Most haunting melodies?

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Tootler
Date: 30 Aug 05 - 06:26 PM

Two very old ones;

Mille Regretz composed by Josqin Després about 1520
Pavan Lachrymae composed by John Dowland about 1590

plus (among others)

Brigg Fair
Rothbury Hills - Jack Armstrong
Sounds of Silence - Paul Simon

I can post or point to midis if anyone is interested

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Sandra
Date: 30 Aug 05 - 02:06 PM

Harlem Nocturne

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Genie
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 08:59 PM

Firecat, one of the most haunting melodies ever, I think, is Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Bali Hai," from South Pacific.

Then there's the old Celtic ballad, "Silkie" (The Great Silkie Of Sule Skerry), which was also adapated for lament for the victims of the Hiroshima bombing.

I'd also nominate "The Water Is Wide" (O, Waly Waly).

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Genie
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 08:59 PM

Firecat, one of the most haunting melodies ever, I think, is Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Bali Hai," from South Pacific.

Then there's the old Celtic ballad, "Silkie" (The Great Silkie Of Sule Skerry), which was also adapated for lament for the victims of the Hiroshima bombing.

I'd also nominate "The Water Is Wide" (O, Waly Waly).

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 24 Aug 05 - 12:45 PM

Brahms 'Ein Deutesches Requiem', especially the opening.

Various slow Gaelic pieces I will not even try and spell, but are mostly laments of some kind.

Halleleugh and The Night Comes on. Various Leonard Cohen really.
Coal Not Dole- Kay Sutcliffe
The band played Waltzing Matilda

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: JennyO
Date: 24 Aug 05 - 12:25 PM

Te Deum by Berlioz.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: number 6
Date: 24 Aug 05 - 12:14 PM

Lighter ... it is a beautiful tune. was one of my slections for this thread also. I heard someone play that last Monday night on a fiddle ... always moves me when I hear it.

sIx

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 24 Aug 05 - 12:03 PM

There's just something about Jay Ungar's "Ashokan Farewell" that gets me right here (points to heart). Maybe it's the association with Ken Burns's Civil War series. I agree that it's one of the grandest sad melodies ever.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Domnull
Date: 24 Aug 05 - 04:16 AM

Lady Grinning Soul (on Aladdin Sane)

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Jonathan
Date: 24 Aug 05 - 01:23 AM

Mozart's Requiem

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Arkie
Date: 16 Jul 05 - 01:14 PM

I must have pushed the wrong button. I definitly pushed the wrong button. Sorry. Now the list.
Rose of my Heart
Sisters of Mercy
Suzzane
In My Life (the way Judy Collins sings it)
Largo from the New World Symphony
Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts
Every Bush and Tree
Cornflower Blue
The King of the Faries
Tam Lane
Widdicombe Fair
Sunday Morning Coming Down

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Arkie
Date: 16 Jul 05 - 01:10 PM

I do like threads such as this as I discover so much good music.   Ashokan Farewell, Loch Tay, Kilkelly, Sheebeg Sheemore, and Star of the County Down, are also on my list as well as these which I did not see mentioned above:

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 16 Jul 05 - 10:56 AM

Bluz Kna'ani (Canaanite Blues) by Ehud Banai. He's a Persian Israeli roots musician. Excelent lyrics and melodies.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: DavidHannam
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 01:16 PM

Anthem By Leonard Cohen. A Masterpiece.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 12:33 PM

a Liz Carroll fiddle tune from way back, whose name escapes me (unhelpfully)

Ave Maria

Kol Nidre

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Matt_R
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 01:01 AM

"Little Ben" - Donovan

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: thespionage
Date: 18 Jun 05 - 12:44 AM

Joan Baez's version of Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall."

Russ

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 17 Jun 05 - 11:42 PM

The church hymn Be Thou My Vision trad Gaelic.

Sincerely,

Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Ian Nottingham
Date: 17 Jun 05 - 05:17 PM

Hurt. Johnny Cash
Loch Lomand. Runrig
Who Knows Where The Time Goes? Sandy Denny
Samba pa ti. Santana
Time has Told me. Nick Drake

Ian

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Ian Nottingham
Date: 17 Jun 05 - 05:13 PM

Brilliant thread!

Hurt

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Highlandman
Date: 17 Jun 05 - 04:24 PM

Oh, lots and lots... hauntingness is one of the things that attracts me to tunes to begin with. Lesseee....
Dittos on "Ashokan Farewell" and "Smile In Your Sleep." If someone asks me to play a haunting melody on short notice, they'll probably get one of those.
I also think of the slow tune I know to "Green Linnet," (not the one in the DT), and "Are Ye Sleeping, Maggie." And O'Carolan's "Hewlitt."
One I discovered by accident was the pipe tune "Donald McLean of Lewis" slowed WAY down (one discovers such things when one can't play them up to tempo) played on guitar in an open tuning.
But for sheer earwormish-ness, how about "Storybook Love" from "The Princess Bride"? -grin-
-HM

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Kaleea
Date: 17 Jun 05 - 12:45 AM

There was a tune on Cherish The Ladies "Out & About" called "If Ever You Were Mine" which has always been haunting to me. A few years ago when I was playing in a Ceili band in Oklahoma, we were listening to the (then) new CD, & the tune wouldn't let me go. I told the boys in the band that I knew it was a SONG--with lyrics. Of course, at the time there was no way to find out. Not too many years later, after I was online, I emailed Joanie & she told me I was correct, & sent me the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: number 6
Date: 16 Jun 05 - 10:55 PM

The theme to the 1971 movie (penned by the outstanding playright Harold Pinter) ... the Go Between.

that is one haunting melody.

sIx

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: ranger1
Date: 16 Jun 05 - 10:36 PM

Two that immediately come to mind for me are:
"The Crossing" by Johnny Clegg
"Smile in Your Sleep," sung by just about anyone (but written by Jim McLean!)

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: Firecat
Date: 20 May 05 - 06:31 PM

I think that "Hine e Hine" and "Pokarekare Ana" when sung by Hayley Westenra are beautiful, and the opening "Scene Of The Swans" from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

From more modern songs, "Hello" and "My Immortal" by Evanescence, from their "Fallen" album are very haunting, and Amy Lee's voice adds to the effect.

Haunting show tunes, as far as I'm concerned, include "On My Own", "Bring Him Home" and "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables (I've only just learnt how to stop myself crying when I hear them), "Where Is Love" and "As Long As He Needs Me" from Oliver!, "Superheroes" from Rocky Horror, "Lament" from Evita, "Memory" from Cats, and "Last Night Of The World", "Movie In My Mind" and "Bui Doi" from Miss Saigon.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: TIA
Date: 20 May 05 - 12:19 AM

Waves of Kilkee


Comes into my head unbidden all the time

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,carnex
Date: 19 May 05 - 11:07 PM

Try the theme to "Picnic at Hanging Rock" George Zamfir pan pipe.

Subject: RE: Most haunting melodies?
From: GUEST,Allen
Date: 07 May 05 - 11:40 AM

BTW, what is the tune used by Bellamy for En-Dor?

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"