Best 'sad' piece.

banquo

alright, this thread was bound to come into existence eventually, so lets have it: allegro or andante it doesnt matter, what is, in your opinion, the 'saddest' piece you know?

for me it's Mozart's 23rd piano concerto, 3nd movement. unbeatable.

can anyone convince me otherwise?

fade2black

This may not count...but it damn well should!!! The Forrest Gump Suite and the track Honor him from the Gladiator. in my opinion. It doesn't have to be old to be classical.

Karl Hungus

The Moonlight Sonata always seems to strike a chord with me so to speak.

RuggieBear

does addagio for strings count.....(platoon sound track) or is that too cliched!?

jimi_t

Barber's Adagio For Strings is certainly in a lot of war movies (and one terrible episode of the Simpsons)

Doper Than U

Another contemporary one... The main theme from Schindler's List by John Williams. Simple but beautiful, perhaps this is sad by association, but it still makes me shed a tear when I hear it.

catho_monster

Brahm's tragic overture.
depths of depression music...

banquo

excellent! the classical music forum lives!

REDZ

mahler :rolleyes:

fatherdougalmag

There's only one sad one for me and it's got to be Dido's lament (RealAudio or RealAlternative needed).

Thy hand, Belinda; darkness shades me:
On thy bosom let me rest:
More I would, but Death invades me:
Death is now a welcome guest.

When I am laid in earth, may my wrongs create
No trouble in thy breast;
Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.

Short, sweet and very very sad.

fatherdougalmag

Lest I forget, Gorečki's Symphony of Sorrowful songs. I remember watching a thing some years ago about the holocaust. It was just this suite playing and various images from the holocaust era. Very very haunting. Lump in throat stuff.

fatherdougalmag

Croft Burial Sentences. Sang these a few times. One of those had to be there things.

Honestly, I'm a nice guy

fatherdougalmag

When you get to know me.

Another one sprung to mind, "O vos omnes" set to music by Pablo Casals. Starts like this (MP3 - mmmmmm ... false relations) and climaxes like this (RM).

"O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam, attendite, et videte si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus"

"All ye who pass this way, look and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow`".

Grizabella

The 2nd movement of Mozart's piano concerto in A major is a real tearjerker.

billy the squid

RuggieBear wrote:

does addagio for strings count.....(platoon sound track) or is that too cliched!?

this is an opinion so anyone out there is free to disagree with me, but I would consider orchestral movie scores as classical music in that they can tell a story in the same way as say the 1812 ovoture.

the adagio for strings would have been the one I would have put down as well as moonlight senata, although someone else has put that down as well.

Talliesin

billy the squid wrote:

I would consider orchestral movie scores as classical music

They can be certainly. Adagio for strings wasn't written as a score anyway.

I think I'd go for Abinoni's Adagio in G minor for Strings and Organ or the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Piano Sonata 14.

simu

Zbigniew Preisner's music for the film Three Colours: Blue I found to be quite wrenching. There are links to his discography on that page.

Strictly speaking, this music is too modern to be classified as classical music, I'd imagine, but the forum charter says any sort of orchestral music may be discussed here so it should be ok.

Talliesin

simu wrote:

Strictly speaking, this music is too modern to be classified as classical music, I'd imagine

Classical is more to do with the style than the time, though that would mean Chopin and Field would be ruled out (as Romantic rather than Classical), and I think we're allowed to discuss them here.
That said I knew someone that argued in a Music PhD thesis that Chopin was actually Classical rather than Romantic. Can't say that I understood what she was talking about though

Metacortex

Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata'.

snoopish

Big My Secret by Michael Nyman...sends a shiver down my spine.

OY

Satie
Gymnopédie No. 2

Elessar

There are quite a few on the tip of my tongue! But one that springs to mind is Howard Shore's LOTR score, particularly The Breaking of the Fellowship.

Another one oddly, for me, is Ode to Joy (I forget who composed it, Mozart or Bethovan?).

Chagall

Has to be Max Bruch's " Kol Nidrei." adagio on a hebrew melody. op. 47
listen to it. approx length 10min.30.sec.

Dublin's Finest

i'd say Clair de Lune or the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana.

Lovely stuff though.

Fantasy

Doper Than U wrote:

Another contemporary one... The main theme from Schindler's List by John Williams. Simple but beautiful, perhaps this is sad by association, but it still makes me shed a tear when I hear it.

Absolutly agree with that ! Its definatly a tearjerker. Also Ennio Morricones "Chi Mai" ...another sad one.

Walter_Sobcek

Probably a little out of bounds here but what about

"God moving over the face of water" by Moby.

Could it be considered classical?

Talliesin

OY wrote:

Satie
Gymnopédie No. 2

All three fit the bill well.