Unlike writing, singing involves my physical bits and my mental bits. This comforts me given my physical bits are reduced to not much else. Will I sing as I die? No. The sounds won’t satisfy me and they’ll be unimprovable. Others may be dying nearby and music should be a good thing.
A side-effect is I know more about music’s effects. V and I did solitary work on Clara Schumann’s Liebst du um Schőnheit. Both arrived independently at a wonderful musical interval supporting the German word jedes; we discussed it, you might say, ecstatically. Knowing how it had happened.
Two weeks ago I heard Eric Clapton (just a vague name) playing a duet based on Moon River. Two things struck me: Clapton’s inadequate voice and his far from inadequate improvisation. Improvisation often elaborates; Clapton reduced the tune to its bare bones and they were lovely.
I know nothing about pop/rock. Should I? I emailed my daughters, asking their opinion about Clapton. To some extent both shared my view. Professional Bleeder went further: sent me twelve pop/rock tracks she regards as classics. Would my new view of music help probe their quality?
I played Guns ‘n’ Roses Sweet Child just once, I was short of time. I will play it again. After three-minutes, the group embarked on a voice concerto: a single voice against all the instruments, each playing separate themes, distinct and inventive. Allowing for sound levels, it resembled a string quartet. Often the most demanding form of classical music.
More follows.
There is an odd tradition in my father's family that involves various members who have died singing, or immediately thereafter. My own father died suddenly and swiftly after singing "It's a Grand Old Flag" at the Veteran's old folks lunch. Eric Clapton is most famous for his guitar playing. I've actually never listened to Guns ‘n’ Roses, let me know if I should.
ReplyDeleteI keep a list of music on my computer desktop called "Songs To Play When I'm Dying" and I add to it all the time. There are some songs I love for their lyrics, some I love for the music itself, some I love that simply tug on my heartstrings because my parents loved them. I've never listened to Guns 'n' Roses, but Eric Clapton singing Moon River was one of those heart tugging moments. I heard recently in an interview with James Taylor that his newest "album" has him singing Moon River, and I can't wait to hear it. Songs reach us on many levels and for many reasons.
ReplyDeleteColette/robin andrea: Previously my interest in what used to pass for "pop" was limited to the pre-war MoR repertoire (Rogers and Hart, Cole Porter, etc) sung by Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, whose voices are - by my standards - more or less trained. Such songs have a much closer musical resemblance to the classical music songs (Schubert, Mozart, Schumann) I'm presently learning to sing now and could be considered similarly. As to post-Elvis pop/rock my familiarity is fragmentary (Beatles, S&G, Flack: The first time, Joni Mitchell) and almost non-existent when it come to the "harder" forms. My aim is to see whether I can apply what I've learned about music during the last four years as a means of appreciating these harder, more modern songs.
ReplyDeleteColette: I've just listened to Guns 'n' Roses Sweet Child again and already discovered things I'd forgotten. I can't be sure whether my reactions and my reference points will help but here goes. It starts with a very simple eight-note phrase (twice four notes) repeated over and over on a single guitar and I'm very much at home with this; to me it echoes the baroque period of classical music (early 17th century to 1740s; Bach being the great pop-star at the time) and it re-emerged centuries later as a riff which I associate with jazz. The other guitars join in pleasingly and the drums become more prominent after eight bars, still with the riff. Then the vocal (sung by Slash I believe) begins, still sung against the riff. Gradually the riff becomes more elaborate but still recognisable
ReplyDeleteTwo points arise. I'm used to voices which can be categorised according to range: MEN: bass (very low), bass-baritone, baritone (that's my range) and tenor; plus the very high specialist counter-tenor and alto voices which overlap to some extent with the women's ranges (alto, mezzo-soprano, soprano). So what is Slash's voice? It's a trained or, shall we say, experienced voice since he sings in tune and quite loudly but the timbre (somewhat nasal, which makes me wonder where it's produced in his throat and mouth) is beyond my knowledge. Frankly I'm not sure. Not that it matters but you've got to remember my musical background is more formally arranged and I'm responding from that.
What's astonishing is that I can follow the words quite easily. You may be surprised to learn that this is not always the case in classical music, especially in opera where singers are required to produce sounds against a 30-piece orchestra. A further confusion being that the libretto is often in a language other than English
Anyway Slash sings two verses, mostly solidly on the beat, Which brings up another point; compared with jazz drumming I do find rock drumming unimaginative. For some time Slash seems almost imprisoned by this rhythmic monotony although as the second verse proceeds he begins to break out.
However the song now arrives at what I used to call "the middle eight" and, as I mentioned, becomes instrumental. Knobs are turned, resonance increases; a high-pitched solo rides out and the riff has been transformed beyond recognition. This is multi-voiced music of the sort I'm familiar with. And like. Since I have control of the volume I am able to appreciate the various layers together and separately.
Suddenly a voice, quite unlike Slash's, asks "Where do we go now?" and it's a recognisable, if husky, baritone. I could sing that.
Enough. I may have broken the butterfly on the wheel. Future responses will be shorter. I'll need to hear more rock before I know for sure whether Guns 'n' Roses are in any way unique. But this is music as I understand it and - as is often the case with all types of music - the more times you hear Sweet Child the more you appreciate it.
robin andrea: The important - if occasionally frustrating - thing about music is we enjoy it for reasons other than the way one note follows another. Just to take one aspect: music associated with courtship (whether you were courted or did the courting) may break all boundaries of taste and quality. While responding to what it does to us we may simultaneously be ashamed of its trashiness. As Noel Coward said "The power of cheap music." On the other hand we may dislike so-called high-quality music. I truly loathe Carmina Burana by Carl Orff; I wouldn't say it was high-quality but - grimly - I recognise its force. And I realise why some people will never come to terms with Beethoven's Grosse Fuge string quartet which I find sublime.
Can't find a recording of Clapton playing Moon River as a duet with anyone but Jeff Beck. And it's Beck playing the melody line on guitar - Clapton backs him (solidly as ever)with arpeggiated chords. And sings,horribly, a song not at all suited to his voice. Becks playing is, or was,(30 years ago)unique in the way he employs his "whammy bar", a lever that moves the bridge of the guitar and thus changes the pitch of the strings.
ReplyDeleteMikeM: I am learning all the time and am risking looking a fool as I do so. The version of Moon River you mention is the one I listened to. At the time, and because of the way the clip was titled in YouTube, I assumed Clapton was the lead instrumentalist and that he played the "pared down" melody I so much admired. Subsequently I discovered that Beck is possibly even better known and technically superior to Clapton. Since pop/rock videos are often chop-edited for artistic effect rather than to simply convey information, and since I wasn't paying too much attention to what I was seeing, I compounded the error. But don't get me wrong, I appreciate the correction.
ReplyDeleteIn my ignorance I imagined that arpeggiated chords were simply chords as I would know them. I've just listened again and I assume arpeggiated means separated as opposed to combined. Second time around and I appreciated Beck even more than when I thought he was Clapton. The comments reinforced the view about the relative skills of the two guitarists, although I, like you, would have to query the guy who said "Clapton's voice gets better and better, closer to the original blues singers all the time"
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