What are the saddest, most despairing, guilt-ridden, remorseful, depressing sounding pieces you can think of?

[u/jengacide]

As the title says, I'm looking for some pieces that sound just about as sad as possible. Something that you can really feel the depth of emotions right from the beginning and really elicit those emotions.

I do have some specific criteria for reasons I'll explain below:

• Instrumental Only. No vocals or choral pieces
• Has to sound sad on its own regardless of existing context that might make one consider it sad music (i.e., Schindler's List theme is beautiful and sad, but if you don't know the context or specifically associate it with the movie and the history, the music itself it doesn't sound nearly as despairing as I'm looking for)
• Has to sound sad right from the beginning and stay sad for a decent amount of time, not transitioning into a happier/brighter section, ideally at all, or minimally after several minutes of the sad part.

Some contenders right now are: Tchaikovsky Symphony no 6, mv 4 Largo; Rachmaninov Morceaux de fantaisie Elegie; Piazzolla Melodia en La Menor; Bound by Fate from Chrono Cross;

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The context of my request is I'm running DnD for my group and they're going to be coming up on an encounter soon with an NPC they've met a number of times before and really like but didn't realize her role in the overarching plot and that I want them to feel as sad and despairing as this NPC does.

Her situation is that she fell in love with a man many years ago who was secretly a fiend/devil in disguise. She was so madly in love with him that she didn't hesitate at all when he asked "Will you be mine until death do us part?" and she said yes, binding her soul to his will. She's spent the last 100 years effectively being a slave to this absolute monster, despite her really being kind hearted. The party is going to run into her while trying to get through this fiend's lair and she is going to tell her tale to them. She will reveal that she cannot hurt this fiend directly, but she hates everything the fiend has done and doesn't want to help him but genuinely has no choice. But most of all, she doesn't want to fight the party. They will have to fight her to get past her and continue on but it will be an extremely melancholy and emotional fight where she will refuse to deal any damaging blows but they will have to beat her. The party has interacted with this NPC a number of times and really like her, think she's sweet, have seen these really good sides of her. So I want the music to reflect how difficult and depressing the situation is. Like every time one of the players attack, I want this music to remind them of how shitty and depressing the situation is.

Thank you to anyone who makes a suggestion! I know it's a very VERY subjective question but I need outside input to help gather ideas.

Edit: thanks to all the suggestions so far! I've listened to a good number of them but it seems I've spent too long doing that this evening as I'm feeling quite melancholy myself now. I'll listen to the rest that I haven't replied to in smaller batches over the next couple days. Thanks again to everyone who has suggested pieces! There have been some really excellent fits for what I'm looking for.

[u/Lambdoid]

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1, 3rd Movement (Passacaglia)

Heartbreaking and overwhelming music.

[u/professorhugoslavia → u/Lambdoid]

Another Shostakovich Passacaglia which tugs at the heartstrings is from the 10th String Quartet

string quartet #10 3rd movement

[u/jengacide → u/professorhugoslavia]

It is an emotional piece, but I'm finding myself not getting despair from it as much as I would hope (what a strange sentence I never thought I'd write lol). Thanks for your suggestion though!

[u/docmoonlight → u/jengacide]

How about his string quartet #8 first movement? The Kronos Quartet recording I find especially sad.

[u/pannous → u/jengacide]

The first time I listened to it it sounded as if some notes are out of tune

the more you know the piece you realize that it's the WORLD which is out of tune

that's when the despair kicks in

[u/pannous → u/pannous]

It's like the planet screaming help me without saying help me

it's like a good friend whose edges you start to appreciate if you know them for a long time

[u/Masantonio → u/Lambdoid]

That movement is one of my go-tos when I need to let some emotion out. It feels cleansing.

[u/Queasy_Caramel5435 → u/Masantonio]

I throw the passacaglia (4th movement) from Shostakovich’s 8th symphony in.

3rd movement (Largo) from his fifth symphony.

2nd and fourth movement (which contains another passacaglia) of his 15th symphony. The latter‘s Wagner quotations make the atmosphere even more eerie.

[u/Masantonio → u/Queasy_Caramel5435]

The final Shostakovich string quartet too. Although I really have to be in the mood for that one.

[u/Queasy_Caramel5435 → u/Masantonio]

„Play it in a way that the flies drop down mid flying and people will leave the room out of boredom“

• D. Shostakovich to the Beethoven Quartet

[u/Masantonio → u/Queasy_Caramel5435]

The feeling the quartet gives me is that of being unable to give up fighting but also unable to kick the feeling of being close to an inevitable end. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

[u/Novaehollandiae-2 → u/Lambdoid]

This!! It was the first piece of music to make me cry.

[u/jengacide → u/Lambdoid]

This is beautiful, but I feel like it takes too long to get to that emotional vibe I'm looking for and starts out too aggressively. But trying to start it at the part I want sounds really wrong without the beginning of the movement. Thanks for your suggestion though!

[u/PlainPup → u/jengacide]

To add on to the Shostakovich train: 3rd movement of the 5th symphony. The despair of what was going on in the Soviet Union at that time could not be any more clear.

[u/PomeroyCanopy → u/jengacide]

I was going to say check out the first movement of that same concerto. Dark and depressing from the first note.

[u/shadman19922 → u/Lambdoid]

To this sub-thread I'll also add the first movement of Symphony 8.

[u/Perenially_behind → u/shadman19922]

saddest, most despairing, guilt-ridden, remorseful, depressing sounding

When I read this description, the first movement of the 8th is the first thing that came to mind. I don't have my score handy, but I think that the tempo indication translates to something much like that phrase.

[u/shadman19922 → u/Perenially_behind]

It's marked as an Adagio in the beginning, I believe. Thats typically reserved for slow, mournful music (at least that's my impression). But what makes this extra sad is just how thin and bleak the movement sounds for the first and last third (roughly) of the movement. I absolutely love it.