Which Pieces Of Music Can "Always" Reduce Us To Tears?

quote:

Originally posted by Tarquin Maynard-Portly:
The Kids, Lou Reed.

M

Mike - as in my reply to Fredrik - The Kids from Lou Reed's Berlin is the very track I had in mind - a truly Sad Song.

Best regards, Rotf

Dear Friends,

Thanks for the posts. Typical of me not to know about th Lou Reed thing! Did the strange record sell amny copies?

What brought this on was not the imminence of the Saint Matthew Passion for me, (and I enjoyed it this time, better than ever before, taking nice long rests between the very long discs), but that I was talking about music with my one Polish friend at work about this very thing.

It stemmed from a fairly deep moral question he was facing and, then by way of levening the issue once he had sought my advice, I changed the to talk to music. Then he said there was one song from Metalica, with the words something like 'All that really matters... is people...'

He is going to bring it back for me. I do wonder if I shall enjoy Metalica, but I shall certainly give it a go. He was very nearly crying when he told me of the importance of this song to him, and it got me thinking. Polish people are SO nice. I am lucky two have two wonderful Poles as collegues. Apparently they like me too, which is not always the case in the workplace.

I shall post my reaction to this song, he so passionately wanted me to listen to.

Fredrik

Well there have been others but today Jacintha singing "Danny Boy" off this LP got to me



Every word distinct against a black background

regards
Geoff

Ricki Lee Jones: Company

Tears in the tile, and I can hear a lot of sadness in the Fado songs though I do not understand the lyrics.

Haim

quote:

Originally posted by Basil:
Mahler Symphony No6. Not the andante, but the final movement. I can't really explain but I find it very hard to listen to.

It's quite an ordeal isn't it! That's what very serious, high art can do.

EW

Richard Strauss

From: Four last songs

" Abendrot "

When Gundula Janowitz ( DG 447 422-2 ) is singing " Wie sind wir wandermüde - ist dies etwa der Tod? = how tired we are of travelling - is this perchance death?" I`m almost in tears.

Manfred

I have this recorded in Oslo by Flagstad with a pianist accompaniment. It is impossibly sad.

Fredrik

quote:

Polish people are SO nice. I am lucky two have two wonderful Poles as collegues.

My wife is Polish, so I guess I must be quite lucky . I think there is a lot of very moving music out there in different genres. Some of the last CD's I have been listening to that have been very beautiful, but oh so sad, are Arvo Part's "Tabula Rasa" (w/ Gideon Kremer) and "Alina".

Desperado's Waiting for a Train (the Guy Clarke song) sung by Freddie White on his "live on tour" album. It's about a youth, old age and death and with every further loss in my life it has added poignancy

Everytime We Say Goodbye, I Die A Little.

I have Ella singing this, and her song repertoire is much darker than iddle attention might suggest.

Particularly in view of two partings this week, including a Funeral tomorrow, this hit me earlier this evening. Fredrik

Fredrik,

"Mache dich, mein Herze rein" is a beautiful bass aria. It is now playing over and over in my head as I sit here and type.

My bass favourites which move me include the Qui Tollis from Haydn's Nelson Mass (Mass No 11 in D minor) and his Paukenmesse (Mass No 10 in C major).

Another favourite is Arleen Auger singing the Kyrie from Mozart's requiem? The way she delivers the Christe eleisons is simply magical, and never fails to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.

Years ago there was a series of programmes called "Not quite Mozart" in which various artists were asked to present Mozart's music as they saw it. The programme which stuck a chord with me - and thinking about it I just might have a VHS tape of it in the loft, was the programme featuring Ute Lemper. Tonight I think I may have a forage in the loft.

Brad

Tank Park Salute by Billy Bragg, as sad a lament for a departed father as you could ever write.

I have had to stop listening to it.

Jono

quote:

Originally posted by Basil:
Mahler Symphony No6. Not the andante, but the final movement. I can't really explain but I find it very hard to listen to.

Basil

It's the slow movement for me, every time. The way Mahler takes a theme (listen to the first horn solo), which should be quiet and reflective and turns it into a sob of pain by flattening some of the notes. It sounds sort of wrong the first time you hear it and you can't quite put your finger on why, but that's the mood of the thing - it's as if hpe tiself is ultimately doomed or diseased. The movement then rallies, hints of mountains, the sun bursts through (listen for the bass entry after the the climbing horn passage), cow bells in the distance, but in the end entropy prevails and the mood of resigned pain reasserts itself.

Gets me every time....

I've played the thing a couple of times and, thank goodness, the concentration and fear factor combine beautifully to get one through it - much easier to play than to listen to I think.

Kevin

Lou's 'Pale Blue Eyes' as done by Patti Smith on her 'Teenage Perversity' bootleg:

"Sometimes I feel so happy, sometimes I feel so sad..."

Heartbreaking!

Jazz: Bill Evans "My Foolish Heart" from Village Vanguard Sessions
Pop: Beth Orton " Pass in Time" ,with Terry Callier, from Central Reservation
Classical: Mahler, Ruckert Lieder, "Ich bin der welt abhanden gekommen" by Anne Sophie von Otter

Elgar violin concerto

Thoroughly enjoyable thread !!!

I pondered the theme herein and Brahms kept cropping up to the forefront of my mind:

Brahms Piano Concerto No 1. The opening bars for the piano after the long and stormy orchestral opening leave you floating in the void with your heart in your mouth. Especially the version with Gilels and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Brahms Symphony No.1. This is a swirling torrent of emotion as far as I am concerned.

Brahms A German Requiem. The kind of profound beauty that never fails to embrace the heart.

Rachmaninov Vespers. Listen to the version by the Saint Petersburg Cappella, Choirmaster Vladislav Chernushenko. It will stop you in your tracks.

Wagner Lohengrin. The opening Vorspiel to this Opera is heart wrenching beauty. Once you listen to that you know your in for one very sad and tormented time for the rest of it. Just great. I have the Barenboim version on Teldec.

Those are a few that instantly come to mind but the list is huge and as discussed herein Bach could be mined for some time for this thread.

Norman

My vote goes to Elliott Smith's "From a basement on the hill". But I guess that stems from the same reasons as the vote for Nick Drake's Pink Moon; tragic circumstances surrounding the artist.

That album (Smith's)was actually one of the big reasons I went for Naim; the demo system were able to bring out the best in it, even the really noisy parts sounded good.

Regards,
Jacob

quote:

Originally posted by mtuttleb:
Elgar violin concerto

I still can't decide whether it's moving or just kitsch after 15 years of acquaintance with the piece...

EW

Dear EW,

I don't think it is fake, as the term Kitsch tends to imply, but I am not sure that I always love it. I listened to it about a fortnight ago, enthralled, so for me it must just be a question of mood! It does not make me sad though, as I came to the music ast a very happy time in my life, and I guess that the nostalgia, in that case, is rather positive...

All the best from Fredrik

The Little River Band - Reminiscing. Circumstances apply.

And when I was a little boy it was Puff the Magic Dragon. A truly sad song.

Dear Michael,

I used to love all those things played for children, like Three Wheels On My Wagon, and Three Little Fishes! Puff The Magic Dragon was a real favourite, but I suppose the words went straight over my childish head. A nice reminder of happy days. Thanks

Fredrik

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Dear Michael,

I used to love all those things played for children, like Three Wheels On My Wagon, and Three Little Fishes! Puff The Magic Dragon was a real favourite, but I suppose the words went straight over my childish head. A nice reminder of happy days. Thanks

Fredrik

Hi Fredrik,
How about 'Ther's A Hole In My Bucket' by Harry Belafonte or 'Run Rabbit Run'?
All the best
Chris N

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Dear EW,

I don't think it is fake, as the term Kitsch tends to imply, but I am not sure that I always love it. I listened to it about a fortnight ago, enthralled, so for me it must just be a question of mood! It does not make me sad though, as I came to the music ast a very happy time in my life, and I guess that the nostalgia, in that case, is rather positive...

All the best from Fredrik

I agree, and it's nostaligic both musically and personally for me too; it takes me back to being 15 again, young and happy (well, happiER anyway!). The first movement "windflower" theme can be a bit saccharine in the wrong hands, but the jewel of the piece is the accompanied cadenza of the finale - I don't think anyone would deny the quality of that!

On a different note, you mentioned the "Mache dich..." aria from the St Matthew Passion earlier; I was listening to it last night and was stuck anew by its sublime emotional intensity. (Peter Harvey for Paul McCreesh.) It's something else.

EW