The saddest music

[Hornspieler]

Tchaikovsky: Pathetique (4th movmt)]

The very last notes that Dennis Brain played before his untimely death in a road accident.

and

Ravel: Pavan pour une infante defunte

The work that I had to play to open a commemorative concert, only five days after that tragic event.

HS

[salymap]

The last of Strauss' Four Last Songs and Brahms' Four Serious Songs. No particular reason, but they do what it says inthe titles for me.

[Roehre]

Busoni:
Berceuse élégiague
(btw, conducted by Mahler at his very last concert in New York)

Pfitzner:
Das dunkle Reich

[amateur51]

Charles Valentin Alkan - Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQcmBUc0OQc

[Roehre]

Charles Valentin Alkan - Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQcmBUc0OQc

In the same category:
Beethoven: Elegie auf den Tod eines Pudels

[MrGongGong]

I'm finding it hard to resist the obvious Spinal Tap reference
But is it the MUSIC (as in the sequence of sounds) or what one associates it with ?
There are some pieces that I find "sad" but not because of the sound

[Parry1912]

Chopin's Funeral March

[Flay]

Tchaikovsky: Pathetique (4th movmt)]

The very last notes that Dennis Brain played before his untimely death in a road accident.

Ravel: Pavan pour une infante defunte

The work that I had to play to open a commemorative concert, only five days after that tragic event.

HS

That must have been very a very difficult and emotional experience, HS.

[Richard Tarleton]

We seem to be talking about at least three types of sadness - music which is sad in an artistic way, in the same way Greek or Shakespearian tragedy is sad (a lot of opera, for example), music played in desperately sad circumstances, like HS's example, which is nevertheless not part of the music's composition or original inspiration, and music written out if the depths of sadness or despair on the part of the composer (Metamorphosen, end of Dvorak Cello concerto).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

(Do you know any joyful music? I don't)

The Finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

All Music is "joyful" - even the sad stuff, because writing/performing/listening to it is an act of defiance against despair. The only genuinely sad Music is that which doesn't get written/performed/heard, because the composer/performer/listener is in such despair that not even the Music can get through.




Discuss.

[Stanfordian]

Elgar Sospiri

Hiya Barbirollians, I agree wholeheartedly with Elgar's 'Sospiri' (Sighs) especially in the version arranged for cello and strings played by Sol Gabetta and the Danish National Radio Orchestra under conductor Mario Venzago on RCA

[BBMmk2]

A piece of music that really moves me, is George Lloyd's Royal parks, slow movement. Which was dedicated to bandsmen who lost their lives playing on a bandstand in a Royal park.

[notnerb]

Was it not Herbert von Karajan who said that the barcarolle from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman was the saddest piece of muisic he knew?

[french frank]

In the same category:
Beethoven: Elegie auf den Tod eines Pudels

Or Haydn's 'Turk was a faithful dog, and not a man.'

[David-G]

For me, the saddest music is Mozart's. I would nominate these three: the slow opening of the last movement of the G minor string quintet K516, the Masonic Funeral Music K477, and Pamina's aria from the Magic Flute. Heartbreaking all.