Music you'd describe as "haunting"

I always think Prokofiev’s 1st Piano Concerto sounds like Bernard Herrmann.

 

Wow. I sure don't think that.

But your post prompted me to listen to a scorching version of this concerto by Marta Agerich (whom I absolutely love). Damn, what brilliant playing.

Also checked in on concerto No. 3 (also played by Argerich). Lovely, especially that quasi-neopolitan-song slow movement, but still not much like BH.

Speaking of classical music, I always hear passages of Debussy's Nocturnes 1 & 2 and La Mer as being distinctly film soundtrack-ish, though all were written before there were any film soundtracks, at least in the way we know them now..

 

Annie Lennox / Howard Shore - Into The West (from "The Return of The King" soundtrack)



Saint Saens - Aquarium from The Carnival of The Animals



Allegri - Miserere

 

Ha ha, when I hear those rising and falling chords I always think of BH - ain’t music grand! Couldn’t agree more with you about Debussy, especially the opening of La Mer - so evocative! I saw Jean Efflam Bavouzet here last year on his 60th birthday. I love his Debussy on Hyperion and I also greatly admire the Scotsman, Gordon Fergus Thompson who was a revelation to me when he released his Debussy years ago.
I’ve always loved Martha and was saddened when she became to sick to make the trek down here. Like many others I imagine, her Rach 3 is my go to, although she leaves poor old Ricardo and the band in the dust after half a dozen bars! Ha ha.

 

I came to this for the choral writing--but it's the piano part that amazes me. French impressionist music doesn't get any prettier than this.

 

And then there's this longer piece by Lili Boulanger. She wrote it on her deathbed...the next to last piece she wrote. And to my ears, it's a revelation...the harmonies are beyond belief. A sad, dark, beautiful piece ("One Sad Night"):

 

sbaf rec ftw as always

 

https://almostholyost.bandcamp.com/album/almost-holy-original-motion-picture-soundtrack

The movie is also absolutely harrowing.

 

A soft, pretty tune.

If I were a depraved Blumhouse Producer/Director, I would obtain rights to use this in the soundtrack of an especially depraved, dark horror film. I would use this tune as the backdrop for the bloodiest, most awful scene, the kind that really gut-punches an audience. The contrast between this tune and the onscreen atrocity would amplify everything.

Gotta go--they just shoved lunch through the slot in my cell door.

 

One of the most haunting, unsettling movie soundtracks ever was the one Mica Levi wrote for the 2014 film, UNDER THE SKIN. Both the film and soundrack impressed me greatly and have stayed with me ever since.

This music goes beyond atonal to frankly inhuman--exactly the point of this story.

PS: I just bought this soundtrack for download. Have been meaning to forever/finally did.

 

This music stopped me in my tracks decades ago. The effect never varies. Listening to it right now...it will be in my head for days.