Originally Posted by Celestial Mechanic
Ahhhh, yes. Well, I'm old and forget.
Order of Kilopi
Ahhhh, yes. Well, I'm old and forget.
Order of Kilopi
Though it is sometimes difficult for me to get the feelings expressed in music from different cultures. For example Indonesian music. Extreme sadness is clear, but the more subtle things... of course I'm also not really familiar with that music.I don't know how music conveys emotions, but it certainly is a universal language.
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I failed music theory, can't read music, don't understand composition but I am always looking for the soundtrack to my mood. I find it absolutely amazing how sound can literally alter a mood. I have always figured that is why people break off into groups based more on musical preference, at least in teen years, than anything else. It is not just because they all liked the same music, but their general response to that music was usually representative of their personality. aggressive people tend to lean towards more aggressive music the same way pensive people lean more toward pensive music. Then there are the comelians (spelling?) who listen to a wide variety of music, and they always seemed to have a wider variety of friends.
Even the pitch that a voice can hit, sometimes makes me cry. I wouldn't call myself a huge Celine Dionne fan but I do like her version of All By Myself when she hits that high note on "Anymore" I cry every time. Derek Trucks, without a single lyric in a song, can energize me, make me smile, make me cry, depending on the piece. One of my favorite house cleaning CD's is greatest hits of 1720, and yes it does exist. I don't know most of the composures, nor the titles, I just put it on and listen to it for the uplifting feeling I need to get the job done. nusic truly is a wonder of it's own!
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A good way to familiarize yourself with foreign sounds is Deep Forest. I got into real music from Hungary as a result of hearing their second album. The general sound appealed to me so I checked it out. I liked their first album but never got really into the Central African cultural music. Pure Moods is another way to introduce yourself to some culturally foreign sounds. I actually went out and bought a Sacred Spirits cd because I loved the sound and even preferred the original over the one recorded with a dance beat. I also love Pakistani music but that I got from a concert in Central Park. Globally, there are so many different sounds that can be absolutely stunning when you first experience them. I am always, always on the search for new sounds.
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I don't really like the pure moods etc cd's. They're not extremely authentical, a bit too "easy listening" and too polished with Western Wax in my opinion. Always reminds me a bit of these genuine Peruan musicians who visit markets with their pan flutes and Behringer PA.
Just my opinion.
I prefer going to the yearly concert of the Indonesian group (ok, living in the Netherlands, but anyway). The music does sound strange though, with lots and lots of bells and not many sustained tones.
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I love those African choirs...
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Sort of. They call them Andean flutes.
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Hi Argos,Clop, Iīm really curious about that funny passage(s). Could you please point it (them) out?
Sorry for the delay. I've been trying to find the funny parts but they don't seem as funny as they used to. Maybe they're only funny if you're in a funny mood. I distinctly remember laughing out loud whilst playing the thing. Satie was homosexual, and the Gymnopedies were all about naked male gymnasts prancing about. Maybe I've misinterpreted it as humour.
clop
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Yeah, thanks.
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My favourite chord is Dm. I listen to a lot of folk music and appreciate the melancholy feeling of minor chords.
By the way, if you're interested in how the brain processed the music it hears, here's a book that studies cognitive music perception:Your Brain on Music
I haven't read it yet, but it is now on my list of books to read.
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Ah...music to consider: "In search of a lost chord" .songLLedgend of a Mind".
And here's to another great albumn.."To Our Children's Children's Children".
May they serve you well. In praise of the Moody Blues.
Best regards, Dan
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Try also the 4th book of madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi. One of the group (don't recall which right now,) was called by my music professor Wallace Rave in school years ago, a mini-Tristan in madrigal style, due to it's rich chromaticism and drawn out suspensions. All the madrigals in the 4th and 6th books are magical.
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You've hit on it in the last sentence. Its all relative. Chords quite out-of-style and dissonant in Bach are perfectly logical and equally lovely in Debussy.
And then there are very serious composers who have written great music that is deliberately harsh and tragic. (Shostakovich 6th Symphony which is both depressing and lyrical and eventually comical, or Schoenberg's Beglietungsmusik - (which, though subtitled "Threatening Danger, Fear, Catastrophie!", is also simultaneously a testament to his wonderful sense of humor! That's how psychologically complex music can get.)
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Wow! I never thought I'd ever meet another fan of Shosty's 6th!
The progression from the opening Largo through the Allegro to the Presto is amazing and only could have been pulled off by Dmitri!
I treasure my recording by Boult and the London PO folks on the original Everest LP (even though there are channel-specific tape dropouts during the recording!).
What a document of DSCH's manic/depressive tendencies!
Fantastic music!
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It's a gripping performance, top-notch (as is also Bernstein's on the old Columbia LP.)
Note: The Sir Adrian Boult recording has recently been a licensed reissue on CD by ArkivMusic available here:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/...album_id=32974
The CD also includes a reissue of Sir Malcolm Sargent and the LSO performing Shostakovich's 9th Symphony.
The 6th is a great work - maybe even more than the famous 5th. I love the moment within the giant 1st movement where the horn choir enters with progressions that seem to express warmth, relief (from the preceding tragic music,) and great hope and tenderness only to gradually fade to dissolution and finally dovetail into the last part of the opening dark tragic main theme. One of the remarkably subtle moments in music.
And then later there is that goofy Marx Brothers finale! What a work.
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Argh! How could I forget Black Star, from the miestro, Yngwie Malmsteen. I can remember like it was yesterday the first time I played along to that song and nailed it note for note. It was especially signifigant for me not just because the arrpegio sweeps are so fast, but because my father, who is also a player, told me he wouldn't consider me a guitarist until I could play two songs note for note: Sultans of Swing, from the Dire Straits, and Black Star.
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There is a Simpsons episode where Homer is scolding the dog for something. Then they re-show it from the dog's perspective: the "tone" or "feeling" of Homer's voice is the same, but its meaning has been stripped; it is sounds, not words, the dog hears. The joke is, the dog knows it did something wrong, but has absolutely no idea what.
At any rate, what fascinates me about music is its ability to "almost" do the same, only reverse. E.g. most pop-music tunes are built around a chorus and melody that form the "hook" (Stand by your man...). Then at the instrumental break, the soloist will "echo" the lyrical melody exactly, and you "sort of" hear the words in the instrument (Stand by your man...). Then the soloist will improvise, embelishing the melody, and you go back to "being the dog," i.e. the music still has the same "feeling" (faithfulness; integrity; whatever), but specific words are no longer associated with specific tones.
Anyway, that is something about music I delight in, when the lead instrument "almost speaks" in words.
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You're spot on there Peter Wilson. There are a couple of examples (which I can't quite remember at the moment) where the instruments actually sound like they are saying proper words. I'll try and remember them.
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That's called talkboxes and vocoders
Seriously, also without these aids indeed an instrument can sound like saying the words (even though they don't really sound like that at all, you just get the feeling), and vice versa. Example of the contrary: there is a Muse song where at the end the voice appears to fade into a guitar. Looking at the lyrics of the song, apparently he's still singing full sentences
I'm thinking of an example where the instruments tend to "sing along" without using vocoders or talkboxes, just through emotion , melody, rhythm and timbre.
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An example is found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32BI-fCWf0A
At 2:07, the guitar solo starts. The guitar sings the song, even though it doesn't sound llike saying the words and isn't even faithfully following the original melody (lots of extras over it). Though it really sings the song, and that becomes even more clear when dear Maggie drops in again.
Not a lot of chord work in that guitar solo though, but hey. Couldn't think of a better example at the moment.
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Imo, the best example of vocoder use on pop music [where else?] is on 1975 "Frampton Comes Alive album" [Do You Feel Like I Do?].
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Where else?the best example of vocoder use on pop music [where else?]
Electronica, rock, musique concrete, experimental, new wave, new age, even some minimalism...
Frequent users of vocoders:
*Phil Collins, on the album "in the air tonight"
*Jah Wobble, for example his album "Mu" (in the song Buddha of Compassion)
*Mike Oldfield, particularly the album "5 miles out"
*Daft Punk, on almost every song. Though I must say that in "around the world" it sounds more like a talkbox. Don't know what they used there, most often a vocoder is quoted.
*almost all robot voices from older SF series
Actually, no. That is a talkbox, which is something completely different. And apparently bad for your teeth. A Talkbox is also used by the guitarist of Bon Jovi (example: it's my life).is on 1975 "Frampton Comes Alive album" [Do You Feel Like I Do?].
In a talkbox, the sound from your instrument is sent to your mouth through a tube, and by changing the shape of your mouth, you change its acoustics and hence the sound. This is picked up by a microphone. No electronics are included in the modulation, just your mouth. Apparently the auitehard vibrations could damage your teeth.
In a vocoder, your voice is split into multiple wavebands, and the amplitude of each frequency band is measured. There also is a carrier signal, in many cases coming from an instrument. The frequencies of the carrier signal are given the amplitude of the frequencies of the voice channel. That is what you hear. The voice channel itself is not in teh output, unless you mix it in (dry/wet). You can also choose how much the frequency amplitudes of the instrument sound are modulated, this is called the modulation depth. This way, the instrument sounds as if it is talking. By changing the note played with the instrument, you change the availability of frequencies to modulate in it, and hence the frequency spectrum of the end result. If you play a high note, only high frequencies can be modulated, and hence the end result will sound high as well. This way, you can make your instrument sing.
The voice is called the modulator, the instrument the carrier. Because you simply sing or talk into a microphone, it is not harmful to your teeth. This is electrnic modulation.
Both should not be mixed up with a sampler. This records your voice and saves it as a sound. You can add effects to it. By playing the keyboard, the pitch of the recording (set nominally at middle C) is changed. In almost any case the length also changes, but there are samplers that change pitch without changing length. The Fairlight CMI could do sampling, and I assume Herbie Hancock used this voice sampling in some of his songs (I'm not that familiar with his works though).
Order of Kilopi
Branches of pop music...
Pop artists.Frequent users of vocoders:
*Phil Collins, on the album "in the air tonight"
*Jah Wobble, for example his album "Mu" (in the song Buddha of Compassion)
*Mike Oldfield, particularly the album "5 miles out"
*Daft Punk, on almost every song. Though I must say that in "around the world" it sounds more like a talkbox. Don't know what they used there, most often a vocoder is quoted.
*almost all robot voices from older SF series
Ah, talkbox. Thanks.Actually, no. That is a talkbox,
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What is not considered pop music for you?Branches of pop music...
Of course I agree that for example Phil Collins is pop.
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Music that donīt play on pop TV.
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May I ask you how often you've heard or seen anything from Jah Wobble's latest album on any even remotely popular channel?
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Hey, I´m pulling your leg. There´s really interesting things among those you cited.
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I'm pulling your leg. I made it all up!
Nono, it's all true as far as I know.
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Music that donīt play on pop TV.
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"And it's...just a box of rain. I don't know who put it there........
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