depressing music

[calimac]

kip_w has been asking about depressing music by composers other than Shostakovich. I've been trying to think. There are composers of somber music, and of sad music, but I can't think of any other major composers of depressed music. Except Mahler, who was a manic-depressive.

And he wrote mostly symphonies, and K. doesn't listen to many symphonies while I do.

I know a symphony that's commonly taken (though the composer denied it) as an expression of thoughts at the prospect of nuclear war: that's a pretty damn depressing thing to face, and the music is absolutely harrowing. (Ralph Vaughan Williams's Sixth)

I also know a symphony that depicts the composer's near-fatal heart attack, and his feelings afterwards. Judging by the music, he was more dazed than anything else. (Carl Nielsen's Sixth)