Most haunting melodies?

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

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Igor
Date: 05 Jun 09 - 08:03 PM

Lili Marlen
Colonel Bogey's March (Bridge on the river Kwai)

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Cruiser
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 04:27 PM

Two more haunting melodies/songs, especially the first one:

'If I Only had Time' (Instrumental version or by John Rowles, or Earl Grant)

'It's Not the End of Everything' (Tommy Edwards)

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 10:11 AM

Also: Mascagni:   Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo. Never should have left that one out.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 09:49 AM

Bryn Pugh mentioned a certain Carolan song, upthread. That song is 'Planxty Morgan Magan,' and it can be heard on Contemplator's site:

http://www.contemplator.com/carolan/caroltun.html

Bryn's idea puts me in mind of one of my favorites, 'Blind Mary,' also by Carolan.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 09:46 AM

Also, many Sephardic songs are particularly haunting. One I really recommend is "Adio, Qerida". I have it on a CD called "'Songs of the Sephardim" by a local group called "La Rondinella", which I also saw in concert. Truly amazing.

And some Balkan songs--among many others "Sto Mi e Milo"

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: number 6
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 08:32 AM

"Bibo no Aozora" by Ryuichi Sakamoto.


biLL

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 08:29 AM

It's awfully hard to distinguish between "haunting" and "catchy"

But trying to do so, I still have a sizable list, including many already mentioned:



Tarrega--Recuerdos de la Alhambra

Bizet--    Symphony in C (second movement)

Schubert   Symphony in C (second movement)

Bruch       Scottish Fantasy--esp the part derived from "Doun for Lack o' Johnny"

Vaughn Williams:   Lark Ascending

Vaughn Williams    Fantasia on Greensleeves

Vaughn Williams    Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

Lorena--esp. when sung by Kendall Morse

Both Sides the Tweed--esp sung by Mary Black

Beethoven: Symphony #7--second movement--as a violist I particularly appreciate this melody

Lakes of Pontchartrain

Skye Boat Song

Rimsky-Korsakov--Scheherezade--several melodies

Long Long Trail--esp for association with World War I

Til We Meet Again (1918)

Samanthra

Lili Marleen--even more now that I've read a book about the song:   poet, composer, and the singer who made it famous (Lale Andersen)

Puccini--O Mio Babbino Caro--even though I know she is singing to her father, not her baby

Flowers of the Forest--esp when sung by Joe Hickerson

In Old Chicago--when sung by Art Thieme

Beethoven--second movement of Pathetique

Borodin--Polevetsian Dances--several melodies

Tenting Tonight

Those Were The Days

California Dreamin'

Ashokan Farewell

Rodrigo--Concierto de Aranjuez--several melodies

Rodrigo--Fantasia para un Gentilhombre--several melodies

Ave Maria--as set by several composers, esp the Ave Maria from the Rachmaninoff
Vespers and sung in Russian

Rachmaninoff--Piano Concerto #2--several melodies

Ich hatte einen Kameraden

Who'll Watch the Home Place?

I'll Be Seeing You

As Time Goes By--esp with the opening verse

Bonny at Morn

Eriskay Love Lilt

Mahler--Symphony #1

Dvorak--New World Symphony--several melodies

Dvorak--Symphony #8--several melodies

Parting Glass

Mountains of Mourne

Brahms--Marienlieder--several melodies

Mozart--Piano Concerto #21--esp the slow movement melody, also used in "Elvira Madigan"

Sibelius--Finlandia

Farewell To Tarwaithe--esp in "Whales and Nightingales"

Mendelssohn--Violin Concerto in e--several melodies

Mendelssohn--Hebrides (overture) AKA Fingal's Cave--several melodies

Mendelssohn--Symphony #3 (Scottish)--several melodies

Brahms--Ein deutsches Requiem--virtually the whole thing

Allegri--Miserere

Saint-Saens--Introduction and Rondo Capricioso--several melodies

Saint-Saens---Piano Concerto #2--several melodies

Debussy--Afternoon of a Faun

Hanson--Romantic Symphony--several melodies

Bizet--Carmen--several melodies

Bizet--L'Arlesienne Suites--several melodies

Tchaikovsky--Serenade for Strings--several melodies

Tchaikovsky--Capriccio Italien--several melodies

Grieg--Peer Gynt Suites--several melodies--esp. "Solveig's Song"


And a bunch more, classical and non-classical

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 11:42 AM

A tune that I've never gotten over is from the late 50s-early 60s. It quickly became bastardized into a written song not nearly as memorable as the original.

It is 'Moon over Naples', which then became a hit under 'Blue Spanish Eyes'. It became a fragmented, almost jarring tune.

Moon over Naples's pure melody with its soaring violins... lovely.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 11:17 AM

Banks of the Bann (hymn tune "Slane" ?)

The Maid of Coolmore

O'Carolan's "Morgan Meggann[sp. ?]

The Morris tune "Bumpus o' Stretton".

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Amos
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 10:37 AM

I have always been haunted by "Foggy Dew", "Lili Marlene", and more recently by Kate Wolfe's "Nobody Lives Here Anymore".


A

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 10:12 AM

A few years ago I heard trumpet player play a beautiful new composition called Prayer to St. Gregory, I can't remember the composer but I remember how spellbound I was hearing it ringing through a church on a snowy December night.

The composer was Alan Hovhaness. Several versions on YouTube.

One that haunted me for a long time was "You got to cross that lonesome valley", after reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". The way he weaves it into the end of the story is very moving.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Minerva
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 09:33 AM

What a great thread, with so many fantastic songs.

But going strictly by the criterion of haunting, rather than merely great, good, or moving, THE most haunting song in the world is, "Llorando", sung a capella, by Rebekah del Rio. Unbelievable.

Another beautifully haunting song I don't see listed above is "Lonesome Road".

Also, the whales' melodic accompaniment to Judy Collins' "Farewell to Tarwathe" (sp?) haunts me to this day.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 01:24 PM

Whenever I hear the Spice Girls
I'tell you what I want what I really really want etc.
I am haunted by it for days.
IS that sad enough?

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Gweltas
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 01:54 AM

"Siege Of A Nation" (composed by Mikis Theodorakis, Greece) as played by the Furey Brothers, Ireland............I think it may also be called A Nation Under Siege?
"Morning On A Distant Shore", "Banshee", "The Lonesome Boatman" ....all composed by Finbar Furey.
"Boadicea" by Enya, Ireland
"Song For A Winter's Night" by Gordon Lightfoot, Canada.
"White Squall" by Stan Rogers, Canada.
"Da Ewan" by Alan Stivell, Brittany.
"Arrane Voirrey" (composed by Peter Cubberly) as played by Mactullagh Vannin, Isle of Man
"The Terrace Of Celebrations" ("Follow me Down To The Sea") by Arkadia, Canada.
"The Missing Piece" by Cherish The Ladies, USA.
"So Near And Yet So Far" by the Hanging Johnny Shanty Crew, of Cornwall and Plymouth, UK.
"Courting Too Slow" as by John Spiers & Jon Boden, UK
"Widecombe Fair" (Not the traditional song of the same title!) as sung by Steve Knightley, of Show Of Hands, UK.
"Clohinne Winds" as sung by Niamh Parsons, Ireland.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,knowicki
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 06:46 PM

Gymnopédies - Erik Satie
Scarborough Fair- Lorena McKinnet version is best
Junk - Paul McCartney
Those Were the Days
Thank You - Dido, first half of the song in minor key
Ennio Morricone - Take your pick of the spaghetti trilogy, Ecstasy of gold
Love - John Lennon
Theme from Puppet Master 1
Some Cranberries tune That I forget the name of

There's a few more, but those melodies are all strange but good

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: quokka
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 01:28 PM

Lonesome Boatman
Angel (Sarah McLaughlin)
Hallelujia (Jeff Buckley live verson)
Sailing to Philadelphia (Mark Knopfler&James Taylor)
Theme from Cal (Mark Knopfler)
Night Visiting Song (Kate Rusby)
Shoheen (KR)
Soundtrack to Barry Lyndon (the Chieftains)
Haunted by the Ghost(Sinead O'C & Shane McG.)
One More Cup of Coffee (Dylan)
Rainy Night in Soho (Pogues)
The Last Resort (Eagles)
Sad Cafe - ditto
The River (Springsteen)
The Circle Game (Joni)
Ride On (Christy)
Walk Away Renee (Billy Bragg version)
I Was Only Nineteen (Redgum)
Tell Laura I Love Her (Billy Connolly) just thought I'd throw that one in!;-} I may think of some more...check back in a few days.
Cheers
Quokka

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: closet-folkie
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 09:25 AM

"Into Temptation" by Crowded House takes some beating. So beautiful, it hurts.
Steve R.
...oh...and a second vote for "Lady Grinning Soul". Magnificent.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Kevin Parker
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 05:48 AM

Crazy Man Michael...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5ksWNvFbME&feature=related

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 01:24 AM

Papirosen.
Vzyav By Ya Banduru.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Jim Peden
Date: 03 Jun 08 - 11:50 PM

Jed Marum is too modest. One of the most haunting melodies is his own Chickahominy River......

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: cptsnapper
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 12:11 PM

Portrait Of My Love by Matt Monroe
Every December Sky - Beth Neilsen Chapman
'Twas On One April Morning
I Live Not Where I Love
Dark Eyes

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: LeTenebreux
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 10:52 PM

Anything by Leonard Cohen.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 09:18 PM

Sally Free and Easy

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,singeroo
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 11:40 PM

"Four Green Fields" - T. Makem
"Which Side Are You On" - P. Seeger
"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" (the author's name escapes me but it has a lovely minor-key melody)

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 06:45 PM

Russian:

Vashe Blagorodiye.
Murka.
Zhuravli.
Beryozy.

Hebrew:

Erev Shel Shoshanim
El Ginat Egoz
Shecharchoret.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Jaze
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 06:29 PM

Mary From Dungloe

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Rog Peek
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 05:26 PM

Ashoken Farewell by Jay Ungar

Rog

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: robomatic
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 04:37 PM

Randy Newman: "Dixie Flyer"

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 12:49 PM

"Mountains of Mourne"
"Black is the Colour of my True Love's Hair"
"Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go? (or Wild Mountain Thyme)"
"Song for a Winter's Night" - Lightfoot
"Believe Me, If All These Endearing Young Charms"
"The Grandfather's Clock"
"McPherson's Lament (or Last Farewell)"
"Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye"
"The River is Wide"
"City of New Orleans"

I would guess that I rate the songs that resonate in memory by how indelibly the melody lingers and connects to certain powerful events or themes. All of the above qualify for me, at some time or other, in some place or other.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 12:31 PM

Poor Wayfarin' Stranger.
Cobbler's Hornpipe.
Turpin Hero.
Flowers of the Forest.
Lord Franklin.
She Moved Through the Fair.
Nottamun Town.
Jack Orion.
Follow Me Up to Carlow.
The Cuckoo.
The Road to Moscow.
Leaf and Stream.
Darkness, Darkness.
Farewell, Farewell (that is, the melody often used for Willy o'Winsbury)
Bruton Town.

Russian and Ukrainian:
Lyubo, Bratzi, Lyubo.
Chyorny Voron.
Polyushko Polye.
Vzyav By Ya Banduru.

Hebrew:
Hatikva
Yerushalaim Shel Zahav.
Deror Yikra.
Bluz Knaani.
Ruti. The melody is Russian, but I can't remember the song.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,langham selby
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 09:35 AM

McCrimmons lament,there are 3 versions on youtube Davy Stewart in a pipe medley,probably closest to the original,then two vocal versions from Barbara Dixon and Sheila Chandra

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 17 Jun 07 - 12:21 PM

Still need an ID of the background of the Dow Chemical commercial.

Haunting.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,me
Date: 17 Jun 07 - 01:47 AM

The Green Leaves of Summer

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 10:25 AM

It's a long, long thread a-winding, and I'd second (third, fourth &c) many of the melodies already mentioned, and add one which I don't think has been mentioned yet, and that's "Roisin Dubh" (I notice a few mentions of O'Riada's "Mise Eire", mind you). Incidentally, "Ned of the Hill" is "Eamonn a' chnuic" (said to have been made by the man himself in the late C17th), and "Danny Boy" is "The Air from County Derry", taken down from the playing of a fiddler in Limavady in the 1850s. Add also "Ban chnuic hEireann O" ("The fair Hills of Ireland")

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Slag
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 09:38 PM

Or "...softly, as I leave you..."

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Slag
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 07:04 PM

Don't know if I'm remembering this correctly but how about the arrangement of WALTZING MATILDA in the SciFi (or was it "Future History") flick "On The Beach"??? As I remember it had a plaintive quality that grew and permeated then replaced the sound of the Jolly Swagman as he and his "Matilda" danced of into the Out back in the "Never Again" dreamtime.   Ooooo! Heady stuff.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Slag
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 03:15 PM

GOING HOME as in the old gospel hymn? That's the one A. Dvorak incorporated into his Symphany No. 4, FROM THE NEW WORLD (1893).

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: webfolk
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 01:25 PM

Going Home, from the movie, Local Hero,(incidently, also the tune that Newcastle United run out onto the pitch to) is actually by
Mark Knopfler, of course of Dire Straits.

Geoff
webfolk.net

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 07:28 AM

Going Home
Dire Straits
Sal

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Slag
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 03:07 AM

This just might be the strangest entry but don't prejudge it! A little one verse tune, as far as I know, entitled SWEET VICTORY from an episode of the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon show. It's one where the denizens of Bikini Bottom have put together a marching band for a half time show at a football game. Check it out.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Cruiser
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 05:52 PM

I know this is more contemporary music, but the fuzz guitar, and the diminished and minor chords in this song give it that haunting quality.

Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang (my baby shot me down)

Bang Bang fit the soundtrack of Kill Bill perfectly.

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Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Big Mick
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 04:32 PM

Sean Tyrell is on a CD called (I think) Shadow Hunter. The title refers to a song called "The Walker of the Snow" which is one of the haunted hunter genre songs. Tyrell's voice is such an amazing instrument, and he does it full interpretive justice on this track. The melody is absolutely haunting. At one point in the song, Davey Spillane takes off on an interlude that will make the hair stand up on your arms. Between Tyrell's voice and Spillane's pipes, this track is absolutely haunting and beautiful. I have sung this song at Getaways, sing-arounds, and concerts. It always elicits a response, but I have always wanted to do it with a good Uilleann Piper. It is a stunner and exactly fits this thread.

Mick

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Cruiser
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 04:03 PM

_____________________________________________________________________


Here is the Poignant
Memorial Video of Kyu Sakamoto

_____________________________________________________________________

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Cruiser
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 03:38 PM

Pleases to see this thread revived.

I have 2 others, in addition to the ones I mentioned above.

"I Wish My Baby was Born"

The owl the owl is a lonely bird he fills my heart with dread and terror.

That someone's blood there on his wing, that someone's blood there on his feather.

_____________________________________________________________________


And, one of my absolute favorite, beautiful mournful melodies"

"Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto

Sukiyaki


There was an excellent YouTube video of a memorial showing past programs Kyu was on and the plane crash site but I could not find that.

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Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Slag
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 11:48 AM

When I was sixteen and a long way from home, out in the wilds of Montana or Wyoming or some such, I was fishing around on the radio trying to bring in some distant station when I first heard Barry McGuire's EVE OF DESTRUCTION. It was late at night and the station was fading in and out and I was straing to hear, rapt by the music and when the harmonica accompanyment came in, WOW! The combination of factors gave such a desolate and mournful feeling.

I also wanted to include Middler's THE ROSE for consideration.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 09:13 AM

A couple of months ago on another thread I asked if anyone could identify the fiddle tune played behind the current Dow Chemical commercials. Nobody could then. How 'bout now?

It really is haunting.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: eddie1
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 04:32 AM

This might sound really corny but on a re-run of MASH, I saw the episode where Col Potter arrives at the 4077. It finishes with Potter, Hawkeye and PJ drinking 'shine and harmonising on "A Long Long Trail A-winding". Lump in throat time.
Another, particularly because of the season. I was gathering material for my radio prog and listened to John McCutcheon singing "Christmas In The Trenches". Tissue time!


Eddie