# Saddest music ever?



## Christian Marcussen (Dec 12, 2006)

Hi... I'm called upon to score some really, really sad music - I was told to imagine an 8 year old kid dying in a car crash (the actual scene has nothing to do with that) but this was the direction...

Any tips, tricks, thoughts?

Cheers


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## sbkp (Dec 12, 2006)

*Re: Sadest music ever?*

Write it in Dm...


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## Scott Cairns (Dec 12, 2006)

L.A. Hard Rock hair bands - thats some pretty sad music.

Warrant: She's my Cherry Pie - now thats sad.


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## sbkp (Dec 12, 2006)

And with that absolutely brilliant freakin' post, we witness the return of Scott. Welcome back!

lol....


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## Scott Cairns (Dec 12, 2006)

Thanks Stefan. I miss this place. Ive been busier than a three legged dog trying to bury a bone in a marble floor.


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## rJames (Dec 12, 2006)

Christian, here's my serious answer.

You're on your own pal...

I think choco and others saying listen and get into a mood is right. 

Here's my unstudied and purely subjective ideas.

Change your tempo to suit a moment, hold onto parts longer. ritard and then rush forward to a payoff.

Solo instruments will give you a solitary feeling. If one actor has to bear the pain alone, this might work. 

But they will stand out as midi in a solo situation.

Piano is the most believable instrument because it is percussive.

I would go for large intervals in my melody. And puncuate with softly played chords or slow arpeggio type chords. Sustain pedal to keep the harmony for a long time while the solo melody moves on.

If you're going to bring in the orchestra use Dm (kidding). ...use little harmonies with open (inverted) intervals. Play an F with D above for the Dm feel. Use open harmony on slowly moving melody.

Use three part harmony over 3 or 4 octaves using 10ths instead of 3rds.

There must be as many ways to approach it as there are contributors to VI. 

That is how I would start.

You might even get into intervals in the melody that are more than an octave signifying (to me anyway) detachment.


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## Hermitage59 (Dec 13, 2006)

It's always been my impression that the saddest music contains a hint of desperate hope, and the wide and dramatic contrast between doom and hope gives it real power emotionally.

Perhaps listening to a bit of Mahler would help. He seems to get that balance pretty right, more often than not.

Good Luck,

Alex.


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## synthetic (Dec 13, 2006)

Schindlers List, but that's more tragic than sad. I think I would score the 8-year old example with a smaller, more inward sound. A big string orchestra sounds wrong for that example. I like the solo violin suggestion, if any of them were serious. Maybe piano. But if the director expects strings, maybe a smaller section or quartet.


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## bryla (Dec 13, 2006)

the theme from rosemarys baby is the saddest i've heard. in cminor. and a polish composer :D


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## choir (Dec 15, 2006)

I compose very emotional(sad) music. ( I could share it with you )
1) Try to compose after you get emotionally sad.
2 ) Make sure that all the notes comes from your heart.
3) As a result of a good score: 
Every time you listen to the the score it should give you the exact feelings when you felt when you were sad and when you were composing.

I hope this helps.


"All The Best"


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## almacg (Dec 15, 2006)

Have a listen to 'Adagio in G minor' by Tomaso Albinino. It's one of the most beautiful melodies, and is tragically sad. 

A good way of creating emotion is to use many counter-melodies (particularly with string writing) and add the occasional resolving dissonance (ie suspensions or appoggiaturas) Suspensions are often associated with sadness.

Also listen to music written by the great composers. Someone already suggested listening to Mahler, try listening to the adagietto (Is that right??!) from his 5th symphony. 
In my personal opinion you should avoid Hans Zimmer, since his music is too commercial and therefore lacks the musicality of the best composers.


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## Hermitage59 (Dec 15, 2006)

Almacq, the adagietto is indeed the one i was thinking of.

Add to that parts of Brahms 1st Symphony, and Sibelius 'Swan of Tuonela', and there quite a bit of material to draw from.

Christian, sad doesn't only mean the usual cliched stuff. (although your director may want this.)
There's plenty of music that, on its own, wouldn't 'qualify' as tragically sad, but when married with image, has a powerful emotional effect. Depends on the context. And i've always considered the lead in/lead out as equally essential at setting the 'mood'. Often a sense of foreboding and impending tragedy in a lead in can do its work and get the audience primed for that 'death phrase.' Then the lead out magnifies the 'ashes of despair', further dragging the punters into, hopefully, 'tearful kleenex nirvana.'



Alex.


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## José Herring (Dec 15, 2006)

Folmann @ Fri Dec 15 said:


> Goreckis 3rd symphony of sorrowful songs - an absolute master piece.
> 
> Barbers Adagio for epic motion picture sadness - but not even close to Goreckis.



Another vote for Gorecki.


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## JonFairhurst (Dec 15, 2006)

I just listened to the Gorecki piece, but somehow the sustained string notes were too long for me to really expereince sadness. I guess that I associate sadness more with a solo melody than sustained tones of an ensemble. The solo voice was the most effective instrument for communicating sorrow to me. In any case, it's a wonderful piece that is able to evolve the string theme masterfully.

A scene that really sticks with me is the collage in The Godfather of the slaughter of mob warfare contrasted with images of a gothic Catholic church and the sounds of a boys choir. Somehow it transcended sadness and entered the realm of epic tragedy.


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## Christian Marcussen (Dec 16, 2006)

Sounds very interesting - never heard of it. Will check it out!


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## handz (Dec 16, 2006)

Im not so sure about Gorecki in this case...to me it is too "light".
In modern I would go in some of Gia Kancheli, lament and some parts of Styx maybe...


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## JonFairhurst (Dec 17, 2006)

JonFairhurst @ Fri Dec 15 said:


> A scene that really sticks with me is the collage in The Godfather of the slaughter of mob warfare contrasted with images of a gothic Catholic church and the sounds of a boys choir. Somehow it transcended sadness and entered the realm of epic tragedy.


I need to offer a correction. I just watched the Godfather last night, and the scene uses a pipe organ, but no boys choir as I had remembered. Had I written it, I would have gone with a choir


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## Leandro Gardini (Dec 17, 2006)

For sure the Adagio from Symphony no.6 by Tchaikovsky is the saddest musics I´ve ever listened to...I got inspired by it when I wrote the Suite no.1...you can check it in my site!!!
I also think Goreck piece too light...and minimalist :wink: !!!


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## handz (Dec 18, 2006)

Good old Leo)
I Swear that I also wroted "minimalistic" in my post at first but deleted it


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## Leandro Gardini (Dec 18, 2006)

handz @ Mon Dec 18 said:


> Good old Leo)
> I Swear that I also wroted "minimalistic" in my post at firt but deleted it


I´l never stop bothering you with my triples :!: :!: :!:


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## Niah (Dec 18, 2006)

First thing that comes to mind right now is "Julien et Barbara" by Deierue Georges.

Also anything from Zbigniew Preisner I consider to be sad.

Christopher also did a great sad score for "murder in the first degree" and so did Don Davis for "The unsaid".


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## xylophonetic (Dec 18, 2006)

first thing that pops in my head: Mozart Requiem, the angle choir

could be more sad, but can't think of anything else atm


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## Frederick Russ (Dec 18, 2006)

I really wonder though if minor keys alone really define "sad" musically. I've heard a lot of attempts to define tragedy and loss musically but find that actually, sadness is an extremely complex emotion to emulate musically. At times minor keys almost seem over the top when trying to depict one take on "sadness". There are so many levels of "sad". Is it selfish sad that only thinks of one's own feelings to the exclusion of others? Or perhaps hope and longing intermingled with loneliness and darkness? Or the realization that one's efforts to make a difference are all in vain? Or tragic loss of life in youth? Mixed emotions - hope, anger, sadness, desperation - seems to me that the very best depictions in musical terms are as complex yet as simple and raw as the emotions they describe.

Perhaps one of the most moving pieces I've heard in a long time actually wasn't written so much in minor - Farewell by Danny Elfman (written for the original Spiderman movie). The piece rides in hope but the tragedy is that it remains unrealized. The loneliness and longing are there, the hope and the hesitation. Its an interesting sound sculpture and its hard not to feel the gyst of the moving message.

Another that comes to mind is the choral piece Requiem: Pie Jesu (Durufle). Not a lot of minor but man this gets me every time I hear it - hope mixed with tragedy and finality. 

I suppose each person's idea of sad differs depending on their own experiences so its varied I guess.


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## david robinson (Dec 19, 2006)

music that doesn't make you money?

Mozart: Requiem.
Morricone: Harmonica's Theme from OUATITW (based on Mozart's Don G.)
Beethoven: Sym7: Slow Movement. always brings a tear.......


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## paoling (Dec 19, 2006)

Well... I come in with my entry  :D

The Adagio of the Piano concert in G by Maurice Ravel.

By the way, this part is in E major if I don' t remember bad, but the theme has a kind of sad and nostalgic mood. When I' m a bit sad I usually listen to it, because at a certain part it connects with my thoughts bringing me toward that ending full of hope.

It' a kind of mix of interior moods, and it has something "magic" I can' t define (altough there' s a smart use of polytonality)...

One of the most beautiful pieces ever written (er, and sad  ).


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## Genius Gone Insane (Mar 9, 2007)

"Anakin's Betrayal" by John Williams from Episode III. Not sure what's going on there, but it works.


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## Necromancer (May 1, 2007)

Adagio for Strings/Agnus Dei by Samuel Barber. It brings a tear to my eye every time, which is horribly inconvenient since I have to sing it.


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