Most depressing piece(s)

[pies]

Does anything beat Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima?

[nanabush]

I'v never heard it, but if you can send me a recording I'd like to listen to it.  Rachmaninoff Prelude in B minor, Op 32 is extremely depressing, and the climax is one of the most powerful, emotional outbursts I've ever heard 

[pies]

Here is the threnody: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EXK5NNF4

[jre58591]

id agree with the threnody. you can even hear the bombs dopping.

[nanabush]

Wheu, this piece sounds vaguely like Synaphy by Xenakis.  I think this is too dissonant to be depressing.  I'm not quite sure what a Therenody is, but this piece sounds like something you'd hear in the background of a movie remake of the bomb actually hitting hiroshima.  Maybe that's what makes it depressing, but this is far from 'bring someone to tears' depressing.

[jre58591]

ok, here is something completely tonal: scharwenka's 1st piano concerto. that piece is very solemn and serious almost all the way through. it almost moves me to tears. same with his 3rd piano concerto.

[gymnopedist]

The 3rd movt. of Prok 2nd sonata is so depressing.

[mephisto]

Late Liszt:

Lugubre Gondola 1 and 2
Almost the complete 3rd year of pilgrimage
Unster! Sinistre, Disastro
La Notte
Nuage Gris
And many more.

[shun]

Scriabin "Funeral March" from the 1st piano sonata. That's pretty sad... and beautiful.

[allthumbs]

How about Chopin's Op.35, No.2, Sonata (Funeral March) in Bb minor?

[lung7793]

parts of the verdi requiem, or for a piano piece chopin e minor prelude

[arbisley]

I don't know what to choose. I would also classify between "depressing" and "emotionally sad", because it can be on, the other, or both.
Mozart's requiem is definitely a good example of the latter, but the thredony is definitely a purely depressing one. I think I heard something similar once which made me feel so awful that I had to turn it off before i threw up!
I don't know what that was called, but it was definitely very similar to the thredony.

[phil13]

A musical masterpiece of art

Tragically butchered by the amateur

Who knows not the extent of his failure.



There's your answer.

Phil

[franz_]

Bach - Erbarme Dich

Quiet depressed to.

[arbisley]

of course there's also the doppelganger by Schubert

[pianowolfi]

of course there's also the doppelganger by Schubert

Or "Frühlingsglaube" by Schubert. A strangely sad song--in a major key!

[Waldszenen]

Chopin's Prelude No. 2.... so bad it's depressing.

[mephisto]

Chopin's Prelude No. 2.... so bad it's depressing.

I think you mean: I have bad musical taste. I can`t appreciate that some composers write music that is way ahead of their time.

There is nothing wrong with honesty.

[jas]

A musical masterpiece of art

Tragically butchered by the amateur

Who knows not the extent of his failure.



There's your answer.

Phil

You leapt into piano playing a fully-formed virtuoso, did you?

Górecki's Symphony no.3 is deeply depressing, when you know the stories behind it. Or, rather, what it stands for is depressing. The music itself is dark and very moving, but really beautiful. The climax of the first movement is electrifying.

The problem with talking about depressing music is that is it has the power to depress you, it must be a great piece of music. Therefore, you tend to enjoy it anyway. What's more depressing, in my opinion, is the generic, indistinguishable pop crap the industry's churning out.

Jas

[quantum]

Beethoven Op 10/3 Second movement. 

[arensky]

Chopin's Prelude No. 2.

Along with this, Mozart's Fantasy in c minor K.475, Barber's Ballade and Scriabin's Prelude Op.74 #1.

There are many more, these immediately came to mind.

[phil13]

You leapt into piano playing a fully-formed virtuoso, did you?

Jas

Yes. Didn't you?

I do believe I can tell the difference in quality between Rudolf Serkin playing Moonlight's 1st mvt. and the guy down the street who just learned it 10 minutes ago. Cut me a little slack.

Phil

[thaicheow]

I would say: most bach pieces played by Rosalyn Tureck. My friend and I played her Well tempered clavier in his living room. The music just slowly creep into your heart, and it keeps haunting you, and we felt sadder. Powerful playing, but I don't dare to listen to her playing whenever I feel down. I also have her recording playing Goldberg and Variations in Italian Style,  all have powerful emotional depth.

I cry several times, in listening to Liszt's piano sonate in b, especially those by Martha Argerich and Jorge Bolet. Dunno why?

Bach's partitas also feel quite depressing.

Some Chopin's prelude also quite sad.

Some 2nd movements of Mozart's piano sonata. His a minor piano sonata always makes me feel sad.

[alzado]

I recently played "From a Log Cabin" by MacDowell.  [Hope I have the wording of the title correct.]

While the piece was interesting, I found it so somber as to almost be depressing.

Not everything MacDowell writes is that gloomy -- but quite a few of his pieces are.

[00range]

Chopin's op. 39 Scherzo gets to me.

[yooniefied]

Or "Frühlingsglaube" by Schubert. A strangely sad song--in a major key!

How on earth does that qualify as a depressing song? I sang that ages ago!

Ever hear Schubert's "Romanze" - the vocal piece with the clarinet accompianment? I absolutely adore it. (Coincidentally, it also qualifies as a pretty depressing song..) The very first line goes, "I linger restless all alone...", etc., etc.


Anyways, onto depressing repetoire...
Quite honestly, Liszt or Beethoven doesn't really do it for me in that sense - I usually sense this..dismal FRUSTRATION, controlled chaos (at times)...never a pure, lasting sadness. By the end of the piece, I've usually feel resolved, not sad!

Any requiem most certainly will qualify as depressing....
Mozart's is my favorite, of course.  Who can hear the "Lacrimosa" and not cry? (And I know this comment is going to make me look absolutely insipid, but it was actually used on an American Cartoon show called "Hey Arnold" when one of the characters was in a depression. Everytime you'd see her sobbing her eyes out in a dark room, the music would come on...hilarious!)


There is a relatively obscure piece from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker (people don't necessarily associate it with the ballet, that is)...it always makes me emotional.
I made my own transcription of it for the piano, if any of you are interested.

Here it is.

[pianowolfi]

How on earth does that qualify as a depressing song? I sang that ages ago!

It has a subtle typical viennese melancholy. 'Everything is blooming and I don't know, where that's gonna end...'

[cloches_de_geneve]

Beethoven Op 10/3 Second movement. 

It's arguably one of the best slow sonata mvts ever written. But, at least to me, it's very sad, not depressing. Schubert's music is in general much more depressing than Beethoven's. And this is paradoxically more the case with his major than minor pieces. I think that is because many of Schubert's pieces in major mode are not about happiness, but about the illusion of happiness. And that is, of course, terribly sad.

[nortti]

Shostakovich's 5th symphony..

[melengi]

id agree with the threnody. you can even hear the bombs dopping.

if i remember correctly he came up with the title well after finishing the piece, it's widely thought it has nothing to do with Hiroshima.

i nominate the middle movement from Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

[burstroman]

Piano Sonata #1, Shostakovich.

[mikey6]

The Tristan and Isolde Leibestod always depresses me.
But I'd have to say anything by Schnittke (although he may be more on the creepy/uncomfortable side)

[posorrow]

Shostakovich last streichquartet s quite deadly 

[pianogeek_cz]

While we're at Shostakovich, his thirteenth symphony is also quite gloomy and depressing in places...

[steinwaymodeld]

Anything Lang Lang plays/performed
and then think of the statement 'Lang Lang is the future of classical music.'

that should get u depressed

[infectedmushroom]

Anything Lang Lang plays/performed
and then think of the statement 'Lang Lang is the future of classical music.'

that should get u depressed

haha

[andersand]

Have anyone seen the movie "Requiem for a dream"?  The whole soundtrack is sooo depressing (fits well to a depressing and suicidal movie). You can get the idea here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=dIoFQmhRePM

[soliloquy]

There have only been two pieces that have made me cry.  One was Bolet's recording of the Wagner-Liszt Tannhauser Overture, and the other was the Corigliano Etude Fantasy because I broke my L4 practicing it =/

[ahinton]

There have only been two pieces that have made me cry.  One was Bolet's recording of the Wagner-Liszt Tannhauser Overture, and the other was the Corigliano Etude Fantasy because I broke my L4 practicing it =/

But at least, for you, there's time (for more, in due course, that is)...

Best,

Alistair