Here's something you might be interested in.
A friend of mine took me up on discussing the merits of Phantom. As we exchanged thinly veiled insults, I became exasperated and finally said, "Stop listening to the tune."
"What am I supposed to listen to then?"
In Phantom's case? Nothing. There isn't much going on. "The Music of the Night" is just the same tune over and over again. The singer and the orchestra each present it over and over and over and -- you get the picture.
We went to the YouTube oracle for guidance on what to listen to.
We started with "Dancing Queen" by Abba.
"Don't listen to the tune, listen to everything else that is going on."
We sat there with our heads at an angle, to get one ear closer to the sound, and waited to hear stuff.
My friend started to get it.
"There's a lot going on there that I never noticed."
I agreed. I love Abba. In addition to writing great tunes, they have a rich and varied texture of harmony and instrumentation supporting and augmenting the tune.
I suddenly realized this is true of almost all music I like.
We moved on to The Righteous Brothers, some Motown, and U2's Joshua Tree.
Each song had an abundance of music happening behind the tune.
Finally we arrived at the advent of Lohengrin in Act I of Wagner's masterpiece.
I shall take up this "case of Wagner" on the next post.
A quick heads up: The Metropolitan Opera is broadcasting The Valkyrie at local theaters tomorrow at 9:00am.
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events_template.aspx?id=11964
A friend of mine took me up on discussing the merits of Phantom. As we exchanged thinly veiled insults, I became exasperated and finally said, "Stop listening to the tune."
"What am I supposed to listen to then?"
In Phantom's case? Nothing. There isn't much going on. "The Music of the Night" is just the same tune over and over again. The singer and the orchestra each present it over and over and over and -- you get the picture.
We went to the YouTube oracle for guidance on what to listen to.
We started with "Dancing Queen" by Abba.
"Don't listen to the tune, listen to everything else that is going on."
We sat there with our heads at an angle, to get one ear closer to the sound, and waited to hear stuff.
My friend started to get it.
"There's a lot going on there that I never noticed."
I agreed. I love Abba. In addition to writing great tunes, they have a rich and varied texture of harmony and instrumentation supporting and augmenting the tune.
I suddenly realized this is true of almost all music I like.
We moved on to The Righteous Brothers, some Motown, and U2's Joshua Tree.
Each song had an abundance of music happening behind the tune.
Finally we arrived at the advent of Lohengrin in Act I of Wagner's masterpiece.
I shall take up this "case of Wagner" on the next post.
A quick heads up: The Metropolitan Opera is broadcasting The Valkyrie at local theaters tomorrow at 9:00am.
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events_template.aspx?id=11964