Don’t know if it’s quite what you mean, but I love “oh Come, oh come Immanuel” - mournful but hopeful all at once

Caoineadh Cu Chulainn (Lament) by Bill Whalen on the Riverdance album. 

You can find the same thing played by Davy Spillane on YouTube.

I LOVE THAT SONG!  Do you play it on dulcimer?  Is there a recording anywhere?

Silver Dagger and Hard Times Come Again No More

I think I find the song below mournful, because the words all sound beautiful, though the tune is very haunting, then at the end it says all this will be "When you lie still."

Bit of a postscript here.  I had heard of the title "Little Musgrave", but that's about it.  This is one wicked little song.  Yes, it ends as unhappily as Child Ballads have a nasty tendency to do (are there any happy ones?), but the action is far from slow and I think our Strumelia would agree this one ought to hold the audience's interest.  I'll prowl the verses to get it as lean as possible. 

WOW!  I just went to YouTube and caught Nic Jones's fingerstyle guitar version.  Oh Ken, that's one heck of a rockin' Child's ballad.  I know for a fact they plan to bring the theme of Child's Ballads back next year and I was dreading a real downer of an evening.  The librarian in me will research the heck out of this song, but I'd thank ye kindly for any arrangement, or whatever you might be willing to send my way.  I know I could probably manage it on guitar, but I'd love to do it on the dulcimer.

Lois -- check out the olde version of Shady Grove, called Little Musgrave.  No spooky or lonesome but a great "origin story".  I often perform Musgrave and then explain how lyrics and tunes change over hundreds of years.

I'd post The 3 Ravens, but if you read my update on how my performance went, I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to it for a lo-o-o-o-ng while.

I do play Shady Grove and it has a few mournful verses, but the tune is bouncy.

The World is Old Tonight.

Lass From The Low Countree, by John Jacob Niles, in Aeolian--key of C. I just posted a question about it in the Noter & Drone Group...Maybe I should have posted it here. I'm still learning to navigate the site.

Lady Mary, AKA Palace Grand, is another favorite mournful ballad.

"The Unquiet Grave" in Aeolian Mode.

"Nobody Knows the Trouble I see" and/or "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley"

The old ballads, despite being called "Love Songs", are rich with wonderful mournful melodies.  Although the old ballads are normally sung unaccompanied, one of my favorites on the mountain dulcimer is "Black Is the Color" in the Aeolian Mode with the dulcimer tuned D-A-C.

Irene, is your second choice for a mournful song possibly "Henry Martin"?

"There were three brothers in Merry Scotland,

In Merry Scotland there were three.

And they did cast lots for to see who should go,

Should go, should go,

And turn robber all on the salt sea.

"The lot it fell upon Henry Martin,

The youngest of all of the three,

That he should turn robber

All on the salt sea, salt sea, salt sea,

For to maintain his two brothers and he."

etc, etc.

I love this song, and play it on the dulcimer (tuned DAC).

For spooky...."Now Anne Bolin was once king Henry's wife, until he had the headsman bob her hair, ah yes, he did her wrong long years ago, and she comes up the night to tell him so, with her head tucked underneath her arm, she walks the bloody tower, with her head tucked underneath her arm at the midnight hour....etc. 

There are several in the mournful and sad....1.The Silver Dagger (a man comes to court a girl and her mother's sleeping with a silver dagger.....her daddy was a handsome devil...)...2. The three brothers in Scotland, one had to turn robber to support the other two....3. (I forgot the name,words go)..."I sold my flax, sold my wheel, to buy my love a sword of steel, that he may in the battle wield, Johnny's gone for a shoulder. Shul shul shul a rue...."  

I loved singing all of these songs, drove my mother crazy as she was a classical piano teacher.  I was a Joan Baez fan.  aloha, irene

"Little Margret", "The House Carpenter" - spooky

"Old Black Joe", "The Wreck of the C&O" - mournful

Hi Jan,

Did you ever find any more info on October is a Gypsy Lass?  I'm very curious about it also. I know it only by these words (and did not know it was even a song - I thought it was "just" a poem):

October is a gypsy lass

Who dances through our town

Scarlet is her flying scarf

Many-hued her gown

On her dusky hair she wears

A crown of bittersweet

Maples spread a golden carpet

For her dancing feet

The Lover's Ghost (Child 248) as sung by Barbara Dickson, New Celeste or Pauline Scanlon

This is an absolute no brainer for me............"The Unquiet Grave" by Jean Ritchie..............you can hear her sing it here:

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/10/ghost-stories-in-song-for-halloween/

It is such an easy tune to play.......btw, there are a few others by other artists there as well...........enjoy!

Here’s two sad ones that, given the right mood, brings me to tears:

the Irish American song Maggie 

A tree in the Meadow as sung by Margaret Whiting

Richard Farina's "A Swallow Song" whose melody is from a Ladino song "Los Bilbilicos".  Need a chromatic dulcimer to play it, though. (Sometimes misspelled as "Los Bibilicos) Truly haunting melody with words to match.

Cad E Sin Don Te Sin  has always seemed spooky to me   Link to tab

Tom Dooley?  

Croí Cróga by Clannad or Loreena McKennitt's version of The Highwayman

Omie Wise is such a mournful and haunting song. 

Thank you for "resurrecting" these songs.  (Zombie Jamboree by the Kingston Trio just popped into my mind as I said that, but that is definitely NOT mournful, spooky, or lonesome.)  I, too, enjoy "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" as Wanda Degan taught an Ionian version.  The reason for my thanks is I was wanting something spooky for dulcimer and wasn't happy with what I found among my own music.

The mention of "She Moved Through the Fair" is perfect for me.  I've loved & been haunted by it for a long time.  The same was true about the baritone dulcimer, so, now that I have one, this is going to be my first real work for it.  Tried to figure it out with SMN and what I came up with seemed flat.  Went online and found an experimental way to tab it at Digital Tradition.  I chose AbEbAb tuning and am dying to play it . . . well maybe I'll just hold a seance by playing it.  The October meeting of my local folklore society has Ghost Stories as the theme.  I could tell tons, but the group is really geared towards music and I like to challenge myself musically monthly, so I really want to chill everybody out with this piece.

BTW I know a few here play bowed psaltery and ages ago I played Tom Lehrer's "The Irish Ballad" on mine.  If you know Tom Lehrer's work, you can appreciate it's satirical.  On guitar I like to sing an old song, "The Legend of the Red Mill" from the Rudolf Friml operetta, The Red Mill.  It has a great spooky refrain and, like "She Moved Through the Fair", it doesn't answer all the mysteries it raises.

Good one, Ken. I think I have that on an old Doc Watson album.

Long Black Veil's a good one, Dusty.  Check out the lyrics to Mattie Groves -- the predecessor tune for Shady Grove.

The group I play with recently introduced me to ' A Soldiers Lament'. It's not spooky, just very, very sad. I'm not a very emotional type of person, but this song really affects me. Our female vocalist was the lead with the others backing her up on the hallelujahs. It probably doesn't help being retired military.

It's funny to see this old thread resurrected.  I just decided to put together a bunch of murder ballads for a workshop next spring.

I've always thought "Long Black Veil" was creepy because the singer is dead. 

The scaffold rose high as eternity neared

She stood in the crowd but she shed not a tear

Often at night when the cold wind blows

In her long black veil she cries over my bones

I've always found The Well Below the Valley to be about as dark and creepy as they come.

Thanks, Stephen, for the info. It is such a pretty, haunting song. I have the "Song Catcher" DVD and just happened to watch it again a few days ago. I have been doing the song for some time using the dulcimer. I use a different, less clunky rythm than is heard in the movie.

Stephen Addison said:

The songwriter( of When the Mountains cry) has posted a lead sheet on his web page, its fairly easy to play from it - I've used this for banjo and dulcimer versions as well as guitar versions. Here is a link to David Mansfield's lead sheet. You can make it sound just like the movie - it's also easy to make it too pretty.

Ellen Rice said:

That's FOTMD member Michael Futreal of Twang Darkly (we share Shreveport, LA as home base). Great stuff!

Brian G. said:

I wouldn't call You are My Sunshine a bright and cheery song at all, especially when you consider the verses. This verse, for example, has a more melancholy feel:

"The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamt I held you in my arms
When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head, and I cried"

This one seems vaguely menacing:

"I'll always love you and make you happy
If you will only say the same
But if you leave me to love another,
You'll regret it all one day"

And this one is definitely sad:

"You told me once, dear
You really loved me
That no one else could come between.
But now you've left me
And love another,
You have shattered all my dreams."

Aura Waters said:

Oh, so pretty!

Guy Babusek said:

Any chance of the TAB being posted some place ?

The funeral song from the movie "The Song Catcher" (When the Mountains Cry). It is one of the most simple, haunting songs I have ever heard. I sing and play a version of the it on the dulcimer.

Under "plaintive" more than the other choices: two hymns (I think both are from the shaped-note tradition) chorded in B minor in DAA tuning: "Wayfaring Stranger" and "What Wondrous Love Is This."

Minor keys have an unfinished quality about them, with something in them begging to be resolved. This is a perfect match to "Wayfaring Stranger," a story of a spiritual pilgrim waiting for his unsatisfying and unfinished life to be resolved by entrance into the heavenly Kingdom. "Wondrous Love," likewise, presents an unfinished story. It is a Lenten hymn which reflects upon what Christ's love for us cost Him, while awaiting the not-yet-achieved joy of Easter. These two songs, with their anxious, "not-quite-yet" quality, illustrate why people started composing in minor keys in the first place.

I really love this thread.

This might be a good place to mention "Creepalachian" music. It's contemporary, alternative Appalachian music, typically dark, moody and minor. Tom House's "Someone's Digging in the Underground" is a good dulcimable example. Except for the electric rhythm guitar, it could be something Alan Lomax recorded.

There's a badly recorded version HERE or get the studio track from Amazon for a buck.Scroll way down for the lyrics HERE .

I think of Tom House as reporting from Appalachian darkside in the amphetamine age. It ain't sweet, spiritual stuff, be advised.

See also Freakwater, another group in this genre.

I've always thought that 'My Dearest Dear' was very sad. I'ts one of those songs that won't go away and I have several tunes to it now.

I just realized you did I Moved Through the Fair. It's amazing.

These are to lovely Guy. Watching your fingers in the first one was like watching ballet.

A similar idea, but no, the one I'm looking for is definitely "October is a Gypsy Lass". I've found it in a couple spots online, but no one ever says who wrote it...either the words or the music.

Could it be this:

October is a gypsy queen
In dress of red and gold.
She sleeps beneath the silver moon
When nights are crisp and cold.
The meadows flame with color now,
which once were cool and green.
Wild asters and the goldenrod
Bow low to greet their queen.
When she is tripping through the wood
With song so clear and sweet,
The autumn leaves come sifting down
And rustle 'neath her feet.
Winifred C. Marshall

One of my fall favorites is "October is a Gypsy Lass" which was published in some magazine for children in the mid-late 50's. I have no idea who wrote it, but my sisters remember all the words and we've always remembered the tune, which can be sung spritelyor slowly and spookily--I like it both ways. If anyone could ever find the info on this, I would be forever grateful. I would also, of course, like to know if it is copyrighted!

I meant "She Moved Thro the Fair" DAaa

Two special favorites: Three Blind Mice (Janita Baker's transcription of tune from around 1600) and Ghost Chickens in the Sky which deals with revenge on those who raise birds for Colonel Sanders.

There make my flesh crawl! Gleeful and nasty tones come from my throat. Horror in my heart.....ahaaaaa

This tune is not haunted or scary...but I think In the Bleak Midwinter is a mournful tune. I love to play it.

Yay! Flint is stopping by!

Hey, I"m still here too! I'll follow this thread as long as I can draw breath. :)

How about Dock Boggs's "Calvary" ? It's about the grimmest Easter song I know. Lyrics are here , The Carter Family and lots of others, Ralph Stanley among the, recorded it as "On a Hill Lone and Gray" with a different and far less spooky tune.

It's also out there in an earlier and greatly lengthened version as "There's a Hill Lone and Grey". Beverly Francis Carradine published it in 1896 with a tune that resembles the one that the Carters used later.

Dock's version reads like a classical murder ballad. In the first few bars, Dock's tune resembles the one he used for "Reuben's Train". I'd love to find out more about the tune if anyone knows.

Dock's tuning is supposed to bef#CGAD (according to Don Zepp).

too funny

Richard Venneman said:

I think you got your wish, Flint. Here we are three years later.

Well, it's not a traditional ballad or anything, but David Schnaufer's version of the Hank Williams tune "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cryhas moved me ever since I discovered the dulcimer. Elvis called it the "saddest song I've ever heard in my life."

Did you ever see the Robin weep

When leaves begin to die

That means he's lost the will to live

I'm so lonesome I could cry

You football fans might like to hear Terry Bradshaw sing the song , too. Weren't the seventies great?

Flint Hill said:

Tim and Ken,

Those are great suggestions! I have found the SMN for these and can't wait to try them. I have been listening to some Youtube verions also of all of the suggestions. I am sure others reading this thread appreciate these ideas for haunting tunes too.

Ken, I have played a few tune in Aeolian mode after reading Strumlia's blog about it and really like it. That would be perfect for these types of tunes.

a ballad called "the letter edged in black." evidently years ago a letter informing of the death of a loved one would

have a black border around the envelope to warn of sad and shocking news.

also "the little rosewood casket" as aclose second.

The Border Scots ballad called Lament of the Border Widow, in Aeolian Mode (DAC if you like the key of D). Aeolian Moe is great for all those eerie, 'fingernails on chalkboard' mournful songs.

My love, he built me a bonny bower
And clad it o'er with lily flower
A bonnier bower you ne'er did see
Than my true love he built for me

There came a man by middle day
He spied his sport and went away
And brought the King that very night,
Who broke my bower and slew my knight

He slew my knight to me so dear
He slew my knight and seized his gear
My servants all for life did flee
And left me in extremity

I sewed his shroud, making my moan
I watched his corpse, myself alone
I watched his body night and day
No living creature came that way

I took his body on my back
And whiles I walked and whiles I sat
I digged a grave and laid him in,
And happed him with the turf so green

Oh, don't you think my heart was sore,
As I laid the earth on his yellow hair
Oh, don't you think my heart was woe,
As I turned about, away to go

No living man I'll love again
Since that my lovely knight is slain
With just one lock of his yellow hair
I'll chain my heart forevermore

Thanks John! I will try to get a copy of that!

Hello Gale, I used to take the dulcimer into schools a while back, and often used a simple song from Jean Ritchie's book ' Singing Family of The Cumberlands'. It can be found on pages 11/12 , "There was an Old Woman, all skin and bones', simple tune, nicely minor, easy to tailor to suit your audience, with a great 'punch line' ending ?

good luck in your search

JohnH

That one sounds like fun, Shawn. I will give that a try.

Janita Baker teaches Three Blinde Mice by Ravenscroft in her Rounds and Canons workshop. This original version is in a minor key and it's dirge-like and quite creepy. I can't offer up Janita's tab, but here's an article which contains standard musical notation for the minor key version, about halfway down. If you know the notes on your fretboard you can easily tab it out:

http://strangewayes.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/late-period-english-rounds/

I found this old thread as it is now October and Halloween is approaching.Anyone have some additional tabs, links, or ideasof spooky songs to play on the dulcimer? I can pick some of the easier, contemporary ones that come to mind - "Addams Family" that are just for but I am sure others out there can think of others? Tubular Bellsused in the Exorcistwould be interesting....

Sorry Bob, should have mentioned that I posted it under another name commonly given to this tune, "Velentia Harbour" (posted oct 12 th, 2010)

John

Hello Bob, this is one of my favourites also !!! I cannot sing for toffee, but did manage to post a fair attempt at it on this site? You might be interested in a listen?

best wishes

JohnH robert schuler said: