The Smiths & Donizetti
Friday, May 17th, 2002 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthI did that survey about songs-for-moods [see below somewhere] and it started me thinking ...
The Smiths (defunct British indie guitar band) famously wrote bouncy indie pop songs about heartbreak and melancholy: cheery tunes and angst-ridden lyrics. (How Soon Is Now, What Difference Does it Make? and so on).
The Smiths sing in English (Mancunian English, but still recognisable).
Donizetti (dead Italian opera composer) famously wrote exquisite, major-key opera arias about heartbreak, tragedy and murdering your husband on your wedding night (Lucia di Lammermoor, based on a melodrama by Sir Walter Scott, based on a true story. He did write 45 other operas, many of which are 'comedies' e.g. no one goes mad and stands around in a blood-stained nightie).
Donizetti's libretto is in Italian: furthermore, is often delivered by the Divine Joan (Sutherland) who didn't believe consonants had any place in bel canto singing.
In both cases, the music is deceptive: you might say it's a lie: it's upbeat, major-key, cheerfully cadenced, and it's been matched with lyrics that, in a more clichéd composition, would demand miserable music. (I don't subscribe to the 'lie' theory. I'm interested in that gap between the two components of a song, music and words, where they don't complement each other.)
Questions:
That Survey: Which songs represent the following things for you? [gacked from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
swisstone]
Happiness: Star - Erasure. Actually, there are three or four tracks by Erasure that are instant pick-me-ups, perfect feelgood pop. Also Always on my mind, Pet Shop Boys, because although the singer has a whiny voice (unlike Andy Bell's warm, sensual vocals) the power-pop opening chords just ... well, make me bounce, I guess.
Summer: In The Evening - Led Zeppelin. This just makes me think of summer evenings on the Pacific coast - rather dating the whole experience, as I haven't been to California since 1989.
Childhood: Can You Hear Me - Renaissance. No, the one you are probably thinking of is Sailing, by Rod Stewart. This represents childhood because it's one of the tracks that I listened to a lot as an angst-ridden adolescent.
Sex: Melt - Siouxsie & the Banshees. Or possibly Let's Spend the Night Together - Rolling Stones. Depends on the sort of sex I'm thinking of!
Yourself:Sunshine - Miranda Sex Garden. (Myself? What sort of question is that? I don't have songs to represent me: I have songs to represent my moods. And I don't let my moods take over that much. Honest). Nah! Obvious! I Want that Man - Blondie. (And thanks to lproven for introducing me to it!) Here comes the 21st Century, it's gonna be much better for a girl like me ...
Love: Red Hill Mining Town - U2. Or is this 'Loss'? Because if it is, 'Love' would probably be another Erasure track, Oh L'amour or something.
Feeling lonely: Soul in Isolation - Chameleons. Or Wonderful Life, by Black. I don't really have a 'lonely' song: the times I get lonely are few and far between and usually have something to do with (a) alcohol, (b) thwarted romance, and (c) well, not having anyone around. ... This was the category that got me thinking about the Smiths and Donizetti.
Melancholy: Valentine Heart - Tanita Tikaram. Can still make me cry. Whatever happened to ...?
Rain: Sanctum Sanctorum - The Damned. Possibly because it starts with storm sounds. Or Rain, by the Cult ...
The colour blue: Blue - Elastica (now stuck in my head so cannot think of anything else blue)
City lights: Downtown - Petula Clark & Pet Shop Boys (I think it was the Pet Shop Boys. One of those scrummy 80s British pop bands, anyway)
Loss: Birdland - Patti Smith. She has such a wistful voice on this. There's a lot of loss on the later albums, but it's less raw than this (which I have a feeling is not actually about loss at all). ... Spent ages getting Rainbow's Since you've been gone out of my head: bouncy cheery rock number where music doesn't match emotion. See above for comments.
Guilt: Lola - The Kinks
Anger: Open Up - Leftfield. Especially the Chemical Brothers remix: but there's something wonderfully metallic about John Lydon's voice in recent years. (Could've equally gone for Public Image's Rise here). (Or Garbage, actually).
Change: Exterminating Angel - The Creatures. Absolutely and utterly wonderful track aboutthe end of the world as we know it the Apocalypse. No more teenage love songs.
Pain: Breathing - Kate Bush. (Antidote to pain: Beethoven's Ninth)
So, am Sad Old Goth. Go me.
I'll shut up now.
The Smiths (defunct British indie guitar band) famously wrote bouncy indie pop songs about heartbreak and melancholy: cheery tunes and angst-ridden lyrics. (How Soon Is Now, What Difference Does it Make? and so on).
The Smiths sing in English (Mancunian English, but still recognisable).
Donizetti (dead Italian opera composer) famously wrote exquisite, major-key opera arias about heartbreak, tragedy and murdering your husband on your wedding night (Lucia di Lammermoor, based on a melodrama by Sir Walter Scott, based on a true story. He did write 45 other operas, many of which are 'comedies' e.g. no one goes mad and stands around in a blood-stained nightie).
Donizetti's libretto is in Italian: furthermore, is often delivered by the Divine Joan (Sutherland) who didn't believe consonants had any place in bel canto singing.
In both cases, the music is deceptive: you might say it's a lie: it's upbeat, major-key, cheerfully cadenced, and it's been matched with lyrics that, in a more clichéd composition, would demand miserable music. (I don't subscribe to the 'lie' theory. I'm interested in that gap between the two components of a song, music and words, where they don't complement each other.)
Questions:
- whose songs are bigger lies? The ones where I understand the words and spot the dissonance instantly, or the ones where I only realise the dissonance when I read the lyric in translation?
- is it a lie? And, does it matter if it's done on purpose or accidentally? (Example of latter: 'we have a chart-topping guitar riff but no decent lyrics' - ' ah well, no one ever listens to the words')
- Is there anyone out there who would've understood, without the above explanation, if I'd said 'The Smiths do that thing that Donizetti does, pairing upbeat music and downbeat lyrics'?
That Survey: Which songs represent the following things for you? [gacked from
swisstone]Happiness: Star - Erasure. Actually, there are three or four tracks by Erasure that are instant pick-me-ups, perfect feelgood pop. Also Always on my mind, Pet Shop Boys, because although the singer has a whiny voice (unlike Andy Bell's warm, sensual vocals) the power-pop opening chords just ... well, make me bounce, I guess.
Summer: In The Evening - Led Zeppelin. This just makes me think of summer evenings on the Pacific coast - rather dating the whole experience, as I haven't been to California since 1989.
Childhood: Can You Hear Me - Renaissance. No, the one you are probably thinking of is Sailing, by Rod Stewart. This represents childhood because it's one of the tracks that I listened to a lot as an angst-ridden adolescent.
Sex: Melt - Siouxsie & the Banshees. Or possibly Let's Spend the Night Together - Rolling Stones. Depends on the sort of sex I'm thinking of!
Yourself:
lproven for introducing me to it!) Here comes the 21st Century, it's gonna be much better for a girl like me ...Love: Red Hill Mining Town - U2. Or is this 'Loss'? Because if it is, 'Love' would probably be another Erasure track, Oh L'amour or something.
Feeling lonely: Soul in Isolation - Chameleons. Or Wonderful Life, by Black. I don't really have a 'lonely' song: the times I get lonely are few and far between and usually have something to do with (a) alcohol, (b) thwarted romance, and (c) well, not having anyone around. ... This was the category that got me thinking about the Smiths and Donizetti.
Melancholy: Valentine Heart - Tanita Tikaram. Can still make me cry. Whatever happened to ...?
Rain: Sanctum Sanctorum - The Damned. Possibly because it starts with storm sounds. Or Rain, by the Cult ...
The colour blue: Blue - Elastica (now stuck in my head so cannot think of anything else blue)
City lights: Downtown - Petula Clark & Pet Shop Boys (I think it was the Pet Shop Boys. One of those scrummy 80s British pop bands, anyway)
Loss: Birdland - Patti Smith. She has such a wistful voice on this. There's a lot of loss on the later albums, but it's less raw than this (which I have a feeling is not actually about loss at all). ... Spent ages getting Rainbow's Since you've been gone out of my head: bouncy cheery rock number where music doesn't match emotion. See above for comments.
Guilt: Lola - The Kinks
Anger: Open Up - Leftfield. Especially the Chemical Brothers remix: but there's something wonderfully metallic about John Lydon's voice in recent years. (Could've equally gone for Public Image's Rise here). (Or Garbage, actually).
Change: Exterminating Angel - The Creatures. Absolutely and utterly wonderful track about
Pain: Breathing - Kate Bush. (Antidote to pain: Beethoven's Ninth)
So, am Sad Old Goth. Go me.
I'll shut up now.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Friday, May 17th, 2002 06:26 am (UTC)Re chirpy lyrics and melancholy music - yes, I would have understood all of your third statement except that I wouldn't have known who Donizetti was. (this may be the intellectual equivalent of saying, yes, I just love that Michelangelo, he's my favourite turtle - I'm not sure exactly where the thrust of the question lay.)But yes a great deal of the charm of the Smiths for me lay in the inherent schizophrenia of the tracks - that's why A Charming man is so much better than Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now. (And why *aren't* the Smiths part of the general 80s revival for heaven's sake? we have Spandau Ballet and Chic L'Afrique. Why not Hatful of Hollow?)
Another band who do this very well are The Beautiful South - sunny chords, ascerbic lyrics. Rotterdam is one I treasure for this - about the banality of universal beauty, echoed by the catchy shallowness of the music. (But I know nothing about music so now of course someone will tell me I'm completely wrong and it's dead complicated musically. I mention not Ian S*r*ns*n.)
But - does anyone - classical or pop - do miserable music with upbeat lyrics? Offhand, I can't think..
Speaking of which -
Connie
no subject
Date: Friday, May 17th, 2002 07:37 am (UTC)No. But half (at least) of
Will carry on trying to think of miserable music with cheery lyrics. Most of Wagner miserable (but this may be in ear of listener): surely there are some cheerful bits in one of his overlong operas?
A lot of punk music sounds angry when it's upbeat ...
Sunny chords, acerbic lyrics
Date: Friday, May 17th, 2002 10:30 am (UTC)I Want That Man
Date: Friday, May 17th, 2002 10:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, May 17th, 2002 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, May 19th, 2002 03:16 pm (UTC)This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter
Isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter!
or the major geenral declaring he can "whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore"
I do like music that plays the lyrics against the melody...