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Is the hero in a losing battle against the villain and on the receiving end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown? Have they been broken down? Does the grief of the realization that In the End, You Are on Your Own overtake them? Cue the lonely piano piece.
Basically, this is a piece of music that plays in a scene that represents that someone is left all alone and is stuck at a dead end with no allies or means of solving the problem at hand. The music is usually slow-paced and the notes are often lower pitched to show that the character has run out of momentum or that he or she has hit rock bottom.
While this can be done with just about any instrument, the piano just seems to be a particularly common instrument for these kinds of pieces. There are a number of likely factors why:
- The piano is most widely known as a solo instrument. While there are plenty of pieces composed for piano with ensemble accompaniment (the piano concerto is a very well-known composition type in the Classical Music world), and it is not unheard of to have pieces meant to be performed by two or more piano players, either with each at their own instrument or all performing together on the same instrument (known as "piano four-hands", "piano six-hands", etc.), the idea of "one piano, one performer" tends to dwarf all other piano composition styles in the public consciousness.
- The piano has a massive note range compared to most other instruments. There's a reason scientific pitch notation uses the piano keyboard as its basis: a standard piano keyboard contains 88 notes, which stretch from as low as the contrabassoon to as high as the piccolo. This huge range makes it much easier and more practical to get a variety of different sounds out of a single instrument.
- It is extremely easy for a musician to play multiple notes at once on a piano keyboard in order to produce a richer musical texture. Woodwinds and brass instruments cannot play more than a single note at a time, which means you need more than one performer the instant you want to play anything more complicated than a standalone melody on an oboe or trumpet. Bowed string instruments like the violin do somewhat better on this point; it is certainly possible to play more than one note at once across different strings, but it's not the easiest thing for a string performer to do, and even if they can do it, you've only got four strings to work with. With a keyboard, however, you're pretty much only limited by the size of your hands and number of your fingers, meaning it's much easier to produce fuller sound and harmonization while still having only a single performer.
The violin or acoustic guitar are also common instruments for these kinds of pieces. The general timbre of string instruments lends itself well to emotional pieces even when not playing as one voice in the sea of a full orchestral string section (see World's Smallest Violin). The guitar, on the other hand, is a plucked string instrument with a relatively wide range and is almost as frequently played solo as it is in ensembles, thus making it suitable for solo pieces in much the same way (if not to the same degree) as the piano.
Subtrope of Simple Score of Sadness. If a character is constantly lonely, or even an entire cast, this may be a Leitmotif. The Lonely Piano Piece has a tendency to show up at funerals, especially when it's raining, or when it snows. Always expect Angst. If the story has a happy end, you can also expect You Are Not Alone. May play with the One-Woman Wail, though typically the Wail tends towards more epic points. Almost ALWAYS a Tear Jerker.
See also Playing the Heart Strings. May overlap with Sad Battle Music.
Examples:
- Naruto has "Sadness and Sorrow" which is played frequently, especially during the funeral scene.
- Appears in the final battle of the Soul Eater anime after Maka and Soul wake up to find that the rest of their True Companions have all been defeated. Of course, they were asking for it, given how Soul both plays the piano and uses this for a literal Theme Music Power-Up.
- Very common in Spiral, mainly because Ayumu, Kiyotaka and Eyes are all skilled pianists.
- "Love Conservative" from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Like we need to be any sadder watching Nia disappear.
- All of the Sunlit Garden pieces from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
- Alies Grises would be a good starter, but practically all the music in Haibane Renmei would count.
- A very beautiful piece in the Read or Die OVA when the bad guys get the MacGuffin.
- The power of this trope might reach its penultimate level in the first episode of Noir, when Kirika is in Mireille's living room and the two are discussing Kirika's amnesia. Kirika's "alone in a crowd" theme is so brilliantly overpowering, the Lonely Piano Piece works even when she's not actually by herself.
- "Elegia for Piano" from Hirano Yoshihisa's Ouran Highschool Host Club soundtrack is often used for this purpose in the series, particularly in uncovering the more depressing pasts of characters. "Sakura Kiss for Piano" is its sweeter brother and a touching recovery piece, also for solo piano.
- "Nocturne pour Tamaki" is also a solo piano piece. The melody itself isn't necessarily sad, but the few scenes its played for aren't exactly joyous. Considering Tamaki's past, it gives off a more melancholy feel when its played.
- "Will of the Heart" from the first Bleach soundtrack by Sagisu Shiro, and "Swan Song" from the second, though the latter is a guitar piece.
- Also from Bleach, "Never Meant to Belong" combines this trope effectively with Playing The Heartstrings
- "A Mother's Love" from One Piece, first used during Robin's flashback to Ohara, where her mother was killed, and she was left on her own with no one to rely on, at the age of 8.
- Done very literally with Brook. With the entire crew severely injured, they try to perform one last song for their whale pet. Everyone begins dying, leaving only Brook left playing piano, asking why they would leave only the accompaniment.
- Cowboy Bebop does this with piano ("Adieu") less often than other instruments, like saxophone ("Goodnight, Julia"). Session five even manages it on a pipe organ ("Rain").
- "Rakuen" from Wolf's Rain, which plays when Cheza disappears, leaving Kiba to die alone as the world ends, is heartbreakingly sad. However, once the strings come in and you realise there may still be hope, it becomes incredibly beautiful.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rei's theme ("Rei I") is the epitome of loneliness, and appropriately so.
- "A Hole in the Dream", "Passage of Emptiness", and "Reliance Leads to Falsehood" from End of Evangelion are two other such pieces (though the latter is played in violin). Several other tunes like that are tucked away in the S2 Works music collection. There are at least two piano versions of "Honeymoon with Anxiety" - the lonely one, and the really, really, REALLY lonely one.
- One slowed down version of "Heart Moving" is played on a lone piano during the first season finale of Sailor Moon, when Usagi sits alone after all her friends have sacrificed themselves for her.
- The piano rendition of "Heart Moving" was also used for the last scene of season two's finale when Chibiusa says her goodbyes to Usagi and returns to the future. There are other melancholy versions of songs used throughout the series, usually a rendition of one of the ending credits songs.
- A quite popular one, "Mercury no Toujou" (based on La Follia di Spagna), is played in the very climatic episode 101 and through two different scenes. The first one features Haruka angsting over how bloodstained she is and Michiru comforting her via toying with her hands; the second has Ami, Rei, Makoto, Minako and Usagi thinking and angsting about the recent reveal that Michiru and Haruka are the Outer Senshi.
- Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) has a simple yet heart-tugging piano solo, which coincidentally is titled "Alone".
- There's also the piano version of "Tune of Separation."
- Brotherhood has this piano solo version of "Lapis Philosophorum."
- Lyrical Nanoha
- The track Jewel Seed" from the Nanoha The Movie 1st original soundtrack.
- Also from the Movie, "Watashi no Okaa-san (My mother)," one of the themes of the abused Dark Magical Girl, Fate.
- The aptly named "Itoshisa to Sabishisa (Affection and Loneliness)," also one of the themes of Fate from the time before she was befriended by Nanoha.
- "Dear My Sister Dear My Memory" starts off this way as Fate says goodbye to Alicia, though more instruments join in and it becomes more hopeful as the song continues.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers features this in the episode where the Axis Powers are alone on an island. You get a double whammy when it turns out that Austria was playing it, and realize that it could apply to him too.
- The piano piece is Nocturne Opus 9 No. 2 in E Flat, by Frederic Francois Chopin.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica has Decretum, Sayaka's theme which plays during the scenes where she's consumed by her despair.
- "Inevitabilis" counts even more for being a literal Lonely Piano Piece, and for being a Dark Reprise of Homura's theme for when she finally breaks down and admits everything to Madoka before steeling her resolve for a lonely final battle.
- Code Geass gives us "Unleashed", a somber tune meant to tug on the heartstrings. It is notable for only playing a few times in the show, such as for the flashback of Xingke making his promise to Empress Tianzi, Lelouch comforting the memoryless C.C. after she cut her finger, and Ohgi giving an Anguished Declaration of Love to Villetta despite knowing she wants to kill him. But it is best known for playing after Lelouch is fatally stabbed in his Thanatos Gambit by Suzaku, and finishes after he says his last words and dies.
- His and Her Circumstances with character themes Yukino Miyazawa V (Nocturne) and Arima Souichiro I.
- Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor uses this, combined with One-Woman Wail, as a remix of the usual ending theme, Separation, to spectacular effect following Shouko's Heroic Sacrifice.
- All over the place in Black★Rock Shooter anime, but especially in the OVA after Yomi disappears.
- Nabari no Ou has a piano arrangement of the main theme that serves for such moments in the anime.
- In the original Saint Seiya, one of these (named "Far Reaching Five Old Peaks") is heard as the empty Virgo Cloth reassembles itself after Ikki's Heroic Sacrifice to defeat its owner Shaka, all of this in front of the very shaken Shun, Seiya and Shiryu.
- Much of the music in Umi Monogatari is this, to the point that tracks that aren't this tend to stand out.
- Tenchi Muyo! has the piece "Royal Teardrop" that plays during sad moments. The name is also significant as its a flower from Jurai that is used for sad events.
- GaoGaiGar FINAL had a slow, piano version of the series theme song "Yuusha-Oh Tanjou!" that played during the final episode. After everything that happened, it really fits.
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex has the beautiful, haunting "i do" (yes, the name is in lower case).
- Rurouni Kenshin:
- The anime uses the Adagio Cantabile of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata as this, namely during Yumi Komagata's death scene and Kenshin's flashbacks as he visits a tombstone strongly implied to be his wife Tomoe's.
- The filler Shimabara arc uses the Moonlight Sonata as this too, when Magdaria is playing it on her own and during the brief face-off between Shougo's Japanese Christian's group and the Japanese Army.
- While Saigo no Yakusoku from Marmalade Boy is an image theme performed by Miki's seiyuu Mariko Kouda, it's worth noticing that it plays during some of the most dramatic scenes of the series (like Natchan's departure to Hiroshima and Miki breaking up with Yuu in the USA) and that it's mostly a piano song otherwise.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has "Souiu natsu (That kind of summer)," which played in episode 11 when Kaguya and Shirogane both go to the school on the off chance that the other might be there, only for Shirogane to arrive right after Kaguya left. It's played again in episode 12 during Kaguya's Heroic BSoD.
- "Victor's Piano Solo" from Corpse Bride, clearly playing off the theme of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" mentioned below, until he's interrupted - and similarly, "The Piano Duet" starts this way, echoing the earlier scene, until it's turned right around by the characters.
- The official soundtrack for Antz replaces "High Hopes" with a soft piano version of the main theme.
- The film version of The Snowman has a piano version of 'Walking in the Air' playing when James realises his snowman has melted. What makes this all the sadder is that this is the end of the film, and the melody plays over the closing credits, leaving the audience alone to weep.
- In Big Hero 6, a lone piano piece is playing after Tadashi's funeral, when Hiro sits lonely at the top of the stairs at home.
- Befitting the sense of longing and distance the film conveys, the soundtrack for 5 Centimeters per Second is full of gentle, melancholy piano pieces. Distant Everyday Memories comes to mind.
- Your Name has "Date", which plays during Taki's date with Miki, becomes this after it becomes apparent that the date's a failure. There is also the similar-sounding "Mitsuha's Theme" playing during the flashback to Mitsuha's trip to Tokyo where she initially fails to find Taki and, when she actually does so, it's a younger him who doesn't recognise her.
- The JFK theme has one.
- We get this in Road to Perdition during the gunfight in the rain late in the film.
- Elmer Bernstein was the master of this trope. Listen to Far From Heaven and To Kill A Mockingbird.
- The deeply haunting "Brooks Was Here" from The Shawshank Redemption.
- "The Promise", the main theme of The Piano.
- From Fame, there is "Ralph and Monty (Dressing Room Piano)"
- Downfall features Stephen Zacharias' ''In The Courtyard of the Reich-Chancellory''.
- The main theme of the 2007 I Am Legend has a notable piano part with solo sections. Thinking about it, the piano part may represent Neville's solitary existance surrounded by the evidence of his failure and memories of what once was, the strings brass and percussion parts.
- The opening piano score from Bad Santa is oddly touching. Hearing Billy Bob Thornton monologue about how crappy a person he is while Chopin's Nocturn Op.9 No.2 plays is rather moving.
- Battle Royale II has Memories, played by Shiori Kitano on a piano she finds in Shuya's base. As she plays, the scene cuts between her in the present, and her remembering how horribly she treated her father in years gone by.
- "Home Movies" in the remake of Halloween (2007) and its sequel.
- Clint Mansell's soundtrack for Moon uses mostly simplistic piano tunes, and the sad tunes work well in emphasizing the heart-breaking sadness of the main character's lonely moments.
- Girl with a Pearl Earring had this as virtually its only incidental music, being very driven by silent, stoic acting from Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson and reliant only on a meandering theme.
- The Social Network has "Hand Covers Bruise", Mark's leitmotif for scenes in which he's at his lowest points.note It won the film an Oscar for Best Original Score.
- The Road: ''The Road'' .
- Lincoln has the end of The Peterson House and Finale. Skip to 9:30.
- Gravity most notably has the Aurora Borealis track.
- The Sting features a piece called Solace, done both as a piano solo only and as well as an orchestral version. And yes, it's played during the rain.
- The Pianist features one performed in-story. Szpilman, who has been hiding from the Nazis, starving, cold, and alone, is discovered by the Nazi officer Hosenfeld. On discovering that Szpilman is a musician, Hosenfeld requests a piece, and Szpilman hesitantly obliges with Fryderyk Chopin's haunting "Ballade in G Minor," to tremendous emotional effect.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier has The End of the Line. A melancholy song for a serious low point for the Captain. Because he has to fight his old friend.
- Avengers: Infinity War has a very short one playing when the film's title appears during the credits, which is appropriate for how the film ended.
- Interstellar has Message From Home, when Coop and company get back from checking out one of the prospective planets (which nearly killed them) and get back to the Endurance to find messages from his children on Earth, who, due to proximity to a black hole, have grown up in what was a matter of hours for him and have pretty much given up on ever seeing him again. Not a moment of lost hope, but definitely a low point.
- A piano rendition of the Jurassic Park (1993) theme plays in the trailer for Jurassic World.
- ''The Crypt'' from Anthropoid.
- Cloud Atlas: "The Cloud Atlas Sextet" in the film is a twinkly Debussy-esque piece (in the novel, it was described as much more avant-garde). Although the full piece only shows up in the end credits, when it is played in the film proper, we mostly just hear the piano and violin sections.
- Parodied in Arrested Development with a running gag (mostly in one episode) where a character dejectedly walks away while the instrumental version of Vince Guaraldi's "Christmastime Is Here" plays.
- A slowed-down, piano-based version of the series theme tune plays as the characters go over the top and to their deaths in the final scene of Blackadder Goes Forth.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- There's the Buffy/Angel love theme "Close Your Eyes" that first plays as Buffy brutally smashes the Master's bones in "When She Was Bad", and continues to tinkle gently through a baker's dozen of other gut-wrenching scenes.
- In Chojin Sentai Jetman has Maria, who constantly plays a tune on a piano. During the times when Maria is hurt or dying, this plays.
- Community: In the Christmas Episode "Regional Holiday Music", Abed's suggestion that the gang might stand in for the glee club is met with deaf ears — as he's left alone, sad piano music plays — played by the head of the glee club.
- In the Thanksgiving episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Greg is forced to work as a bartender on Thanksgiving in order to make sure his dad has good medical treatment. All alone, he sings "What'll It Be?" all about how he sick of West Covina and having to give up his dreams:
''Everyone's going home 'cause it's time to give thanks,
Thanks for the chain stores and outlets and banks,
Thanks for this town, three short hours from the beach,
Where all of your dreams can stay just out of reach. - Over half the Tear Jerker sequences in Doctor Who. The other half is Playing the Heart Strings.
- On Entertainment Tonight, whenever a tragic news story breaks out, a Dark Reprise piano version of the theme plays at the start of each episode.
- Game of Thrones:
- Subverted with "Light of the Seven" which plays during a sequence of quiet scenes building up to Cersei's Evil Plan getting carried out. The piece is initially this trope, later transforming into Playing the Heart Strings, an eerie Cherubic Choir, and finally Ominous Pipe Organ. The simplicity of each of the parts, as well as the use of piano, which is a first for the series, is in contrast to the rest of the soundtrack being composed of full orchestral pieces.
- The trope is used in Season Seven with the piece "Winter is Here" which plays over a bleak scene of snowfall on King's Landing and helps set the tone for what is to come.
- Used again to great effect in "The Night King" during the Battle of Winterfell, over Theon's death, and when the battle appears lost. Much like "Light of the Seven", the piece begins with soft piano music before building up into a full orchestra.
- Parodied by comedians Hale and Pace. The character walks across a street, and the piano plays — the character hears it and begins to experiment with the effect — pull back camera to reveal that he's standing on a giant Steinway.
- Partial Trope Namer, The Incredible Hulk's end piece "The Lonely Man".
- Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart", a sad piano piece is the Background Music in a scene where Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt are both feeling very lonely even though they live together. Louis is bereft without their vampire daughter Claudia, who fled from their home seven years prior and refuses to respond to any of his psychic messages. As for Lestat, it was his Tough Love lesson in "...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding" that pushed Claudia away, so in revenge, Louis neglects his boyfriend with an austere mix of Silent Treatment and Lysistrata Gambit. Lestat can't help but suspect that Louis doesn't really love him after being deprived of emotional and physical intimacy for so long.
- An episode of Kamen Rider Den-O focuses on a nameless pianist, whose music is his rendition of the series' battle tune. The third iteration in particular seems quite lonely.
- The piece "Win One for the Reaper" from Lost plays during the funerals for most of the characters who died as well as during other sad moments in the series.
- Lucifer has the main character himself sadly playing "Knocking on Heaven's Door" after an episode where against all odds he ended up in an Odd Friendship with a Priest (who knew exactly who Lucifer was). It helped that not only was Father Frank a Good Shepherd despite his Dark and Troubled Past and Lucifer's attempts to prove otherwise, but he was a Cool Old Guy and a superb pianist, leading to an "adorable" Duet Bonding moment. The sad part comes in where Father Frank proved to be Too Good for This Sinful Earth and performed a Heroic Sacrifice, though Chloe comes and joins him on the piano.
- Red Dwarf actually did this with Rimmer in "Better than Life", but it was short lived, while he stands on the observatory, staring out. Lister comes up and the music stops, and a serious scene goes on. It works really well, especially for a comedy.
- Sherlock has one of these as a recurring theme throughout the series that's usually played when referencing John's past (hence the title "War" on the soundtrack), but becomes even more of a Tear Jerker in The Reichenbach Fall when the theme is extended in the track "Prepared To Do Anything" and played when Sherlock steps off the roof.
- On The Young and the Restless it's a cue that a serious moment is about to play out when the theme tune Nadia's Theme, starts plinking in the background.
- The first movement of the "Moonlight Sonata" by Ludwig van Beethoven is often used for this when the soundtrack is not original.
- In more ways than one.
- Another Beethoven example is the second movement of his final sonata in C minor (No. 32), written 5 years before he died. After the dramatic first movement ends with the Picardie third leading straight into the second movement, this movement starts off with a much calmer theme that highly contrasts with what you just heard. The first few variations on that theme gradually get more intense until finally bearing a resemblance to modern boogie-woogie, immediately after which it quiets down and maintains a serene, lonely, ethereal quality throughout the rest of the movement right up to the end. What's more, Beethoven never wrote a third movement for this sonata (because he felt no need to, not because he died before he could finish it), so the entire sonata is over at that point, and the feeling persists. The feeling is intensified by the juxtaposition of the fact that, by this point in Beethoven's life, he was almost completely deaf and did not have long to live, and this is one of the last piano works he has ever composed.
- Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy.
- A non-soundtrack example would be X Japan 's Es Dur no Piano-sen by Yoshiki. On the Jealousy album, it is the first, introductory track to the album, to convey this kind of atmosphere, that of the lonely calm before the storm... literally, because the next track is Silent Jealousy.
- Fleetwood Mac's Songbird was the closing song of their concerts for many years, played by Christine Mc Vie alone at a piano.
- Tom Waits' is a master of these: Martha and Lonely from Closing Time, Tom Traubert's Blues from Small Change,...
- Peter Gabriel's rehashed version of "Here Comes The Flood" from the album Exposure is the Lonely Piano Piece for the entire human race.
- Not to mention "The Drop" from the album Up.
- Singer-songwriters who are piano-based (e.g. Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, Rufus Wainwright) are likely to have songs like this. Rufus even has a whole album of lonely piano pieces (All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu).
- Oh Amanda Palmer...
"I think I'll wait another year..."
- Literal with Eric Carmen's (or should we say Sergei Rachmaninoff's?) "All by Myself". Joo of Igudesman And Joo exaggerates this trope to its logical extent by playing and singing this song, slowly sounding more and more depressed, sobbing uncontrollably and singing unintelligibly by the end of the first chorus (and amazingly, all without missing a single note on the piano).
- Yiruma's musical output is comprised almost entirely of these, many of them highly effective Tear Jerkers despite being instrumental.
- Oh Amanda Palmer...
- Efterklang's song Mimeo on the Parades album.
- Punk rock band Hüsker Dü had two on their concept album, Zen Arcade: "One Step at a Time" and "Monday Will Never Be the Same."
- DHT - Listen To Your Heart (Unplugged version)
- Likewise, the piano version of Groove Coverage's cover of "Moonlight Shadow".
- BTS has their piano ballad "The Truth Untold," sung by the group's vocalists. Leader RM's playlist mono. has the opening track "tokyo," which opens with a piano melody using the Pentatonic scale.
- Christina Perri's song "The Lonely" is entirely about this. It's just Christina and her piano singing about how all she has is the loneliness. Possibly subverted since the song is actually about her being in a relationship with loneliness.
- Dream Theater frequently write songs like this, such as "Wait for Sleep," "Vacant," and "Far from Heaven."
- Kate Nash with the songs Old Dances and Little Red
- "From My Hands" by VNV Nation.
- "A Little Bit Longer" by The Jonas Brothers
- Elton John, "The Bridge".
- Supertramp, "Downstream".
- A rare organ example: Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale prelude Nun, komm', der Heiden Heiland (BWV 659) is quite dreary and sad compared to his other chorale preludes and has been described as one of his saddest works.
- Erik Satie's "Gymnopédies" and "Gnossiennes" are this.
- One Day I Will Fly by Evening Star.
- "Is There Somebody Who Could Watch You?" by The 1975.
- The first verse of "By the Grace of God" by Katy Perry.
- Oneohtrix Point Never's "Replica" from the like-titled album has one serve as the basis, as more and more synth instruments are introduced throughout the song.
- Epik High's "Over" and "Spoiler" have shades of this, and a lot of their instrumental pieces (e.g. "Forest" and "Ocean. Sand. Trees.") are basically these.
- Aphex Twin has a few examples, namely "Avril 14th".
- "Right Now, I'm in Love. -triangle story-" from HoneyWorks' Confession Executive Committee ~Love Series~ , conveying the singer's sadness at being left behind in the Love Triangle he's in.
- Edguy has "Sands Of Time" (1995 version), "When A Hero Cries", and most of all the extremely sad "Standing In The Rain".
- The Slower And Softer Cover of "Even in Death" (2016 version) by Evanescence turns a hysterical Grief Song about the loss of a loved one into somber one on piano and cello to make it more gentle and heartbreaking as well.
- Vision Divine has "Of Light And Darkness" from Vision Divine.
- Sarah McLachlan has a brief piece at the end of Surfacing entitled "Last Dance." A theremin's wordless "vocals" and a slightly out of tune, tinny piano evoke images of warm nostalgia.
- "Into My Arms" by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds has this feel, although the lyrics are surprisingly upbeat.
- Benjamin Clementine's song "Cornerstone" is a piano ballad about both death and loneliness. Its chorus even begins with the lyrics "I am lonely".
- Arca has several examples, but the pianos are either synthesized or heavily processed in bizarre ways. "Peonies" is probably the most straight-foward example, but others include "Held Apart" and "Gratitud", which is a lonely harpsichord piece.
- Jekyll & Hyde had a few of these along with vocals, backing up "Lost In The Darkness", "No One Knows Who I Am", and "Sympathy, Tenderness".
- In Spring Awakening there's a slow, sad piano-only accompaniment to Moritz's monologue before he commits suicide. Observant viewers will note that it's the piano that accompanied Ilse's half of their Counterpoint Duet.
- Pippin: "I Guess I'll Miss The Man" is a Lonely Acoustic Guitar Song.
- In the ballet Petrushka, the centerpiece of the 2nd Tableau is a pianistic depiction of Petrushka's loneliness.
- Volta has the appropriately named "Lone Soul", played while Waz wanders the city among the Greys after being ostracized from the talent show because of his blue feathered hair. Also heard at the end of "The Bee and the Wind" and the beginning of "Inside Me", although the last song subverts this trope as it builds into a triumphant symphonic rock ballad during Waz's "Breakthrough" dance number.
- The instrumentals for BTS's Jin solo song "The Truth Untold" are for the most part a very minimalistic piano piece. Appropriately, the song itself is about the story of a man who doesn't dare to show himself to the woman he's in love with because of his grotesque appearance, only letting her take flowers from his garden and watching her from afar.
- SCP: Secret Laboratory has two:
- "Melancholy", which plays when you're at the Surface Zone. Whether you're making a mad dash to freedom as a D-Class/Scientist, making your way into the facility as a Mobile Task Force/Chaos Insurgency unit or mopping up anything the Alpha Warhead didn't wipe out, its quite fitting.
- "The Waiting Game", a remix of "Melancholy", plays whilst you're in the elevators connecting Light Containment to Heavy Containment. Hearing it is a much-welcome moment of respite, especially if you've slammed the doors in the face of certain death.
- Dead Island, infamously. Its sequel Dead Island: Riptide had its own as well.
- Dark Souls:
- The first Dark Souls has a haunting, beautiful piano piece as the Final Boss battle theme.
- Dark Souls III also has a piano theme as part of the Final Boss theme. It's a Theme Song Reveal that it's the exact same boss eons later, merged with the souls and power of all the Lords of Cinder who followed him in linking the Fire, and still defending the First Flame after all that time.
- Deltarune has a piece called "Darkness Falls", serving as the game over music if the player says no to the continue screen. The game then resets to the chapter select after the music ends.note
- Pokémon:
- Black and White:
- "Unwavering Emotion" plays in several emotional scenes, for example when Bianca is arguing with her overprotective father, or during the emotional climax of the second game, in which N tries to reason with Ghetsis for the last time, and fails. It was also remixed in Pokémon X and Y, but gained some more instruments. It is also played in all of the Memory Links in the sequel, even if it isn't fitting.
- "Sayonara", also known as "N's Farewell". Guess when it plays.
- AZ's theme in X and Y, which makes sense when you see his backstory, which is considered by the fandom to be one of the most depressing backstories in a Pokémon game.
- Route 209 from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is iconic among fans for its melancholy piano section. It's a common joke to compare it to Green Day's sad punk ballad "21 Guns."
- Black and White:
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: When you play the Song of Healing at the graves of Daruni and Mikau, a piano rendition of the same song plays through a cutscene where their spirits remember all the loved ones they can no longer help.
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Farewell, Hyrule King, which is a Dark Reprise of the series' Hyrule Castle theme.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess:
- Midna's Lament. It's actually a variation on the Hyrule Field theme and Midna's theme. It's also a theme for the Bridge of Eldin in two of the Super Smash Bros. games, though there it's Soundtrack Dissonance.
- Though nothing 'terrible' has happened, the music the Snowpeak ruins qualifies for the sheer loneliness of the sound...
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The music heard when Impa talks about the Gate of Time, which is also heard after Link returns from the past upon witnessing Zelda beginning her centuries-long slumber, is a melancholic musical composition that represents, respectively, the importance of opening the Gate and finding the Triforce to kill the Imprisoned so Zelda can wake up in the present.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: This is the standard for the game - most of the overworld music consists of ambient piano tunes, contributing to the melancholy nature of exploring the ruins of Hyrule.
- Resident Evil:
- In the first game, Jill and Rebecca melodically play "Moonlight Sonata" on a piano in the Spencer Mansion.
- In Code Veronica, this trope can also be used for "Piano Roll" which is the Ashford lulluby being played on the piano.
- The first scenario credits and results screen in Resident Evil 2. The former also uses lonely strings. Also the Save Room theme, Secure Place.
- In Beyond Good & Evil, the very sad piano tune "Enfantes Disparus" plays when Jade returns home to her lighthouse and finds it's been destroyed, and "her" kids have been kidnapped—meaning that the bad guys have now kidnapped everyone dear to her.
- BioShock:
- Cohen's Masterpiece in BioShock... sorta. It serves as Cohen's theme, and loneliness is one of the themes. However, the main reason Cohen is alone is because he killed as many people as he could get his hands on to complete his artistic works, and the deranged theme matches that pretty well. And it's awesome.
- BioShock Infinite ends with a simple piece as all of the alternate Elizabeths disappear one by one following Booker's death, ending with the screen going black on the final note.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy IV has Cry In Sorrow, a sad piano remix of its overworld theme for the sad moments.
- Final Fantasy V has Sorrows of Parting, a sad piano and strings theme for the same purpose.
- Subverted and averted in Final Fantasy VII with "Aerith's Theme", which starts out sounding like it would be a lonely piano piece, before transforming into a soaring, almost triumphant orchestral theme.
- Final Fantasy X:
- It has "To Zanarkand". Unique in that it's the very first piece of music that plays in the entire game. A bit more uplifting than usual, though. It's so iconic that it's become the go-to track whenever a Fan Vid creator wants to add sad piano music to a scene.
- However, "Via Purifico" (also known as "Path of Repentance" in more literal-minded translations) isn't upbeat at all. It plays in a labyrinth that's supposed to be a death sentence. Needless to say, things get better.
- Although the version used in-game is actually quite lively, the Star Onions' remix of the Tavnazian Safehold BGM from Final Fantasy XI is quite melancholy.
- "Somnus", the main theme from Final Fantasy XV, is slow and soft and melancholy, which contrasts the One-Woman Wail, and the lyrics talk about a sleeping kingdom of everlasting night where the children are destined to suffer and die.
- 'The Order That Must Be Protected' from Dissidia Final Fantasy, which is a variation of the leitmotif that crops up here and there throughout the game. This tune is particularly recognized because it plays during the cutscene that occurs after Terra defeats Kefka in the 'Shade Impulse' campaign, as it puts an emotional spin on the death of an otherwise Monster Clown.
- Chrono Trigger also similarly has a sad (or alternately, touching) theme, "In the Bottom of the Night", which starts solo piano and is later joined by strings. The game over theme, "No Hope", is a similar piece, but shorter and looped.
- Kingdom Hearts:
- Roxas's theme. "The Other Promise" is a slightly faster Boss Remix of his theme that gets progressively more intense, played during his and Sora's Battle in the Center of the Mind in the Final Mix version of Kingdom Hearts II (which was just a cutscene in the original release).
- "Kairi III" is her remixed theme song, at a chunk of the game where you couldn't feel more sorry for the kid.
- The most notable example is what has to be the series' ultimate woobie: Xion, from 358/2 Days. Not only is a lonely piano piece her main theme ("Musique pour la Tristesse de Xion": literally "Music for the Melancholy of Xion"), but the intro melody of that piece is used in the music of the final boss fight against her, "Vector to the Heavens", which itself is a lonely strings section piece.
- Birth by Sleep features Ventus' theme, a melancholy remix of both Roxas' and Sora's themes. This is because Ventus' heart has been sleeping within Sora since prior to the plot of the original game, which is why Roxas (Sora's Nobody) looks like him and can dual wield Keyblades; he has access to both Sora's and Ventus' weapons.
- One is used in a dark, isolated boiler room with a crying Mars-San in Yume Nikki.
- Bastila's Theme from Knights of the Old Republic.
- "Glass Soldier" in Iji, especially in the scene where Dan dies.
- One of the Eight Melodies in EarthBound Beginnings is a mysterious piano that lies in an abandoned mansion... Here it is, playing the melody once you find it.
- Shin Megami Tensei:
- If you lose in Persona 3, a slower, down-key piano version of "Aria of the Soul" plays on the Game Over screen.
- If you get the bad ending in Persona 4, you also get a lonely piano piece. It's actually the music used in the true final dungeon.
- "Inherent Will" from Digital Devil Saga 2. This absolute heart-wrencher of a theme plays during scenes where party members die, most notably Cielo.
- Evil Twin: Cyprien's Chronicles does this during the final battle against The Master, after The Master kills SuperCyp.
- Halo:
- The original trilogy includes the Easter Egg song "Siege of Madrigal" in Halo: Combat Evolved, which also appears in subsequent Bungie-made games; the unused song "Love and a Piano"; "Heavy Price Paid" and the piano part of "Unforgotten" in Halo 2; and "Keep What You Steal" plus the last part of the credits music in Halo 3.
- Halo: Reach has "Spartans Never Die", the music during the opening cinematic of the post-credits mini-level "Lone Wolf". The first half of "Ashes" combines this trope with a One-Woman Wail, and the second also uses Playing the Heart Strings. The piano section without the wail can be heard during the cutscenes at the ends of the Winter Contingency" and "New Alexandria" missions. 3's "Keep What You Steal" is also reused when Six retrieves "the package" (Cortana).
- Halo 3: ODST has a lonely sax that pops up every now and then, usually when the Rookie is traveling through the city by himself. "Rain" is another prime example.
- Silent Hill:
- "Magdalene" from Silent Hill 2, which is played after Maria's first death.
- The Dark Reprise of "Theme of Laura", along with Playing the Heart Strings.
- "Promise (Reprise)" was apparently sad enough that the Philadelphia Eagles used it on their website. It's used for comedic purposes though.
- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories uses the same sad song all the time.
- The "Event Failed" music in Pilotwings, a Dark Reprise of the "Event Completed" theme.
- DonPachi:
- Heard in DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu: Black Label as "Resurrection", a somber tune that plays as the bleak ending is read out to you. It also plays right before switching to a boss theme as your carrier gets shot down by Golden Disaster/Hibachi.
- This theme from DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou which plays during Hina's Alas, Poor Villain moment in the Xbox 360 version.
- The Game Over music in the PC Engine version of Valis 1.
- RAY Series:
- The ending to Ray Crisis. Since Ray Crisis is a prequel to RayForce, Foregone Conclusion means that despite your success in shutting down Con-Human, the damage has already been done, and indeed, The War Has Just Begun. With the piano single as the Background Music, the lone pilot sorties off...
Narrator: We managed to separate the human clone from Con-Human computer environment, but we could still not stop the violence generated by the Con-Human. Can we call the Con-Human and human clone a new life creation? Are we supposed to destroy this creature? The humans who are fighting against their ominous fate will use their latest strategy, resulting in Operation Ray Force.
- The Special Mode ending theme is an electric piano and chimes medley of the series' highlight songs.
- The ending to Ray Crisis. Since Ray Crisis is a prequel to RayForce, Foregone Conclusion means that despite your success in shutting down Con-Human, the damage has already been done, and indeed, The War Has Just Begun. With the piano single as the Background Music, the lone pilot sorties off...
- Mass Effect:
- Mass Effect has this aboard the Normandy after Kaidan or Ash dies. It doubles as the music that plays during the romance sex scene.
- Shepard's death at the beginning of Mass Effect 2 has a lonely piano piece play over it. This Leitmotif comes up several times throughout the game, including after your crew is captured by the Collector raid and if Shepard dies during the Suicide Mission.
- Mass Effect 3 plays another piano piece during Normandy's escape from the Reaper-overrun Earth. Along with Reaper bass.
- Grunt gets one at the end of one mission. Whether he lives or dies depends on the save file from Mass Effect 2.
- Shepard's romance theme in ME3 starts out this way, and then the string section joins in, leading to one of the series's more hauntingly beautiful pieces.
- The theme that plays over the ending sequence. A slow, low, heartbreaking piano plays the game's leitmotif as you see the blast from the Crucible save everyone from the Reapers as Shepard almost certainly dies. Followed by more strings. An even sadder piano piece plays if you pick the Refusal ending from the Extended Cut. Basically, the Mass Effect series LOVES this trope, playing sad piano music whenever something even remotely sad happens.
- One of the most powerful is played during Thane's wake as part of the Citadel DLC.
- In Lunar: The Silver Star, a sad piano piece plays when you return to Burg after most of the villagers have been kidnapped for slave labor in the Talon Mine.
- In Metroid: Other M, the alternate title screen music is this. A more full rendition with strings in is near the end of the playable epilogue when Samus finds Adam's helmet and reminisces to the situation where Adam decided to sacrifice himself to save her.
- The death music in the original Rainbow Six.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- The aptly named "Sad Song" from the Super Mario RPG soundtrack.
- The World 3 Background Music from Super Mario Galaxy 2.
- The ending music from Yoshi's Island.
- In Amnesia: The Dark Descent, we have Alexander's Ending Theme.
- Metal Gear:
- Metal Gear Solid has Enclosure, which plays when Sniper Wolf dies and in one of the two endings where Meryl dies. A more depressing version plays in Act 4 of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots when Naomi dies.
- The flashback to Snake's final fight with The Boss in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker features a literal lonely piano version of "Snake Eater" to intensify Snake's feeling of loss in that moment. To put it into context, he has just confronted an AI with the voice and seemingly the personality of his mentor whom he had loved... and killed.
- Heavy Rain has Painful Memories, a beautiful and haunting theme that plays when the main protagonist's son, Jason, dies.
- Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War contains a song titled "15 years ago", which plays on only two occasions: during the appropriate flashback and during the optional quiet drama scene in the final mission, when you and your wingmen literally remain the only ones in the skies over Oured (not counting the Optional Boss who can be ignored).
- The Tale of ALLTYNEX trilogy mostly uses organ, but in its sadder moments the series whips out the piano.
- Sam & Max: Freelance Police, shockingly enough. It makes Max's death so much more sad to see a lonely Sam helplessly wandering around the city mourning him.
- .hack//Outbreak plays a piano version of Aura's Theme as Kite stands lonely in Carmina Gadalica as he contemplates if he's making an already bad situation worse. The scene is even appropriately titled Lone Sheep.
- Two examples from Asura's Wrath are the Options theme (No, really), and Lamentation: Momentary End.
- In the SNES version of SimCity, the "bad approval rating" music is a lonely harp Dark Reprise of its "good rating" counterpart.
- The Spirit Engine 2 has "My Worth", played during the first section of the ending sequence.
- Cave Story even thought it is not piano, "Balcony" the song that plays before you fight the Doctor has the same effect.
- Lost Odyssey has A Return, Indeed (Piano Version) which while it has a major key tonal shift towards the end is still one of the saddest pieces of game music ever written.
- Castle of Shikigami III's ending. It's especially fitting for Kohtaro, Batu, Emilio, Mihee, as well as some of the other multiplayer scenarios that have bittersweet or downer endings.
- In Skullgirls, Painwheel's story mode ending has a Lonely Piano Piece version of her usually happier theme, "The Lives We Left Behind", to set the mood for her rejection from her parents.
- From Radio Zonde, Celestial Elegy, one of the Final Boss themes.
- "Explore 7" from Fallout 3.
- In Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, "Cyber Commando" begins with a piano version of Rex's theme. "Moment of Calm" combines lonely piano with Drone of Dread, making it especially creepy.
- The final level of The Saboteur is bleak enough already — Sean climbs the Eiffel Tower as Nazis cross the Despair Event Horizon en masse, many of them Driven to Suicide — but it gets even worse with a haunting rendition of Nina Simone's "Feeling Good" playing throughout. On the second-to-top floor, you see that a Nazi captain is playing it on the bar's piano; if you shoot him, the music stops for the rest of the level.
- Some of the randomly-triggered background pieces from Minecraft evoke this, e.g. "Wet Hands". Fitting given the solitary nature of the single-player mode. Actually subverted by one of them, which fades into a more upbeat (though still calm and peaceful) synth piece.
- Ending of the Starry Sky from Silhouette Mirage.
- "Memories", the very first song you hear in Deemo. The cutscene it functions as the soundtrack for shows Deemo alone in his tower, playing song after song. Not surprisingly, the cutscene's title is "Lonely Deemo".
- Ori and the Blind Forest has this in the prologue during the Time-Passes Montage when the forest withers and Naru's food supply dwindles, when Ori finds Naru dead, and as Ori struggles through the decayed forest afterwards, as well as the piano sections of "First Steps into Sunken Glades".
- The final mission in Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours has this for its Background Music, titled "Dream Road".
- The Denpa Men:
- In the second installment, a slow, sad track plays after the first battle in the beginning once Crystal, Jasper, and Amber, the hero's wife and two children respectively, are kidnapped. The theme continues until you leave Digitown, but doesn't play if you renter. This theme plays again at the East Village, because all but one of the residents of the town have been kidnapped by the Hammer Angler.
- In the third game, the Locksmith's House constantly plays the sad theme, because both the locksmith residing there and his grandma eventually die over the story. The hero even tries to Revive the grandma, but it doesn't work.
- The Project × Zone series has "Tear Drop", which usually plays during an Alas, Poor Villain moment. It's also played when Arthur seemingly sacrifices himself in the climax of Chapter 17 and when Zero encounters Iris halfway through Chapter 29 of the first game.
- Child of Light has "Pilgrims on a Long Journey", "Final Breath", and "Woods Darker than Night".
- Undertale has:
- "Empty House," a slower, echoier piano remix of "Fallen Down." It plays in Home only after Toriel's departure, most likely if you killed her during a Neutral or Genocide run.
- "An Ending," a slow, sad song consisting mostly of piano, with some strings as well. It plays in most neutral endings of the game, where Asgore is dead regardless of whether or not you killed him, and the monsters are still trapped underground. A variant of a part from the song, specifically "Don't Give Up", also plays if you kill Undyne on a neutral run.
- The beginning of "Battle Against A True Hero" starts off with one, which becomes the main riff of the song. It plays when you fight Undyne on a No Mercy run, as she is trying to stop you from killing the rest of the Underground's population, and possibly humanity as well.
- Cuphead has "The End", which ironically is not happy but heartwrenching when you discover that you have chosen to hand over the Soul Contracts to the Devil and rule over the entire Inkwell Isles that are literally going to hell. The piano piece that is accompanied by a snare drum plays over the first part of the end credits, followed by complete silence. It's a Tear Jerker, to say the least.
- The Longest Five Minutes has a piano tune that plays all throughout your journey through Stardust Island, which is basically a humongous landfill where the hopeless and homeless go to die.
- 1bit Heart has "Nanashi and Misane", which plays in quite possibly the most emotional moment of the game.
- Celeste has several of these, including "Awake", "Postcard from Celeste Mountain", the beginning sections of "Golden" and "Quiet and Falling", "Little Goth", "Exhale", and "My Dearest Friends".
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic Adventure has the Theme of E-102 Gamma, which, unlike the other character Image Songs, only has two recurring phrases as lyrics set to a sad piano with synths. This befits its emotionless nature as an Eggman robot that gained sapience and that its mission ultimately ends with it performing a Heroic Sacrifice to free the bird powering it.
- "I Am... The Story is Over" from Shadow the Hedgehog does this, after Shadow destroys the Black Comet and apparently decides to remain aboard Space Colony Ark. It's followed by Never Turn Back, possibly the best piece in the game.
- Blasphemous has Gélida Expiración (Gelid Expiration), the theme of the Graveyard of the Peaks, a snowy mountain littered with the frozen corpses of women who died in their pilgrimage to the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage.
- OMORI has "Lost Library," which plays during a sequence where the title character is all alone in a dark Metaphysical Place thickly suffused with wistful memories of his other self and his friends.
- RuneScape has "All for the Pest", where you have the option to Mercy Kill the Tortured Monster.
- Some examples from the Ace Attorney series:
- "Elegy Of The Captured" from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations. It plays during the more sad, serious visits to the detention centre.
- "Interview Tragicomedy", the Detention Center theme from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
- "Doubted People", a Lonely Harpsichord Piece that plays when someone is wrongly accused and "Reminiscence - False Relations" that plays in the third case from Ace Attorney Investigations.
- CROSS†CHANNEL is full of piano pieces, but Crystal-clear and Fragile (Crisscross version linked to due to the original being missing,) fit the bill the most.
- Demonbane has "Lament. After All, We Are Divine", which plays when the protagonists' hit rock bottom, as Arkham City lies devastated in the aftermath of Cthulhu's rampage, and Demonbane lies defeated and broken at the hands of Anticross.
- The piano version of "This Illusion", heard in every arc of Fate/stay night. The scenes manage to be remarkably Tear Jerker even in an already Utsuge-drenched story.
- Higurashi: When They Cry Kai has this with the piano versions of Monogatari, Michishirube, and a few others.
- In Doki Doki Literature Club!, Monika composes the song "Your Reality" which, despite its jaunty tempo, is actually this. Monika sings about her fate as a self-aware side character in a video game, lamenting how her actions to break the status quo caused so much harm and the Heel Realization that followed, questioning if taking someone against their will (the player in this case) is really "love", and her ultimate decision to let them go.
- Infinity:
- Oh god, Karma of Ever17. It's as if despair became song.
- Once more- piano from Never7.
- All or None- Piano from Remember11.
- Muv-Luv Alternative's "For You Who Departs" starts off as this. Then the strings join in. And then the One-Woman Wail.
- Most of the emotional music in Steins;Gate is piano-based (and, appropriately to the plot, quite lonely-sounding). This reprise of the main theme, Gate of Steiner, takes the cake though, just because of the scenes it tends to be played in.
- "Wingless" and "Fortitude" from Umineko: When They Cry.
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony uses "Clair de Lune" by Claude Debussy to heartbreaking effect following Kaede's execution.
- Dies Irae has plenty of those, all playing during crucial emotional moments.
- "Sol lucet omnibus" and "AHIH ASHR AHIH" are sombre versions of Thrud Walküre and Über den Himmel, respectively. The former plays during segments dealing with Kei's past, while the latter plays, among other things, during certain character deaths.
- There's also "Et in Arcadia Ego", which plays during Ren's non-romantic interactions with his Love Interest.
- Homestuck has several sad piano pieces. Showtime (Piano Refrain), Homestuck, Temporal Piano, and Mother (Piano) (among others) are all beautiful but sad piano pieces.
- Penny's theme and song from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, as well the beginning of the final BSoD Song.
- Also significant in that her quiet theme is quickly drowned out in the ending credits by Horrible's dark symphonic one.
- The Nostalgia Critic has a leitmotif of "Sad Romance", a sad violin instrumental.
- Red vs. Blue: A piano mix of Carolina's theme plays during her brief fight/breakup with York.
- Later in the same season, a lonely piano is used to represent the shell of a man the Director has become when Carolina and Church find him.
- The Proper People have a particular sad piano piece they use fairly often over cinematic montages of the abandoned areas they explore.
- Afterlife, composed by "soimon" for his Machinima short Story of a Sentry.
- Played for Laughs in Tankmen 0.5 where Steve throws a childish insult at Bill, a person standing in the way of his tank, which manages to seriously hurt Bill's feelings, and piano music is played right when this occurs.
- Steve Cutts' "Where Are They Now?", a short film depicting the present lives of has-been cartoon characters such as Roger and Jessica Rabbit, uses Erik Satie's "Gymnopedie No. 1" at the beginning and end.
- In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Putting Your Hoof Down", Fluttershy realizes that she Took a Level in Jerkass and walks back to her home to lock herself up while accompanied by a Suspiciously Similar Song version of "The Lonely Man". This becomes Hilarious in Hindsight two seasons later in the episode "Power Ponies", when the characters are sucked into an enchanted comic book and Fluttershy finds herself playing the part of Saddle Rager, an Expy of the Incredible Hulk.
- Used as a Running Gag in the South Park episode "The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000" when Kyle discovers the Tooth Fairy isn't real. The revelation is split over three scenes, each one spontaneously initiating the exact same hilariously generic track.
- In Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, a lonely piano reprise of Yumyan Hammerpaw's theme song accompanies his permanent Death of Personality.
- Every time Ayrton Senna won a race, Brazilian broadcaster TV Globo played a happy song called Tema da Vitória (Victory Theme). During Ayrton Senna's funeral after his death in a racing accident, broadcast live to the whole country, TV Globo played a slowed down, single instrument version of that song.
You're leaving this page all alone? Cue the Lonely Piano while this page weeps at your absence.