I’m very fond of Philip Glass. I love Einstein on the Beach, but this may be more accessible.
Don’t know whether this has been mentioned yet.
Bachianas Brasileira #5 by Villa-Lobos.
Oops! I actually am reading this thread carefully – and taking lots and lots of notes! – but I slipped up and duplicated your recommendation. Sorry. Also…no, I hadn’t heard this development! Fascinating! Thank you for the heads-up!
Excellent choice; I was going to post that. I like the version by Joan Baez.
I love all of Verdi’s Requiem and would die to have it performed at my funeral. Here’s a taste. Flashy, operatic, and wild. It has to be a favorite of timpani players everywhere.
That’s fantastic. As an (amateur) early musician, I thank you for the link!
In a very similar (and contemporaneous) vein, there are a whole series of “Cries of London” compositions from late-1500’s England. Dering and Gibbons both did versions, and Dering also did a “Country Cries” which goes into hilarious detail about all of the goings-on in a country village (including clucking chickens and a rabbit hunt with barking dogs).
Indeed! Superb rendition.
The music for the barn raising scene in Witness, by Maurice Jarre. Very good.
I adore Richard Dering’s The Cries of London! The business where the Town Crier comes bustling through, officiously, and asks if anyone knows of a grey mare with a black tail, having but three legs and both her eyes out – all that’s missing is the punch line, “Known by the name of ‘Lucky.’” – is hilarious. The whole thing is witty.
Another peddler’s song is “A Peddler’s Song” – well, duh – which begins, “Will ye buy a fine dog, with a hole in its head.” I’ve always wondered if that meant one of those ceramic pen-holders you still see around today. The song goes on to say, “With a dildo.” Did that mean then what it means today?
Awesome! Thanks for those links.
Nevertheless, unexpectedly NSFW video.
WTF???
Sorry about that… I found the music on Youtube, let it play, and clicked away to other tabs. Here’s an SFW version.
Some excellent selections guys. Allow me to add…
“Lux Arumque” by Eric Whitacre. Choral piece, debuted as a virtual choral piece on that link.
Three Places in New England by Charles Ives. Orchestral piece that borrows heavily from American folk tunes, sometimes in different keys and even tempos simultaneously. Very odd, and cool.
1000 Airplanes on the Roof by Philip Glass. Glass brings his minimalist sensibilities to a science fiction inspired work with heavy synthesizer use. Just don’t ask me what it’s about. I haven’t a clue.
La Cheminee Du Roi Rene by Darius Milhaud. Finally some chamber music. This piece written for woodwind quintet was is contemporary, but inspired by medievial music. It’s one of my favorites.
You want weird?
Stargazing by Donald Erb, a piece in several movements.
“The Stars Come Out” had various instruments producing apparently random brief notes, but the number and concentration increased as the piece progressed, duplicating the appearance of the stars in the evening. “Comets, Meteors, and Shooting Stars” gave us appropriately swooshing sounds. “The Surface of the Sun” featured a lot of flutter-tongued brass notes, I suppose to duplicate solar prominences and flares. tasped electronic music backed up my high school symphonic band when we played this.
Here’s one description:
http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/knorman/521/new.html
Someone told me that, as he walked off the stage (to uncertain applause) our bandmaster remarked “That’s my joke on the high school.”
Here’s some other school doing it. :
The bit about the dude looking for his lost, broken-down horse occurs in all the versions of the “Cries” I’ve encountered. I guess the modern equivalent would be like someone posting flyers for a stolen car - a primer-grey Yugo with no bumpers, one headlight and three flat tires. 
I honestly have no idea about the “dildo” thing.
The best album I have found for this type of thing is this one by Theatre of Voices and Fretwork. It also contains William Cobbold’s “New Fashions”, which talks about the fickleness of taste while incorporating snippets of music and lyrics from at least ten popular songs of the late 1500’s.
Another favorite. Charles Ives pieces for 2 pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart.
Most people I've met find these unlistenable, but I think they're wonderful. Interestingly, the only other person I know who shares my appreciation for them is the guy who turned me on to them- a fellow Piano Technician.I’ll see that with Gayageum Hendrix
And raise you with killer Bayan Vivaldi
I think we took the OP too literally… “Cool and Unusual” may means quite a different thing to someone who only has a superficial knowledge of classical music.
Based upon the one example given (minor key, intense rhythmic, melodic)… I have come up with the following (possibly suggested already):
[ul]
[li]Bachanelle from “Sampson and Delilah”[/li][li]Jazz Waltz No. 2[/li][li]Dance of the Knights[/li][/ul]
Oh, here’s another: Masquerade waltz