The most mournful melody?

[2tonic]

I always thought Frau Blucher kicked it old timey sad.

 

[Pops OB]

 

[Spupilup]

The Sinking of the Titanic by Gavin Bryars.

To quote Wikipedia:

Bryars' inspiration for the work came from a report that the wireless operator Harold Bride on the Titanic had witnessed the house band continue to perform as the ship sank. In April 1912, Bride had told the New York Times: "[T]he band was still playing. I guess all of the band went down. They were playing "Autumn" then. I swam with all my might. I suppose I was 150 feet away when the Titanic on her nose, with her after-quartet sticking straight up in the air, began to settle - slowly....the way the band kept playing was a noble thing.....and the last I saw of the band, when I was floating out in the sea with my lifebelt on, it was still on deck playing "Autumn". How they ever did it I cannot imagine. That, and the way Phillips (the senior wireless operator) kept sending after the Captain told him his life was his own, and to look out for himself, are two things that stand out in my mind over all the rest.."[2]

Bryars imagined that the sound would continue to reverberate as it disappeared under the waves. Writing in 1993, Bryars said "the music goes through a number of different states, reflecting an implied slow descent to the ocean bed which give a range of echo and deflection phenomena, allied to considerable high frequency reduction".[2

 

[DJ Bebop]

 

[DJ Bebop]

 

[mmon77]

This one came on when I was listening to a progressive metal streaming channel. Kinda caught me offguard. Beautiful but very solemn and mournful cello playing. Sounds like the kind of music that should be playing in the background of some movie where there's a huge battle and everyone is dying:

 

[Billoney]

Uriah Heep's cover of "Come Away Melinda" from their first album.

 

[electrichead]

Type O. Red Water.
Mourning is even in the name.

 

[champbassist]

Some worthy melancholic melodies for your kind perusal might be found here:

Bleakest, saddest song you've ever heard?

 

[Jeff Scott]

 

[bassliner50]

 

[Jeff Scott]

Starting at 10:15.

Play this through your finest stereo system or best headphones as there is seriously deep bass in the recording.

 

[SlowpokeJoe]

Lover, You've Should Have Come Over by Jeff Buckley

Pure, concentrated regret and longing in song form.
Invalid Link Removed

 

[Carl Hillman]

What tune has the most mournful melody? Here's my submission (meaning the melody in the guitar line, not the voice, though that's up there, too).

Károly (Karl) Goldmark
Andante Sostenuto from the string quartet in Bb major

 

[SteveCS]

As many who have truly mourned will know, the feelings of grief come and go in waves. For me, the piece that truly evokes this is the second movement (Offertoire) of Faure's Requiem. Starts at about 6:00, but really needs to be heard as part of the whole...

 

[crankypants]

The Spanish Inquisition, or, when the Nazis shot all their Polish POWs in that little room. That's pretty mournful.

 

[DrayMiles]

Naima- Coltrane

 

[Amalgam]

 

[oZZma]

There's plenty of examples of great "mournful" melodies in the baroque period
Famous examples are Purcell's Funeral for Queen Mary or Haendel's Sarabande (Kubrick used them both in his movies)
Monteverdi's Lamento della Ninfa
My favourite period in classical music by far, these composers managed to write such unsettling and dissonant stuff...

 

[Mark White]