Before I fully return to sighing strings composed directly for the screen, let me make mention of two more examples from the classical concert repertoire to grace cinemas.  The “Adagio in G Minor for Strings and Organ” by Remo Giazotto would be an example to rival’s Barber’s in public consciousness – so famously used in “Gallipoli” and other movies that some complained of overuse when it was recently prominently featured in “Manchester by the Sea”.  The problem is that in addition to plenty of mournfully sighing strings there’s also that peskily prominent organ.  That should disqualify it from this discussion, except a convenient loophole arrives in the form of a special arrangement of the Adagio scored for the limited TV series “American Crime Story: Versace”. The organ is removed, leaving a pure string ensemble arrangement, with sobbing solo violin taking the organ’s place:

THE SIGHING STRINGS OF CINEMA