When I need to grieve and accept sadness, I like to listen to requiems.

(But I grew up in a classical music household.)

 Mozart's Requiem and Faure's Requiem are two of my favourites. I really like Norman Luboff's African Mass, but it's next to impossible to find, so I don't have a recording of it.

But from a musical point of view, requiems are designed to be both a powerful expression of grief and a re-affirmation of God's love for us. (Or at least that's the way I interpret them.)

And if grief strikes me and I'm no where near my music, I often find myself humming "In the Bulb There is a Flower" by Natalie Sleeth. It's so simple and so beautiful.

Life is a glorious lament; songs against the dark

When my best friend died, that was the second funeral I had ever experienced and it was the worst I had ever experienced. This song was one of his favourites and was played at his funeral.

This one still makes me tear up, especially at the horror of the plight of these people's way of life being destroyed by these Catholics as they sing so beautifully the conquerer's music

thanks ina

Listening to Johnny Cash, seeing him in his old age, just tears my heart out.  Not many people could put that kind of pain on display.  

This is a favourite hymn that I always turn to in times of grief and change.

I listen to Heintje.

Heintje is a Dutch singer who sings also in English and German.

I will translate.

Let the Sun Shine

It talks about when he was a little boy and singing with a person he was fond of. I am guessing it was his mom cuz his mom died when he was young.

Then the second verse is about when this person was mad at him and then he coaxed this person into singing with him.

The last verse starts out:

"If ever you should go away". (The German lyrics say "when you are no longer with me"). I will sing as if u r still here. The implication is that the lost loved one is singing with him from heaven.

When I am missing my parents I sing this song. My Dad taught it to me when my Grandpa died. I think it gave him comfort too.

Just about any kind of Blues. Laments from the soul of soul that knows there are some things you just can't change, and takes us into the experience of the pain instead of avoiding it.

Depending on the source of my melancholy, these are some of the songs that comfort me or reflect my feelings (or both):

Liar - Mumford & Sons

Dustbowl Dance - Mumford & Sons

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) - Don Mclean

S.O.S. - ABBA

Grow Up And Blow Away - Metric

Girl & The Sea - The Presets

Africa - Toto

Kenji - Fort Minor

What It's Like - Everlast

Recruiting Sergeant - Great Big Sea

Man In Black - Johnny Cash

England - The National

Bad Moon Rising - CCR

Life Is A Lemon (And I Want My Money Back) - Meatloaf

Major Tom (Coming Home) - Peter Schilling

If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot

Mr. Bojangles - The Byrds

Black Velvet - Alannah Myles

The Winner Takes It All - ABBA

Where Is The Love? - Black Eyed Peas

Cowboy Dan - Modest Mouse

White People For Peace - Against Me!

Hurt - Johnny Cash

The Northern - Alexisonfire

Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day

Fake Empire - The National

Nikita - Elton John

Tiny Dancer - Elton John

Where Have All The Flowers Gone? - The Kingston Trio

Blue Monday - Orgy

Youth Of The Nation - P.O.D.

January Hymn - The Decemberists

Ghosting - Mother Mother

Handlebars - Flobots

Cat's In the Cradle - Cat Stevens

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

No one does lament like the Irish

I listen to different things depending on what I am lamenting and how and why...

Bonnie Raitt's I Can't Make You Love me if You Don't lamented the end of one relationship.

Jim Croce's Lover's Cross lamented the end of another

They were different feelings and different laments.

There is a jazz one, JJ Johnson's Lament that is great...

I have favourite mourning songs from the First Nations and Metis and One More Day (The Funeral Song) by Sinead O'Connor is my fvourite non-native mourning song.

I have ones for various laments.

I also love Doinas,

Like the Irish, Witch? Bah, schmaltz! McKennit? Feigned, my boy, feigned...

Here's my soul moving music of lament, shared in love:

I suggest closing your eyes, breathing gently and letting each note supplant the next in your senses.... attach your awareness to the drone and trust the music.

This has been one of my favourite songs since being a teen. It was a song about a break up. However since hearing it, I have always thought of the singers voice as being that of a person who I have lost to death, and as a expression of them saying goodbye, but to go on with my life, and too remember that althrough they are gone they will always be with me in my memories.  I find it comforting. 

I will be listening to it these next days, weeks, and months. Thinking of Barry

Bye baby, see you around
Didn't I tell you I wouldn't hold you down
Take good care of yourself, y'hear
Don't let me hear about you shedding a tear
You're gonna make it
You're gonna take it

Remember me as a sunny day
That you once had, along the way
Didn't I inspire you a little higher
Remember me as a funny clown
That made you laugh when you were down
Didn't I boy, didn't I boy

Remember me as a big balloon
At a carnaval that ended too soon
Remember me as a breath of spring
Remember me as a good thing

Bye baby, see you around
I already know about the new love you've found
What can I do but wish you well
What we had was really swell
I won't forget it, I have no regrets

Remember me as a sound of laughter
And my face the morning after
Didn't the sky beckon us to fly?
Yes, you'l remember the times we fought
But don't forget me in your tender thoughts
Please darlin' oh yeah

Remember me when you drink the wine
Of sweet success and I gave you my best
Remember me with every song you sing
Remember me as a good thing

Remember me as a sunny day
Please darling, remember me as a good thing
Remember me when you drink the wine
Remember me as a good thing
Remember me as a big balloon
Don't forget me darling

If you need me, call me. No matter where you are, no matter how far. Just call my name. I'll be there in a hurry. On that you can depend and never worry.
(You see, my love is alive It's like a seed that only needs the thought of you to grow. So if you feel the need for company, please, my darling, let it be me. I may not be able to express the depth of the love I feel for you, but a writer put it very nicely when he was away from the one he loved. He said down and wrote these words:)

No wind, (No wind) no rain, (no rain)
Nor winter's cold
Can stop me, babe (oh, babe) baby (baby)
If you're my goal

No wind, no rain,
Can stop me, babe
If you wanna go

I know, I know you must follow the sun
Wherever it leads
But remember
If you should fall short of your desires
Remember life holds for you one guarantee
You'll always have me

And if you should miss my love
One of these old days
If you should ever miss the arms
That used to hold you so close, or the lips
That used to touch you so tenderly
Just remember what I told you
The day I set you free

Ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough (Say it again)
Ain't no river wild enough
To keep me from you

Ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough (Say it again)
Ain't no river wild enough
To keep me from you

Hallelujah (kd lang version)

Bring on the rain (jo dee messina)

I like the first one because it allows me to feel sad.  I like the second one because it reminds me to push pass the sadness or challenge and keep going.

I'm certainly not at all surprised that the Scots know how to play a lament. Scots are, after all, Irish emigrants.

And the bagpipes are good too, although I'm not sure what you did to the ones we sent you, and you folks play them wrong, but still very stirring.

Odd how this thread resurrected the memory of a song. I heard it first when I guess I was around ten. A few years later, it had become my song. In a very real way it was a lament.

Johnny Was a Shooting Star - Bad Company

Dan Fogelberg " Same Old Lyne Syne"

And  I like his version of "Listen to the Rythm of the Falling Rain" too.

I often play Philip Glass Low Symphony as it's so tranquil, and makes sad beautiful.

This one is a very specific lament for me and many others.

This one is gut wrenching. And the one after it, beautiful with sad acceptance.

Them's fighting words Witch ;)

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

Are we still lamenting?

You Celtic lament fans, have you heard this Anglo-Indian rendition by Sheila Chandra of the old famous Scottish: MacCrimmon's Lament? It's just gorgeous.

And here's an English one I know from Martin Carthy, which is one of my two favorite songs by him, but here's Joan Baez's for Pilgrim, I know she loves Joan. Joan sings so beautifully.

Some posts are just too offensive for words.

Well, I am really missing my wife and daughter right now, so here is what I am listening to.

thanks Tyson...

Eleanor, meant to tell you that the piece by Sheila Chandra was exactly what I was looking for the other day..thanks so much.

I'm so glad Pinga. She has a wonderful voice and has done a lot of great work. At this very moment, I'm listening to another recording of MacCrimmon's Lament, by Isla St. Claire, which is also gorgeous. I'd post it but it's not up on Youtube : (

There. Now it's on Youtube.

i once had a very powerful experience with a particular piece of music that really helped me move through some incredible grief...

my brother-in-law had been recently been killed in a motorcycle accident where it hadn't been his fault (over 10 years ago now).. he left his wife and two children ages 4 and 6 at the time... it was a time for our family that we will never forget...

and i don't think my dear sister or her beautiful children (now grown) wiil ever get over that time and experience... 

however, a number of weeks after his death, one early morning i was driving to work and had CBC radio playing while i drove and the program played a movement of music that absolutely floored me where i had to pull the car over as i had become completely overcome with grief...

i sat in the car on the side of the road weeping until the song completed... i was astounded as to how powerful this experience had flooded my whole being with tears - i knew in that moment once the music had finished that i had moved though much.. 

when the announcer read out the name and title of the composer i immediately wrote it down the best i could and promised myself i would stop by the CD store to somehow purchase this album i was not familiar with - i had hoped that i had writen down the name correctly - i had fears i had not... 

anyway, all through my work that morning i couldn't stop thinking about the power of that music... after work i did stop by the CD store and asked a young man if he they had this CD in stock saying i wasn't sure i had the right spelling or name...

what surprised me is that knew the CD immediately and went over to the classical section and there it was - one copy left of...  Henryk Gorecki's Symphony 3 "Sorrowful Songs"... more info here on amazon if you want to check it out... 

For the second time that day - i was completely floored yet again - this was truly supposed to happen - knowing on a deep level that spirit had definitely stepped in to assist and guide me so beautifully through my own sorrow and grief.. and i was so ever grateful... this movemenet of music has since been a treasured piece i still listen to when i need it... 

i thank great spirit for the gift of music in my own life... 

blessings, with much light to all.. weaver (((o)))

here is a video of the movement i heard that morning... 

thank-you, drumweaver, for both the gift of the music, and the sharing of story of how music transforms us

This is the song I used as a lullaby when my son was an infant.

Thanks for sharing that Witch. Great Big Sea is one of my all-time favourite bands.

Tyson, I am just getting to listen to your posts in a focussed state..and they are amazing, thanks for your gift of music knowledge

I picked this more recent version on purpose:

I had trouble picking a Nick Drake song...they're all sad to me, but they're all good.

One more, a break up song, I thought of:

And btw, thanks everyone for posting these great songs...some I have never heard.

This a very cathartic thread. Just one more...an old favourite.

because humour is good for one's soul, even when lamenting....

a wonderful artist....here's suzie...

hi again all.. and wow... loving all the music-sharing that's going on here...

and, thot i'd share one of my own songs - not sure if it's really a "lament"... but it's about the 3 mothers in my life... my birth mother... my adoptive mother and our blessed earth mother - the mother of all... 

hope you enjoy and i welcome your comments... it's called "a mother's cry"... 

--> CLICK HERE on my YOUTUBE CHANNEL >>

That was really nice Weaver. Way to go for posting your own song! I like the Earthyness and honesty.