Adagio in G minor

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Adagio in G minor is a piece arranged by Remo Giazotto based on the bass line and six bars of melody[1] of a Sonata in G minor, composed by Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni for strings and organ, which were found amongst the ruins of the old Saxon State Library, Dresden, which was firebombed by the Allies during World War II.

The piece was repeatedly used as an underlying score for Orson Welles' adaption of Kafka's "The Trial", from 1963, starring Anthony Perkins. The piece has been used most notably in the 1981 Peter Weir film Gallipoli (starring Mel Gibson), which was themed around the famous World War I battle of the same name. The piece was also used throughout the episode "Dragon's Domain," from the first season of the mid-1970s sci-fi TV series Space: 1999, and later included on the expanded double-CD Year 1 soundtrack released in 1998. The Adagio has been used as background music in many television programmes and advertisements, including most recently, the popular BBC sitcom, Butterflies.

It is most commonly orchestrated for string ensemble and organ, or string ensemble alone.

Music sample:

  • One example of a transcription is the recording of the Adagio by classical guitarist Dominic Miller, an Argentine-born musician who tours with Sting.
  • The Doors 1978 album An American Prayer made use of the theme from the Adagio in G Minor, in addition to recording a version which was recently released as part of the Perception box set. During the 1980s Swedish-born guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen used the same work in the composition "Icarus Dream Suite", which he later used live during the intro for "Far Beyond the Sun", which can be heard on the Trial by Fire album. Recently Muse have played the theme as an intro to "Time is Running Out" on their Black Holes and Revelations Tour.
  • The piece was also used as a theme for the song Graveyard Angel by Louise Tucker and Charlie Skarbek for their rock/opera collaboration Midnight Blue.
  • The piece is featured in the original Rollerball movie.
  • It is also featured in the film Flashdance.
  • The piece was sampled in Tiesto's song Athena.
  • The piece is also used in the Swedish Film Fucking Åmål (1998).
  • An international singer Lara Fabian released English and Italian versions of the song in her 1999 single Adagio. Both versions appear in her self-titled album Lara Fabian (2000).
  • An arranged version of this piece is also used in the Japanese animation Negima!? (2006).
  • Pianist/keyboardist Bradley Joseph introduced his arrangement of Albinoni's "Adagio in Gm" on the 2005 album, For the Love of It.
  • A remix of it (arranged by Lee Jackson) can be found as one of the songs of the computer game Rise of the Triad (1994). Since the game has a fairly big amount of songs, it's advisable to use the song selection cheat (type DIPSTICK to enable cheats, then type MAESTRO) to choose it directly.

The MIDI file for the song can be found here.

A Youtube Video of it can be found here.


Other notable Adagios in G minor include:


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