Gloomy is Sunday, with shadows I spend it all
My heart and I have decided to end it all
Soon there’ll be candles and prayers that are sad I know
Let them not weep let them know that I’m glad to go.
long time ago i heard this story in a news channel. back then i didn't realize the potential of 'SAD songs/stories' coz i was in relation with sona. but when she broke up, she has left a hole in my heart which hardly seems to fill no matter with what i try :'( i haven't felt like killing myself after listening this song. but yeah its really depressing.
below given is a reasonably good dissection of the legendary killer song.
read original article here-
Gloomy Sunday – The Hungarian Suicide Song
Rezső Seress, Hungarian pianist and writer of “Gloomy Sunday”
Music can have a profound impact on the human psyche and emotions, but can one song lead to more than a hundred suicide deaths?
Gloomy Sunday, written in 1932 by the Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress, was nicknamed the Hungarian Suicide Song, perhaps for good reason. It is blamed for being connected to more suicides than any other song in history.
In the original lyrics of Gloomy Sunday, written by lyricist and poet László Jávor, the singer is asking his dead lover to join him at his own planned funeral. The song seems to allude to suicide, as he longs to be with his love in the afterlife, and appears to be taking matters into his own hands to get there.
The song was released in English in 1936 with revised lyrics by Ray M. Lewis.
Fact and Fiction
The story surrounding Gloomy Sunday has become somewhat of a legend, embellished to a certain extent. Many of the details are not verifiable. Nonetheless, the song and story have been widely publicized in popular newspapers and magazines for its supposed eerie connection with many suicides.
Deaths
At least eighteen suicide deaths in Hungary are reported to have had close links with Gloomy Sunday. In the Time Magazine article, “Music: Suicide Song,” published March 30, 1936, the author (unnamed) described a number of suicides. A Hungarian shoemaker by the name of Joseph Keller left a note at the scene of his suicide quoting some of the Gloomy Sunday lyrics. Several bodies were found in the Danube with their hands clutching the song’s sheet music. Two people shot themselves while hearing a band play the song, and others had been found to have ended their own lives while listening to it. The song was banned in Hungary.
However, the reports are not isolated to Hungary. “In the 1930s, both Time and the New York Times reported on suicides and attempted suicides in the US connected to ‘Gloomy Sunday.’ The song was banned on the BBC until 2002, and according to some reports, certain outlets in the US refused to play the song, fearing it was somehow responsible for these suicides.” (Lauren Davis, “Could This Gloomy Song Really Inspire a Person to Commit Suicide?” iO9). The legend refers to more than a hundred suicides resulting from the Gloomy Sunday lure to the “other side.”
Many other stories about Gloomy Sunday suicides can be found strewn across the Internet. One tells of a girl in Vienna who drowned herself while clinging to the sheet music of the song. Another tale describes a woman in London who listened to the song repetitively and overdosed herself on drugs.
A Climate For Suicide
The Great Depression had begun and suicide rates were skyrocketing in the U.S. and Hungary. Additionally, antisemitism was taking hold across Europe. He didn’t know it when he composed Gloomy Sunday, but Rezső Seress would later be interned at a Nazi labor camp in Ukraine. He survived the camp, but his mother did not. Prior to becoming a musician Seress had lost his career as a circus performer through injury. He was struggling to make ends meet. (“Rezső Seress.” Wikipedia. August 2,2013.)
The tombstone of Rezső Seress.
This set the perfect (gloomy) tone for Seress to compose Gloomy Sunday. And he did so by putting his heart and soul, his sadness, and his disappointment into the composition. Seress composed the song in the sad key of C minor, and the music alone was said to be enough to make a person extremely depressed or suicidal. Then came the wretched lyrics on top of the music.
As the story goes, László Jávor had recently broken up with his fiancée, and his heartbreak served as the inspiration for the mournful lyrics to Gloomy Sunday.
Seress eventually succumbed to his own depression, and jumped from his apartment building in Budapest. He killed himself just after his 69th birthday. (“Rezső Seress.” Wikipedia. August 26, 2013.)
However, he did leave us with his thoughts:
I stand in the midst of this deadly success as an accused man. This fatal fame hurts me. I cried all of the disappointments of my heart into this song, and it seems that others with feelings like mine have found their own hurt in it.
Food For Thought
Original sheet music to Gloomy Sunday
Many sad songs have been written. Many songs that were not sad, but that may have been about suicide have been written. Many are blamed for having actually caused suicides, however, most of those were isolated incidents. Why is Gloomy Sunday arguably the most suicide-provoking song in history?
Is it because two men, each suffering from his own profound problems, conveyed their personal despair to vulnerable listeners through Gloomy Sunday? If it were not for this song would these depressed individuals have taken their own lives, or did the song drive them over the edge?
Could it be that Gloomy Sunday was created with the perfect combination of elements for one to welcome suicide? After all, in the despair of loss through a loved one’s death perhaps the listener finds acknowledgement and consolation. In the ideas of suicide and reunion with a loved one on the “other side” a person finds comfort and hope. Merge these elements with a dreary economic and political environment, and perhaps you have the perfect cocktail for mass suicide. It’s almost too depressing to think about.
Warning: The video below contains the original audio recording of Gloomy Sunday. Listen to this song at your own risk.
“Sweet is true love that is given in vain, and sweet is death that takes away pain.”
– Alfred Lord Tennyson
obituary
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Budapest, January 13.
Rezsoe Seress, whose dirge-like song hit, "Gloomy Sunday" was blamed for touching off a wave of suicides during the nineteen-thirties, has ended his own life as a suicide it was learned today. Authorities disclosed today that Mr. Seress jumped from a window of his small apartment here last Sunday, shortly after his 69th birthday.
The decade of the nineteen-thirties was marked by severe economic depression and the political upheaval that was to lead to World War II. The melancholy song written by Mr. Seress, with words by his friend, Ladislas Javor, a poet, declares at its climax, "My heart and I have decided to end it all." It was blamed for a sharp increase in suicides, and Hungarian officials finally prohibited it.
In America, where Paul Robeson introduced an English version, some radio stations and nightclubs forbade its performance. Mr. Seress complained that the success of "Gloomy Sunday" actually increased his unhappiness, because he knew he would never be able to write a second hit.
—The New York Times, January 13, 1968
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Numerous versions of the song have been recorded and released. Phil Elwood, writing in JazzWest.com, cites the following words of Michael Brooks, taken from Brooks' program notes accompanying the 10-CD set, "Lady Day" - the Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia, 1933-1944:
"Gloomy Sunday reached America in 1936 and, thanks to a brilliant publicity campaign, became known as The Hungarian Suicide Song. Supposedly after hearing it, distraught lovers were hypnotized into heading straight out of the nearest open window, in much the same fashion as investors after October, 1929; both stories are largely urban myths."
The crushing hopelessness and bitter despair of the original lyrics by Seress were soon replaced by the melancholic lyrics of the Hungarian poet László Jávor.
Sam M. Lewis and Desmond Carter each translated the song into English. Sam Lewis's version was performed from 1936 by Hal Kemp and his Orchestra, then later by Artie Shaw and Billie Holiday. The popularity of "Gloomy Sunday" increased greatly after its interpretation by Billie Holiday in 1941. Her performance established Lewis' version as the standard for later interpreters. Attempting to alleviate the pessimistic tone, a third stanza was added to the Billie Holiday version, giving the song a dreamy theme (starting with "Dreaming, I was only dreaming"). Paul Robeson (1936) and Diamanda Galás (1992) used Carter's lyrics in their versions of the song.
The origin of the song became the background of the German/Hungarian movie "Gloomy Sunday - Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod" (1999) (A Song of Love and Death), based on the novel by Nick Barkow, co-written and directed by Rolf Schübel and starring Joachim Król, Ben Becker, Stefano Dionisi and Erika Marozsán.
"Gloomy Sunday reached America in 1936 and, thanks to a brilliant publicity campaign, became known as The Hungarian Suicide Song. Supposedly after hearing it, distraught lovers were hypnotized into heading straight out of the nearest open window, in much the same fashion as investors after October, 1929; both stories are largely urban myths."
The crushing hopelessness and bitter despair of the original lyrics by Seress were soon replaced by the melancholic lyrics of the Hungarian poet László Jávor.
Sam M. Lewis and Desmond Carter each translated the song into English. Sam Lewis's version was performed from 1936 by Hal Kemp and his Orchestra, then later by Artie Shaw and Billie Holiday. The popularity of "Gloomy Sunday" increased greatly after its interpretation by Billie Holiday in 1941. Her performance established Lewis' version as the standard for later interpreters. Attempting to alleviate the pessimistic tone, a third stanza was added to the Billie Holiday version, giving the song a dreamy theme (starting with "Dreaming, I was only dreaming"). Paul Robeson (1936) and Diamanda Galás (1992) used Carter's lyrics in their versions of the song.
The origin of the song became the background of the German/Hungarian movie "Gloomy Sunday - Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod" (1999) (A Song of Love and Death), based on the novel by Nick Barkow, co-written and directed by Rolf Schübel and starring Joachim Król, Ben Becker, Stefano Dionisi and Erika Marozsán.
Translation of the original lyrics:
"Szomorú Vasárnap száz fehér virággal, Vártalak, kedvesem, templomi imával, Álmokat kergető vasárnap délelőtt, Bánatom hintaja nélküled visszajött.
Azóta szomorú mindig a vasárnap, Könny csak az italom, kenyerem a bánat... Szomorú vasárnap.
Utolsó vasárnap, kedvesem, gyere el; Pap is lesz, koporsó, ravatal, gyászlepel, Akkor is virág vár, virág és - koporsó, Virágos fák alatt utam az utolsó.
Nyitva lesz szemem, hogy még egyszer lássalak, Ne félj a szememtől, holtan is áldalak... Utolsó vasárnap."
"On a sad Sunday with a hundred white flowers, I was waiting for you, my dear, with a church prayer, That dream-chasing Sunday morning, The chariot of my sadness returned without you.
Ever since then, Sundays are always sad, tears are my drink, and sorrow is my bread... Sad Sunday.
Last Sunday, my dear, please come along, There will even be priest, coffin, catafalque, hearse-cloth. Even then flowers will be awaiting you, flowers and coffin. Under blossoming (flowering in Hungarian) trees my journey shall be the last.
My eyes will be open, so that I can see you one more time, Do not be afraid of my eyes as I am blessing you even in my death... Last Sunday."
s z o m o r ú v a s á r n a p
r e z s ő s e r e s s l y r i c s
Ősz van és peregnek a sárgult levelek
Meghalt a földön az emberi szeretet
Bánatos könnyekkel zokog az öszi szél
Szívem már új tavaszt nem vár és nem remél
Hiába sírok és hiába szenvedek
Szívtelen rosszak és kapzsik az emberek...
Meghalt a szeretet!
Vége a világnak, vége a reménynek
Városok pusztulnak, srapnelek zenélnek
Emberek vérétől piros a tarka rét
Halottak fekszenek az úton szerteszét
Még egyszer elmondom csendben az imámat:
Uram, az emberek gyarlók és hibáznak...
Vége a világnak!
LITERAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
It is autumn and the leaves are falling
It is autumn and the leaves are falling
All love has died on earth
The wind is weeping with sorrowful tears
My heart will never hope for a new spring again
My tears and my sorrows are all in vain
People are heartless, greedy and wicked...
Love has died!
The world has come to its end, hope has ceased to have a meaning
Cities are being wiped out, shrapnel is making music
Meadows are coloured red with human blood
There are dead people on the streets everywhere
I will say another quiet prayer:
People are sinners, Lord, they make mistakes...
The world has ended!
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