# The most haunting/sad tune **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 1, 2009, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964 "2009-08-01T07:24:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/1 "2009-08-01T07:24:50Z")
For me it has to be _Ashoken Farewell_ I Googled and found _Celtic Woman_ and believe me not only is Mairead Nesbitt one beautiful woman she sure can play the violin ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/2 "2009-08-01T07:57:44Z")
The Aquarium movement of the Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens. Its use in the opening [sequence](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZSkgT77QDk)of Days of Heaven is particularly memorable. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/3 "2009-08-01T08:32:37Z")
The [Lonesome Boatman](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8rULrp_J5E&feature=related), melody really gets going about a minute in - Today FM, Ireland’s biggest independent radio station uses it in the background as they read out the weather forecasts bless 'em. It’s usually strangely apt. ---
**Author:** ![Promethea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Promethea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Promethea)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/4 "2009-08-01T08:39:43Z")
The [Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OvsVSWB4TI) - it’s one of the very few pieces of music that moves me to tears. Also, the second movement of [Piano Trio In E Flat](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fWiOinTzOs&feature=related) by Schubert. Truthfully, I’m not sure if I’d have fallen in love with it quite so hard if it wasn’t for the perfect complement it gives to the beautiful scene from _Barry Lyndon_ here, but I like to think I would. The classic saddest tune in all the world that tends to get cited is [Albinoni](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMbvcp480Y4) so enjoy that too. Alas, for me it conjures up the finale from Blackadder the third so it’s power of gloom is blunted. ohh! I forgot the music from the end of [Fahrenheit 451](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLfcDhGCB0k&feature=related) by Bernard Herrmann ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/5 "2009-08-01T11:35:16Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > For me it has to be _Ashoken Farewell_ I saw the title of the OP and this is what I came in to post. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/6 "2009-08-01T13:13:05Z")
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song These two capture the essence of loneliness ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/7 "2009-08-01T14:30:56Z")
Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do?”, especially the version by [Rupert Wainwright](http://hypem.com/track/813539/Rufus+Wainwright+-+What+ll+I+Do+w+Kate+and+Anna+McGarrigle+) and his mother and aunt, Kate & Anna McGarrigle. There’s something about the solo piano or the slightly echoey acoustics that just make this incredibly poignant. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/8 "2009-08-01T14:48:31Z")
> [@Promethea](#): > > Also, the second movement of [Piano Trio In E Flat](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fWiOinTzOs&feature=related) by Schubert. Truthfully, I’m not sure if I’d have fallen in love with it quite so hard if it wasn’t for the perfect complement it gives to the beautiful scene from _Barry Lyndon_ here, but I like to think I would. I didn’t know what Schubert piece you were talking about until you mentioned _Barry Lyndon_, and then I instantly knew which one it was without even looking at the YouTube clip. And I agree with you. I’ll also vote for Chopin’s “Tristesse.” (Duh.) Also Schumann’s _Traumerei_, despite it being used in upmteen Looney Tunes as the stereotypical “sad” music. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/9 "2009-08-01T14:54:40Z")
Dead Can Dance’s _Host of Seraphim._ ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/10 "2009-08-01T15:04:48Z")
_“Vincent”_ by Don McLean chokes me up a bit nearly every time I listen to it intently. There’s a version of _“The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”_ by singer Priscilla Herdman that is very touching. “Miss Sarajevo” gets to me sometimes, when I think what the lyrics are about. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/11 "2009-08-01T15:11:06Z")
The Last time by Kean really gets to me,plus Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks. Also just remembered Everyones got to learn Sometime. The last really hit me where it hurts. ---
**Author:** ![pythonzzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@pythonzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pythonzzz)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/12 "2009-08-01T15:20:18Z")
“Hole in the River” from Crowded House. Was written about a family member’s suicide by drowning. ---
**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:** [August 1, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/13 "2009-08-01T15:31:36Z")
Well, I probably have about a dozen or two possible songs and pieces that could fit the bill, spanning two and a half centuries of human artistry… …So I’ll just pick the last one I’ve added to the list [“Orchestral Suite from ‘The Inner Light.’”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3pOkhU9iYM) More like a “wistful, nostalgic” kind of haunting, rather than a “play over slow-motion montage of atrocities” kind, but we can’t _all_ be Berber’s Adagio for Strings. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/14 "2009-08-01T16:18:15Z")
Eva Cassidy’s version of “Over the Rainbow”. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/15 "2009-08-01T16:50:56Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > [I > There’s a version of _“The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”_ by singer Priscilla Herdman that is very touching. > . Oh yes I forgot about that one, I much prefer _The Pogues_ version though ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/16 "2009-08-01T17:23:25Z")
Toad the Wet Sprocket’s [Something’s Always Wrong](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKAVrcJ2IbA&feature=related) is my favorite sad song. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/17 "2009-08-01T17:40:44Z")
[The Braes of Sutherland - Wolfstone](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk_AD0xfkNI) ---
**Author:** ![Sparrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/18 "2009-08-01T17:44:32Z")
“Danny Boy” is the one that always makes me weep. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/19 "2009-08-01T18:07:40Z")
> [@Sparrow](#): > > “Danny Boy” is the one that always makes me weep. [These guys](http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1807240) think so, too. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964/20 "2009-08-01T18:09:32Z")
Gary Jules’ remake of Tears For Fears [Mad World](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-haunting-sad-tune/504964.md?page=2)