The saddest song (or music) ever written
#1
LThere was an interesting book published a couple of years ago: This Will End in Tears: The Miserabilist Guide to Music by Adam Brent Houghtaling, billed as "the first ever and definitive guide to melancholy music".

What is the saddest piece of music you have ever heard?

My vote would be for Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11.  It never fails to move me.

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#2
I like the one you posted. Although probably not the saddest, I would include Fjara by Sólstafir. If any other occurs to me I might add something.


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#3
First: Thanks for the upload of that book, I'd never heard of it. Definitely on my to read list.

Rolling Stone had a poll where they asked readers essentially this question. The only one on there I really agreed with was Nine Inch Nails: Hurt, and only because it mentions the Johnny Cash cover. I liked his minor lyric change from "crown of shit" to "crown of thorns" - I recognize that it was a reference to Cash's faith, but I have no real issue with religious symbolism in music as long as it's still possible to infer another meaning. 

The entire story around the video is sad too, from the house they filmed it in burning down in 2007 (it was Cash's own house) to the visibly ailing appearance of Johnny himself, to the fact that his wife died three months after they completed the filming. The whole experience is very personal and bare, and when you take the context into consideration and really listen to the layers of music, it's a very emotional experience. The hindsight has only benefitted that, albeit in a bittersweet way.



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#4
I love Cash's "Hurt" but had never seen the video. Very touching indeed.
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#5
Aguilera - Hurt
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#6


This record came out earlier this year and it's one of the saddest ones I've ever heard.  

https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/17463868/
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#7
1. "Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul, and Mary
2. "Hotel California" by the Eagles
3. "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton
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#8
Scorpions - always somewhere
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#9
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#10
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