Most haunting melodies?

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 11 Oct 24 - 12:56 PM

Davy Spillane...The master of the Uillean pipes.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: gillymor
Date: 11 Oct 24 - 08:25 AM

Tjonneblomen

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Lang Johnnie Mor
Date: 11 Oct 24 - 03:21 AM

"Port na bPucai" :
https://youtu.be/5QskJoxYApo?si=GdohUQHxbeEzEa0u

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Oct 24 - 07:57 PM

Another one from Shetland: Leaving Lerwick Harbour by Willie Hunter

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: gillymor
Date: 08 Oct 24 - 08:18 AM

Far Away (aka The Canadian) by Peter Jung

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 08 Oct 24 - 06:00 AM

https://youtu.be/tuzKOX1YQno?si=_bTdvEBgWCNMV3bP Another of my haunting favourites.......

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Oct 24 - 05:19 AM

A couple of lullabies, written for different sorts of bagpipes (yes!)
The Sleeping Tune by Gordon Duncan
Anada pa Gael by Jose Manuel Tejedor

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Oct 24 - 02:56 PM

Jock o' Hazeldean,even without the words.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Lighter
Date: 05 Oct 24 - 01:19 PM

Is it the melody or the instrument or the setting or all three?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTqUy_CrTG4

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Greum
Date: 05 Oct 24 - 09:52 AM

I find the tune of Fare Thee Well, My Dearest Dear rather haunting...

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 03 Oct 24 - 11:07 AM

Whispering Pines:The Band.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 03 Oct 24 - 11:03 AM

La Route est Dure et La Vie est Mort.

Georgia Brown.

Theme tune to:Roads to Freedom;BBC TV.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Charmion
Date: 03 Oct 24 - 10:39 AM

Steve Shaw, I have sung the Mozart "Ave Verum Corpus" more often than I care to remember, always on Good Friday and at way too many funerals. I hope you have a competent church choir on tap for your own obsequies.

I first heard "Lagan Love" on an elderly Decca recording by Kenneth MacKellar. I was maybe eight years old. It riveted my attention then and fascinates me still. When I learned to sing it myself, I realized what a challenge it is; its long phrases demand the illusion of effortless ease achievable only with the best technique. Kenneth MacKellar, that prince of tenors, set that bar high (at least for me). The tune is the good part; the English words are rather silly. I wish I could sing it in Irish.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Tom Patterson
Date: 03 Oct 24 - 10:07 AM

A song I have only come across today - Lady Katharina by Robin Laing - A really haunting melody.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Oct 24 - 09:45 AM

... and here is Jean Ritchie singing the melody a cappella.
"Barbary Allen"

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 03 Oct 24 - 09:27 AM

Jean Ritchie sang a version of "Barb'ry Ellen"
that had a melody unlike any I have ever heard;
she recorded this version for the Argo label,
on an album of songs with dulcimer and guitar.
She played the dulcimer for "Barb'ry Ellen."
It haunts me still.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 03 Oct 24 - 08:17 AM

Highland Cathedral

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Oct 24 - 08:09 AM

"A Cossack Rode Beyond the Danube" (Americans may know it as "Minka")
"Ghost of John" (traditional)
"Shady Grove" (traditional)

Tons of medieval songs are super haunting, especially when you learn their background!

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: The Og
Date: 02 Oct 24 - 12:06 PM

Ditto on Casey's Last Ride...!

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Oct 24 - 12:06 PM

Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus. I had it played at both my parents' funerals and I'm having it at mine (you'll have a while to wait...)

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
Date: 01 Oct 24 - 11:28 AM

I `ad that spiritualist, Sean Ceramus in my cab the other day. `e looked as white as a sheet and `ad the trembles. I thought `es was suffering an `angover.
I said, " Morning Brandy, What`s up with you then. `air of the dog and all that?"
`e said , "No Jim. I was at a seance and we were trying to make contact with John Lennon and the room was filled with this most beguiling, `aunting melody. It gave you goose pimples, I tell you. `ave you ever `eard a song which give you the jitters?"
I said, " Yeah. When I was a kid. Scared the living daylights out of me".
`e said, "What one was that then?"
I said, "With `er `ead Tucked Underneath `er Arm"!!


Whaddam I Like??

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 01 Oct 24 - 10:55 AM

That last one was mine.

Here's another version, from 2966. Farantouri, barely twenty at the time, giving it her all:

Asma Asmaton 1966

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Oct 24 - 10:52 AM

Funnily enough I did not notice that this thread had popped up until I just posted about Casey's Last Ride on Kris Kistofferson's obit thread.

I nominate that as one of the most haunting songs I know!

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Oct 24 - 10:28 AM

Asma Asmaton - Maria Farandouri

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: The Og
Date: 01 Oct 24 - 10:18 AM

Ebb Tide...

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 08:16 PM

Currently leaving out those from "classical music" (in its broadest sense, and of which there are many) my list would include:
Several by Ivan Drever: Leaving Stoer, The Rose of St Magnus, El Caballo Blanco.
A bigger several by Phil Cunningham: Sarah's Song, The Pearl, Bright Star in Cepheus, The Gentle Light that Wakens Me, Loch Katrine's Lady and Irish Beauty.
Some of Shetlander's Tom Anderson's: Da Slockit Light, Shingly Beach.
Scott Skinner's: Hector the Hero, The Music o' Spey
and I could go on......into my Irish favourites!

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: gillymor
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:29 AM

Stella Splendens

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: gillymor
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:16 AM

Tjonneblomen

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 08:46 PM

Try listening to Reynardine or Lucy Wan by Martin Carthy & David Swarbrick. Very haunting and beautiful in a melodramatic way.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: robomatic
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 03:12 PM

Give a listen to Randy Newman's "Dixie Flyer". It has a haunting melodic line between verses. Was used for years on the Cartalk program (United States, National Public Radio) by the Magliozzi Brothers. Heard it and was hypnotized by it long before I traced it down.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Elmore
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 03:04 PM

Dawn on the Moscow River by Mussorgsky.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 02:08 PM

Farewell to Fiunary. My wife is learning an arrangement by Stephen Wood at present, superb tune and certainly deserves to be described as "haunting".

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Thompson
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 12:38 PM

Liam Ó Raghallaigh
Cailín Deas Crúite na mBó
Samhradh, Samhradh

(to start with)

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 11:22 AM

Chopin's etude Op. 10, 3

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Tom Mycock
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 10:43 AM

Springhill Mine Disaster
Spring of '65
Boys of Bedlam

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,silver
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 10:23 AM

"Koppången" by Per Erik Moraeus/Py Bäckman, look for Sissel Kyrkjebö's version on Youtube

Dark Eyed Molly (Archie Fisher/Stan Rogers)

The Loch Tay Boat Song

Jane's Whistle (Anne Dodson)

Dark Old Waters (Gordon Bok)

The tune most often mentioned throughout this thread is "Ashokan Farewell". I agree, it's a gem. So is the "Eriskay Love Lilt" (Bheir Me O).

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,David Carter (UK)
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 05:59 AM

Ewan MacColl's "You and I" (from Hot Blast)

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Sol
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 05:57 AM

Wonderful Land -The Shadows
The good the bad and the ugly - Hugo M.....
American trilogy - Elvis
Aria -Acker Bill
The Shian Road -Isla St Clair
The Flowers o'The Forest (on the bagpipes)
Hector the Hero

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Iains
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 04:09 AM

Starry night. A traveller's song with a provenance earlier than Davy Spillane and Sean Tyrrell. This song has several threads on mudcat.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Mr Red
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 04:06 AM

Salut d'Amour

Made the career of one man.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 03:38 AM

Listening in the dark to Peggy Lee singing "Fever."

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Curtis
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 10:59 PM

Many Stan Rogers songs had that haunting effect on me to the point where I had listened to some of them over and over again before I ever paid attention to the words.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,rob_o
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 02:40 PM

"Aisling" by Anuna (Ireland), from Behind The Closed Eye Album

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,rob_o
Date: 11 Dec 10 - 07:25 PM

"Gold Wedding Ring" by Barry & Barry; "Evergreen" by The Stone Poneys; "Winter Winds" and "Banks Of The Nile" by Fotheringay; "Evening Falls" by Enya;

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,McGee
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 08:51 PM

Jay Unger and Molly Mason's Ashokan Farewell   still brings shivers....

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 05:04 PM

Most of them have been covered. There is an obscure one called" Beautiful Lake Anconi",
a fiddle tune from Cape Breton by a Laurie ( ? )

One of the most simple plaintive tunes to me is "Little Birdie".

Pete's songs would qualify. Where have" All the Flowers Gone" and" Turn Turn", "Bells of Rhmyney".

"Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies",    "Pretty Saro", "Wagoner's Lad"

One of the great early popular songs written which is a jazz standard is Jerome Kern's
"All The Things You Are".

Thomas Moore. "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms"

"Tiurse Moi Chroi" from Ireland

Texas Gladden's version of "I Never Will Marry".

"The Foggy Dew" from Ireland

"Been In The Storm So Long" (sung during the Civil Rights Movement)

"Summertime" George Gershwin

Cole Porter could write a melody.

For a simple, clear heart-felt tune "Dink's Song" collected by Lomax.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 02:16 PM

Song of the Siren?

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Old Vermin
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 01:45 PM

The Dark Island and Lilli Marlene get mentions above of course.

The couple or so I think worth mentioning:

are Dirty Old Town in its original - Ewan McColl - version

Pleasant and Delightful

and especially something Home Lads Home

http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7819

similar to or the same as something sung at Horsham round about Remembrance Sunday

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: meself
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 12:40 PM

I have refrained from reading this thread for this reason: to me, the description of a tune as "haunting" is the equivalent of an exorcism - once someone says, "That's a haunting tune", all the haunting just flies out of it, and it's never haunting again ....

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,rayvongeezer
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 06:24 PM

Through the Barricades by Spandau Ballet. The pipes & drums end refrain just stays in your head man