Most haunting melodies?

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Genie
Date: 07 May 05 - 12:23 AM

OK, now I'm 'legit'. :-)

I forgot to mention
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Ewan McColl's original melody).

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Genie too lazy to log in
Date: 06 May 05 - 11:38 PM

Hmm...

Here's a list of songs that you folks have already mentioned that are also on my list:

Lorena
Ashokan Farewell
Midnight On The Water
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
Angel
Skye Boat Song
Wayfaring Stranger
Scarborough Fair
Jesu Joy Of Man's Desiring
El Condor Pasa
The Boxer
Ne Me Quitte Pas
La Vie En Rose
Hallelujah (Leon
Dodi Li
Torna A Surriento (Come Back To Sorrento)
Yesterday
Shenandoah
Barbry Allen
Sheebeg & Sheemore (Hills Of Haversham)
The Minstrel Boy
O Mio Bambino Caro
Un Bel Di
Bring Him Home
Polovetzian Dance #9 (?) - Borodin (Stranger In Paradise)
Tecumseh Valley
Angel Band
Hallelujah! (Leonard Cohen)

Some that I would add are:
Con Te Partiro (sung by Anrea Bocelli)
To Where You Are (sung by Josh Groban)
The Prayer (Andrew Lloyd-Weber)
Brahms's Violin Concerto In D Minor (I think it's violin) - very moving and haunting main theme
Silkie (as sung by Joan Baez)
Take This Waltz (Leonard Cohen)
La Paloma
Blues In The Night (melody: Harold Arlen)
Over the Rainbow (melody: Harold Arlen)
Stormy Weather (melody: Harold Arlen
It Was A Very Good Year
Those Were The Days
Otchee Tchornya (Dark Eyes)
Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen (Yiddish lullabye)
Erev Shel Shosanim (Israeli folk song and dance)
Samba De Orfeo (from "Black Orpheus")
Manha De Carnival (from "Black Orpheus")
Windmills Of Your Mind
Forbidden Games (I forgot the older melody this song is se to)
Sheherezade main theme
Memory (Grizabella's song from "Cats" -- Lloyd-Weber)
Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Hair
Home On The Range (I don't care if it's overdone, it's beautifully hauntine)
Londonderry Air (ditto)
La Paloma
High Barbary
Farewell to Tarawathie
Haul Away, Joe
Rollin' Down To Old Maui
Greensleeves (How could we forget?)
Louie, Louie - §;-D
Star Of The County Down
Bridget O'Malley
Blue Bayou
Gulf Coast Highway (James Lee Hooker & Nanci Griffith)
Spooky (Well, it IS haunting!)
Sakura (Japanese "Cherry Blooms" song)
In My Life (Beatles)
Here, There, & Everywhere (Beatles)
Blackbird (Beatles)
Kiss From A Rose (Seal)
The Rose (Amanda McBroom)
Now Is The Hour (Maori melody learned by Allied forces in WWII)
The Rebel Jesus (Jackson Browne)
Anathea (as sung by Judy Collins)
Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming (Es Ist Ein' Roz' Entsprungen)
Geordie (as sung by Joann Baez)
Mountains O' Mourne/Bendemeer's Stream
Loch Lomond
Mo Mary
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Stardust
Isle Of Innisfree (Richard Farelly)
Do You Love An Apple?
Tumblin' Tumbleweeds (Bob Nolan)


That oughta fill up my iPod for a while. §:-D

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Nancy King at work
Date: 06 May 05 - 01:31 PM

Margaret's Waltz

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Allen
Date: 06 May 05 - 11:44 AM

Another good one is the Galician song La Sombre Negra (Black Shadow).

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 06 May 05 - 06:28 AM

I study and collect music of the early 19th Century up to the Civil War - and there was a LOT of haunting going on back then!

Some of the songs in these tattered old books (most of which I've never heard about, and a lot of them have NEVER been recorded as far as I know) will really reach deep into your chest and muckle on to your heart.

One particularly poigniant one is "Mother's Lament", to the tune of "Sweet Afton":

Yon spot in in the Church-yard
How sad is the gloom;
That Summer flings 'round it
In flowers and perfume;
'Tis thy dust, my Darling
Gives life to each rose;
'Tis because thou hast withered...
The violet grows.

Some of the ones that have survived include "Lorena" - which has a bittersweet association for me, as it brings back memories of my own "Lorena", loved and lost long ago.
A little over a year ago, she died of bone cancer at the age of 54.

Aren't there about 6 verses to that, Kendall? I usually keep it down to 4. Given the average American's attention span, one does well to get through the third before people start getting up and wandering off or falling asleep and tipping over.

Then there's "Angel Band". As my Brother and I kept vigil by our Mother as she died, i "sang her home" with that like the old timers used to.

Speaking of mothers, there's "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother" which was very popular from when it was written in 1860 through the CW. It's a beautiful song, and a shame that we don't hear it much, if at all any more.

A couple of tunes that I like to do on the low "G" flute are a really old one - "Brave Wolfe", and the ghostly "Mary's Dream".

After the first rousing, patriotic marches of the American Civil War, people stated getting a hard dose of reality and experienced the terrible loss and grief that any war brings.

It wasn't long before we had "The Vacant Chair" "The Pickett Guard" and "Tenting Tonight", all of which can be pretty "haunting".
These also represented some of the earliest "anti-war" protest songs to appear in America, albeit in a rather discrete form.

Someone in the South wrote "Somebody's Darlin'", which is deeply touching, and one of my favorites.   

Another nomination would be "Wayfaring Stranger". There's something to that song that gets to me from time to time.

More music was written in America during the CW than at any other time in our History. Most of it has since settled into the mouldy catacombs of obscurity, and a lot of it probably deserved to, frankly.

But there are still some wonderful old songs still waiting to be re-discovered.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 06 May 05 - 05:06 AM

Songs To Aging Children
The string part of You Only Live Twice
Goodnight Irene
The Promenade from Pictures At An Exhibition
and loads more......

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: number 6
Date: 06 May 05 - 12:46 AM

Two songs previously mentioned in this thread ...

"She move through the Fair" by anyone and "Ashokan Farewell" especially by Jay Unger and Molly Mason

One hanting song (not previously mentioned) that really moves me is Tecumseh Valley by Townes Van Zandt.

sIx

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Allen
Date: 05 May 05 - 04:13 PM

The Basque tune Martin Carthy used for the Wife of Usher's Well.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Elfcall
Date: 05 May 05 - 03:39 AM

Currently listening to No Nighean Donn, Gradh Mo Chridhe. by Silly Wizard

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Arne Langsetmo
Date: 05 May 05 - 01:39 AM

"Kilkelly" (Moloney, O'Connell, and Keane)

"There Were Roses" (MOK + Liz Carroll)

"School Day's Over" (Ewan McColl)

"I Will Arise" (done by Trapezoid)

"A Mother's Dying Words To Her Daugter" (done by Critten Hollow String Band)

. . .

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Arne Langsetmo
Date: 05 May 05 - 12:27 AM

Tom Anderson's "Da Slockit Licht"

Jay Ungar's "Ashokan Farewell"

Dick Gaughan's rendition of "The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily" (words, Hamish Henderson, music, Pipe-Major J. Robertson)

"Farewell to Whiskey" (as a slow air, not a reel)

"Carrickfergus"

"Anachie Gordon" (particularly done by Mary Black)

Joni Mitchell's "Urge For Going"

"Strange Affair" (performed by June Tabor, author unknown [to me])

"Pull Down, Lads" (by John Tams and Roger Watson, perfomed by June Tabor)

"Angel From Montgomery" (by John Prine, performed by Raitt and Prine)

"If I Were A Feather Bed" (John McCutcheon)

So many others too....

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 04 May 05 - 10:51 PM

I know this is an old thread...but being a tune person myself, I often relate to instrumentals instead of songs with words. I often like various opera arias where I don't even understand the words. Somehow the emotion is expressed in the tune.

Un Bel Di (One Fine Day from Madama Butterfly)
Vissi d'Arte (from Tosca)
Prelude to Act III (from Carmen, sounds like The Minstrel Boy)

and then all the melancholic Scottish tunes...(the ones I like to play on the piano when the electricity goes off ;-))
Ye Banks and Braes (Bonnie Doon was mentioned above)
What Ails This Heart Of Mine
Rare Willie

and then most of Chopin...
Ballade in G (I'm Always Chasing Rainbows - the words spoiled it IMO)

the second movement of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata (I loved it before I ever heard Carl Haas use it for the theme music to his program.)

and that gorgeous 18th variation on a theme of Paganinni by Rachmaninoff (was it used in a coffee commercial?)

what about Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy where he uses the Scottish folksongs "I'm a Doun for Lack o' Johnnie" and "Thro the Wood Laddie discussed at Mudcat here and here.

Lonesome EJ - I love the waltz that follows Copland's Corral Nocturne. It is really "I Ride an Old Paint" with a different rhythm (my opinion).

Julia - I guess you know that "Music of the Night" from Phantom is the same opening interval as in "Come to Me, Bend to Me" from Brigadoon.

Peter T - you once mentioned "Humming Chorus" from Madama Butterfly. It's the same as "Bring Him Home" from Les Miz. Also, you mentioned above about moments inside melodies - how about the anticipation in Copland's Waltz - where you are waiting to start the tune/emotions and just lean into it as it finally starts!

clj (from way back in '99) - if you like Scheherazade, by Rimsky-Korsakov, you'd also love all the Polovtsian Dances by Borodin, another Russian. (made into popular tunes in the musical Kismet... Stranger in Paradise, And this is My Beloved, etc.)

But I still like the tunes without the words.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: JulieF
Date: 04 May 05 - 11:15 AM

Way,Way back someone asked who wrote Dark Island and I don't think it was answered.   - Iain MCLachlan from Benbecula.    It has long been my favourite tune and I would love it played at my funeral - one lone highland piper on a hill top will do nicely.    It is a wonderful tune to sing , although I was never happy with any of the words so I had to write my own.

J

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Peter T.
Date: 04 May 05 - 11:01 AM

One thing not discussed on this thread are moments inside melodies that give you goose bumps. Three that come to mind:

In "Every Time You Go Away" by Cole Porter ("But how strange the change from major to minor") -- that change is so brilliant.

"I Could Have Danced All Night" -- There is a moment just before "...I only know when he, began to dance with me," when the chord movement just takes the breath away.

The Beatles have hundreds of them. Maybe my favourite is in "I'll Follow the Sun" when they go to the "B" section -- "But now the time has come, and so my love I must go, and though I lose a friend, in the end you will know, whoaoh...." or that extraordinary moment in "Ask Me Why" when the augmented pops up":"I can't believe it's happened to me-e-e-e, I can't conceive, of any more misery!"

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 04 May 05 - 08:13 AM

Considering the number of melodies mentioned in this very old thread I am surprised not to see any of these Flowers of the Forest, Banks of Sicilly or the false bride.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 May 05 - 10:03 AM

Avalanche - Leonard Cohen

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 05 - 02:25 PM

"Dalnabreac", written and performed by John McKusker on the Battlefield Band "Quiet Days" album tops my list of most haunting melodies. Gives me goosebumps, it does.

I heard a song performed at a Dundee Strathspey & Reel Society fiddler's rally in Caird Hall (1979 or 80) called "Kishmul" (not "Kishmul's Galley" of The Corries fame.) The arrangement featured a solo flautist and was absolutely beautiful.

Moira Kerr's "MacIain of Glencoe" also comes to mind, as does "The Dark Isle", especially played on accordion.

"By the Water's Edge", tune on the Schotts and Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band album of the same name will grab you, if you're into pipe music.

There's loads more, but I'll stop there.

SND

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,MTflyfisher
Date: 02 May 05 - 12:03 PM

O mio caro bambino
The French Girl
Constant Billy
The refrain from Los Hojas de Veranos
Plaisir d'Amour

This is a great thread.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Neighmond
Date: 02 May 05 - 09:49 AM

Two come to mind at present:

Bittersweet Waltz (Leon Redbone sang it)

When Johnny Comes Marching home Again

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 02 May 05 - 07:25 AM

Brad, your midi gave me a 404.

The Coolin
The Snowy-Breasted Pearl
Fill, Fill, a Rún Ó
and of course....

...a wim a weh, a wim a weh...

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,James
Date: 02 May 05 - 07:12 AM

The Minstrel Boy, Will Ye Go Lassie, The Parting Glass, Ballad of Springhill, Crazy Man Michael( Fairport) oh, sooooooo many.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,cromdubh
Date: 01 May 05 - 04:39 PM

Farewell to Weaverly Park, a very strange haunting reel composed by Cathal McConnell of the Boys of the lough.

Can be heard on his solo album "Long Expectant comes at last"

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Nick
Date: 01 May 05 - 03:01 PM

Canyon Moonrise - John McCann
Floating to Skerry - Lynn Tocken
Calliope House - Dave Richardson
Sheebeg and Sheemore - O'Carolan

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Peace
Date: 01 May 05 - 02:58 PM

"Prince's Day" by Alan Sylvestri (sp?). It was the opening piece from the movie "Blown Away" (1994). Terrible movie. Good soundtrack. And the aforementioned piece will stay with you forever.

October Winds (Castle of Dramore).

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Cruiser
Date: 01 May 05 - 02:51 PM

Wind That Shakes the Corn (Irish Rovers)
Mary of the Wild Moor (Heart Songs, Dolly Patton)
Sally Garden
Quentin's Theme (Shadows in the Night)
In the Pines
Barbara Allen
Whispering Pines (Johnny Horton)
Wayward Wind (Gogi Grant)
Aura Lee
Streets of Laredo
Springtime in Alaska (Johnny Horton)

Crusier

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 May 05 - 01:47 PM

One of the most haunting tunes I know is 'Lament for the Reverend Archie Beaton'. It is such a visual piece.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Navigator
Date: 01 May 05 - 01:05 PM

Angel Eyes { Sinatra's version }

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 01 May 05 - 12:21 PM

For me it's Tom Paxton's "Dance In The Shadows".

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: jaze
Date: 30 Apr 05 - 10:28 PM

Tonight My Sleep Will Be Restless-Alisdair Fraser

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 30 Apr 05 - 08:00 PM

The phantom of the opera..the vocals are just soo haunting

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Meg
Date: 26 Oct 99 - 02:54 PM

For me the most haunting songs are 'By yon castle wa'at the close of the day' and 'The Highland Widow's Lament".

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 26 Oct 99 - 01:55 AM

I have felt, since first I heard it, that The Fireside Largo from Vivaldi's Four Seasons is the most emotive piece of music ever written. It stirs the Soul.

After that, I would agree with others on So Lonesome I could Cry, Long,Long Trail, and Shenandoah. To those I would also add McCartney's Yesterday, Gram Parson's Hickory Wind, and Corral Nocturne from Copland's Rodeo.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: ddw
Date: 26 Oct 99 - 12:33 AM

One of the most haunting things I've ever heard is Loreena McKennitt's (SP?) All Souls Night. The fiddle/cello player on that a few other tracks from her Mask and Mirror album and The Visit is absolutely demented. Chilling stuff!

david

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: McBeagle
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 11:13 PM

RE: RE: El Condor Pasa - FASCINATING!

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: kendall
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 03:52 PM

jenny, I'm glad you also like the Loch Tay Boat song. It has been rattling around in my head since I saw it in the thread. Problem is, I cant sing it.. painful memories.. I'd also like to mention Come Back to Sorrento.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: MTM
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 03:13 PM

Lili Marlene Snowy Breasted Pearl (Wolfetones)

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Bert
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 02:27 PM

La Vie en Rose

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: MTM
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 02:14 PM

Ne Me Quitte Pas by Nina Simone might be found on her CD of the same name, or on "The Best Of Nina Simone"--try this page: http://www.boscarol.com/nina/html/album/670030.html Hope it helps. Shirley Bassey did it too.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Brad Sondahl
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 01:41 PM

here's my favorite original MIDI haunting melody... http://www.camasnet.com/~asondahl/felicity.mid

Bradhttp://www.camasnet.com/~asondahl/bradindex.html

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Jack (who is called Jack)
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 12:44 PM

Re: El Condor Pasa. I have heard, but never made the effort to verify, that the tune for El Condor Pasa is a folk melody from South America and is one of the oldest folk tunes known. The person who told me this said that some estimates trace it back 900+ years.

The lyrics were added for S & G's recording.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 12:32 PM

Hi!

I got a copy of the new Folk-Legacy CD, "Ceol Anum," today and it's absolutely beautiful... two guitars playing lovely (mostly) Irish tunes.

All the best,
Dan Milner

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 12:13 PM

I am going to be away for a while, but will check this compendium when I get back--

I will leave you with a couple, first, no one has mentioned "Somewhere over the Rainbow" which, in recent years, I cannot hear without crying--

Someday I will get my tape recorder and a gun and force every guitarist that I know to play their secret arrangement of this song, because everyone fools around with it, though few will admit it--

I also love "Ali Pasha", which is a Turkish song, a story of a great and beloved leader who went off on a campaign and was ambushed and murdered--it is in 5/4, whcih gives it the very peculiar quality of lingering on the end of every phrase--

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Dan Evergreen
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 12:07 PM

Alison Kraus sings a really haunting song named "I don't believe you've met my baby." "Evangeline", the cajun one, evokes visual images that will haunt one a long time: "High on the top of a hickory hill, She stands in the lightning and thunder..." Hey, Martin, where might one hear Nina Simone's "Ne me quitte pas?"

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: kendall
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 10:57 AM

Old Fid works well on an Apollonio 12 string guitar tuned down to D and played in the Em position.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 10:29 AM

Sandy Paton, Thank you for bringing the tune Samanthra to my attention. Somehow I've overlooked it for years, but no longer. T.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 09:31 AM

Skip Lake Superior....we're working on the entire Great Lakes system by now...................

...and what list of music around here would be complete (no matter what the topic) unless someone mentioned... "Waltzing with Bears"...so there we go.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Allen Mordica
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 09:21 AM

I'd have to nominate two sailor's tunes: The Old Fid (you should hear it accompanied by concertina!) and This Dreadful Life.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: McBeagle
Date: 24 Oct 99 - 06:05 PM

Kat - I finally figured it out and found the album and the request for help that you made. Thank you very much!

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: McBeagle
Date: 24 Oct 99 - 05:05 PM

Kat/KatLaughing....I clicked on your name, scrolled up and down the list a few times but I could not find 'THE STORT OF A SOLDIER'(from the Good, Bad, Ugly). Do you have a reference or line number? Thank you...

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: BR
Date: 24 Oct 99 - 10:39 AM

Skip James' Cypress Grove Blues.