# Recommend some sad instrumentals. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 22, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565 "2006-02-22T01:48:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/1 "2006-02-22T01:48:13Z")
I find sad music to be very cathartic whenever I’m feeling down, so I’m searching for songs to put on a couple “release” CDs. I know there was a “sad songs” thread just a little while ago, but the posted songs almost all had lyrics, and I prefer instrumentals–it universalises the experience for me. If you’re curious what makes me sad, just check out _Ashokan Farewell_ and _Last of the Mohicans_. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/2 "2006-02-22T01:56:53Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/3 "2006-02-22T02:01:16Z")
Don’t know if it’s still available, but if you’re interested in baroque instrumental music, try to get your hands on “Night’s Black Bird” by Fretwork. I put it on when I’m down, for much the reason you mention. Another one is Mozart’s Requiem. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/4 "2006-02-22T02:03:40Z")
Barber’s _Adagio for Strings_ (theme from _Platoon_) is often played at funerals. Stately but sad. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/5 "2006-02-22T02:36:27Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Barber’s _Adagio for Strings_ (theme from _Platoon_) is often played at funerals. Stately but sad. I’ll second that one. If you’re looking for a different take on that song, check out William Orbit’s version of it on his “Pieces in a Modern Style” album. I’ll throw out New Order’s “Elegia”. The name alone says sad to me. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/6 "2006-02-22T02:46:05Z")
Well, it’s only half a song, but I’ve always thought that the second (instrumental) half of _Entangled_ by Genesis would be very cathartic at a (my?) funeral. There are a number of passages in Rimsky-Korsakov’s _Scheherazade_, particularly the ending, which qualify. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/7 "2006-02-22T03:02:58Z")
Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Opus 131, is freaking depressing. And, for something more contemporary, you should check out A Silver Mount Zion’s A Shaft of Light Slowly Bends Around the Corner of My Room (or something equally pretenious, it’s typed from memory.) Although it does revel in pretension, the album was written for the singer’s dog who died, and only one track on the entire album has lyrics. Every track is like a funeral procession crashing through a children’s daycare. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/8 "2006-02-22T03:10:40Z")
The full title, having looked it up, is “He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms.” ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/9 "2006-02-22T03:12:40Z")
Old-timer checking in. Wonderland by Night by Bert Kaempfert always depresses me, and Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto – I don’t understand Japanese, but I know his girlfriend must have just died. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/10 "2006-02-22T03:51:30Z")
“Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers” by Jeff Beck. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/11 "2006-02-22T03:51:34Z")
Oops. Sorry. Sukiyaki isn’t an instrumental. I get all melancholy when I listen to Jorden Ingman’s version of Apache and the Ramrods’ doing Ghost Riders in the Sky. Whole cultures disappeared, and I think the songs evoke that loss. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/12 "2006-02-22T04:41:12Z")
> [@ZebraShaSha](#): > > Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Opus 131, is freaking depressing. I haven’t heard that one, but the second movement of his seventh symphony is very sad. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/13 "2006-02-22T05:04:57Z")
_Incident at Neshabur_, by Carlos Santana ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/14 "2006-02-22T05:09:18Z")
Tom Waits’ “Just Another Sucker on the Vine” off of _Swordfishtrombones_. A nice (but short) little piece of sad whiskey-drinkin’ carnival music. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/15 "2006-02-22T05:09:36Z")
_Circus of Regrets_ - Béla Fleck ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/16 "2006-02-22T05:57:49Z")
_Watermelon in Easter Hay_ by Frank Zappa, off _Joe’s Garage_. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/17 "2006-02-22T07:45:09Z")
Mozart’s Requiem, except that it has lyrics. Beethoven’s _Moonlight_ and _Pathetique_ sonatas _Adagio for Strings_. Natch. Chopin’s Funeral March _Funeral March #1_ performed by “119th NYSV Field Music” is a little gem I found on iTunes, by accident—I’m pretty sure it’s the march you hear in Ken Burns’ _The Civil War_, during one of the scenes of Lincoln’s funeral(s). _Home Coming_ and the instrumental version of _It’s A Long Road_ from the _First Blood_ soundtrack. _Movement I_ from Vangelis’ _El Greco_ _Across the Stars_ from the _Attack of the Clones_ soundtrack. The main theme to Gary Larson’s _Tales from the Far Side_ _He’s My Friend_ from the _Predator_ soundtrack. A number of Yoko Kanno’s works. Holst’s _Saturn, Bringer of Old Age_ ---
**Author:** ![Azadeh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cab0a1/32.png) [@Azadeh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azadeh)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/18 "2006-02-22T08:15:22Z")
Itzak Perlman and John Williams - the theme to Schindler’s List. Breaks my heart every time. ---
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/19 "2006-02-22T08:46:27Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > _Incident at Neshabur_, by Carlos Santana The first time I heard this was the first time I experienced the effect music could have on emotion. (I was pretty young at the time.) Coltrane’s version of \*My Favorite Things \* always makes me sad, but that may be more about the loss of Coltrane than the music. A lot of Go (Stomu Yamashta / Steve Winwood / Michael Shrieve) is melancholy, but it is difficult to seperate the vocal from the instrumental. (The CD I have (The Go Sessions) is tracked one track for each side of the album.) ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565/20 "2006-02-22T09:07:30Z")
Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony, first movement. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-sad-instrumentals/345565.md?page=2)