But the burial of a car need not strike such sad, macabre or financially ruinous chords.

Three soft, sad chords filled the room and in a low, rich voice, she sang, "Oh my luve is like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June: Oh, my luve is like the melodie, That's sweetly play'd in tune.

His fingers strayed over the strings aimlessly a moment, then wandered into the gentle, sad chords of a ballad.

The first theme clearly represents the wind, with sad extended chords superimposed by languid chromatics.

He plucked a sad chord from his harp.

A finale begins with determined motion, then lapses into silence: the strings play a static sequence of sad, luminous chords.

This film adaptation of the novel by Anna Quindlen - a former columnist for The New York Times - about an ambitious New York journalist forced to move back in with her parents to care for her dying mother strikes a sad and universal chord.

His fingers moved on the harpstrings to pluck the first sad chords of "The Swordsmith and the Lady," when he realized just what he was about to do.