The saddest music

[gprengel]

Yesterday I saw the film "Band of Brothers" by Spielberg at German TV with the scene of the liberatation of the captives from the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau which was heartbreaking. But it was even more moving when in this scene among ruins 4 artists sat together performing the 5th movement from Beethoven's c#-minor quartett. I always thought this Adagio to be one of the saddest pieces of music ever written, and found it most appropriate that also Spielberg choose this.

What pieces of utmost human grief do you think of?

Gerd

[Peter]

I think Gorecki's 3rd symphony is one of the most hauntingly miserable pieces I know!

[susanwen]

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What pieces of utmost human grief do you think of?


The rap 'n crap that teenagers listen to nowadays. It grieves that they listen to this - how sad for the human race.

[Casey]

The slow movement of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata. The first movement of Schubert's D960 Sonata is also quite sad (come to think of it, a lot of his late music is quite sad, but he had reason for that).

[HaydnFan]

When I think of music full of grief, I immediately think of Shostakovich...the slow movement from his Symphony No. 5, his String Quartet No. 8 in C minor are two examples.

I think there is no other composer who can express the same "raw tragedy". Beethoven and Schubert come close but I think, are more subtle about it. Shostakovich doesn't hold anything back.

[HaydnFan]

.
The rap 'n crap that teenagers listen to nowadays. It grieves that they listen to this - how sad for the human race.

Ha, I agree with you completely! I am young-ish, myself so it irritates me that my friends listen to this kind of crap.

[Chaszz]

The Crucifixus from Bach's B Minor Mass.

[Peter]

When I think of music full of grief, I immediately think of Shostakovich...the slow movement from his Symphony No. 5, his String Quartet No. 8 in C minor are two examples.

I think there is no other composer who can express the same "raw tragedy". Beethoven and Schubert come close but I think, are more subtle about it. Shostakovich doesn't hold anything back.

How about Tchaikovsky's 6th, last movement? - that is one of the most despairing pieces I can think of.

[Michael]

Yesterday I saw the film "Band of Brothers" by Spielberg at German TV with the scene of the liberatation of the captives from the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau which was heartbreaking. But it was even more moving when in this scene among ruins 4 artists sat together performing the 5th movement from Beethoven's c#-minor quartett. I always thought this Adagio to be one of the saddest pieces of music ever written, and found it most appropriate that also Spielberg choose this.

What pieces of utmost human grief do you think of?

Gerd

I saw the title of this thread and before I opened it, I decided my choice would be the 5th movement of the C sharp minor quartet - and, lo and behold, you were there before me! It was very effective in that scene in "Band of Brothers" especially when the composer's name was mentioned.
One soldier, listening to the players, mutters something about Mozart but is corrected, quite emphatically, by another who says: "That's Beethoven".
I think this tiny movement is the saddest utterance in all music but don't forget that it is really an introduction to the final defiant movement of that wonderful quartet.

Michael

(Actually, now I think of it, it's the 6th movement - the quartet is alway described as being in seven movements - although two of them are really short introductions.)

[susanwen]

The first chord of the second movement of B's Seventh. The depths of despair.

[heidi]

I always thought the 2nd movement of the Eroica sounds quite sad, but Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings' ranks first on my list.

[DavidO]

A number of Vaughan Williams works really work me over in the sadness & poignancy department:

1. The Tallis Fantasia, of course
2. The opening themes of the 3rd Symphony
3. Dives & Lazarus

Also some of Copland's works--particularly those later works that feature near-modal writing with perfect 4ths & hymnal styles:

1. Our Town themes
2. Quiet City
3. Nocturne from Rodeo

Another American, Barber, set a wistful prose poem by James Agee to poignant music in a piece called "Knoxville: Summer of 1915."

Ravel's Mere L'Oye: the 3rd section (Tom Thumb) as well as those utterly sublime measures (40 through 43) in Le Jardin Feerique that resolve to the tonic. Ravel's Sonatine is also grief-stricken, in a wistful way.

And certainly there's an abundance of enormously moving grievous music in The Big Kahuna: for example, the soaring vocal line in Opferlied; the Arcadia-like hymn theme of Op. 109 piano sonata; & the Adagio from the 2nd Razumovsky. The tears well up, indeed!

[Tony John Hearne]

Has to be the Tchaikovsky 6 last movement. I have been listening to this music for over 35 years now and it never fails to stop me in my tracks.. Melancholia to perfection but not self indulgent for a second By the way did anyone see the Charles Hazlewood documentary about Piotr Ilyich on BBC2 a couple of weeks ago? (two consecutive Fridays) Just like his documentaries on Beethoven and Mozart, I must admit I found this to be TV at its finest. The orchestra of young musicians in St Petersburg was quite superlative and it was good to see Mr Hazlewood conducting amongst his invariably interesting commentaries, and the consummate acting of the lead characters)

[gprengel]

There have been a good number of mentioned works of instrumental music
which are truly great examples human grief expressed in music (Gorecki, Tschaikowskie's 6th, Beethoven's Adagios from op 59,2 , op 106, 110, 131, Schubert's sonata in A,...). But what about songs and arias?

Here the saddest song I know is the last song from Schubert's Wintereise, "Der Leierman". I remember crying when I heard it the first time at a young age of 16! How this song is build on this empy quint expressing all the empiness of this poor man's life...

Another example is Bruce Springsteen's accuostic guitar song "Youngstown" from 1995, describing the history of of a town which always was connected with building weapons - awesome!

Gerd

[Joy]

The Tchaikovsky that a couple of you have mentioned already is a pretty good bet with me also. Not to mention that days after he himself conducted this piece at it's premiere, he was dead. Tchaikovsky had this to say about the work. "Without exaggeration, I have put my whole soul into this work."