.

@ Rondodu: Thanks for that (2). Never heard it before, and definitely worth listening to. My life just got a little bit richer.

[Adoendithas]

Oh yes, it's amazing. I played it myself back in high school. Elgar was a genius.

High five.

EDIT: Funny, my composition professor just mentioned the Threnody. I just listened to it, and it definitely fits #1.