This Bitter Earth — Dinah Washington / Max Richter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXHGoaEtmFM

A professional mashup by Robbie Robertson (of The Band) of Max Richter's On the Nature of Daylight and Clyde Otis' This Bitter Earth as performed by Dinah Washington, produced as part of the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, and played over the closing credits. A complex, melancholy, and very beautiful song, I think. Dinah Washington was a '50s and '60s American blues singer, best known for What a Difference a Day Makes. Max Richter is a modern British classical musician, nearly ambient in his style.

Rarely have I heard a more devastating piece of music — let alone a mash-up. Washington's original, done as a blues single with schmaltzy backing strings, evokes sadness, certainly, but in a cinematic way, a temporary cliffhanger, designed for suspense and drama. But somehow Richter's replacement strings add a finality to the song, I think — studied in the context of the film, Shutter Island, (especially as a commentary on its ending), it delivers not a temptation for melancholy, but a definitive statement — this is the way life is. It's engrossing and repulsive in its sadness, but it's such a completely immersive sound.