It's hard for me not to gush for hours about the band Keane. I'm satisfied that If I had tried forming a band and wrote pop songs instead of going to college, the songs would sound like what Keane produces. Anyone will tell you how easy it is to get bored with songs heard on the radio. Keane's songs have enough depth and emotion to keep me coming back for another listen. I'll give one example in the song Everybody's Changing from the album Hopes and Fears. Give it a listen...
Awesome, huh? When I first heard the chorus, I was floored. I had to listen to it over and again to understand what effect it had on me. Follow me close, because I'm about to dissect me some art.
The tune sounds halfway between a sigh and a sob. You can hear it in the singer's voice: "You're aching, you're breaking..." What makes this (and many other melodies) work so well is the careful way it repeats itself. Listen again to the melody and you can hear each phrase begins on a different note (You say you wander...When I think about it...). That protects the tune from monotony. Compare it to Taylor Swift's "Love Story," where every line begins on the same note (Romeo take me...I've been waiting...).
Then the song really takes off beginning about 1:03. It's a thrill to hear the singer jump to such a high note, but then he floats down with that sighing motion. Next comes an exciting build to the end. At about 1:13 the tune has a series of rising notes, leading us back to the song's title. Up till now, the musical periods were 16 seconds long ("You say...don't see how you can" is a period). At 1:13, the period lasts almost 30 seconds without coming to any kind of resting place.
I call these kinds of moments "musical plot twists." It wouldn't have been too hard to end the chorus after "try to understand that I'm..." Instead, they defy expectations with a delightful surprise. Keane deserves kudos for this type of writing. It's the same kinds of structures we find in classical music.
So we come to 1:34, where the piano feels a little lost without the drums. It goes along with the song's theme of trying to keep up with others. When the melody comes back it sounds a little different. On the other hand, because it was so well established before, it doesn't feel like it rambles here. It's actually kind of refreshing, changed like "everybody."
Beginning at 2:3o they trick us with another twist. We've heard the piano do it's thing before. It sounds like we'll hear another verse, but at 2:45 the piano keeps playing. It builds more suspense and momentum, barreling into another thrilling chorus. THEN, at 3:15, just when we think we're through, it plays a different chord than we expect, turning us around again so the singer can reiterate the song's title one last time. All this suspense and these plot twists make me dizzy, so Keane was polite enough to slow down at the end. I wish songs would slow down like that more often. It sounds like a real ending, instead of fading out or running out of verses.
Well, believe me when I say I could have made this much longer. There's a lot of even more technical stuff in this song under the surface that fascinates me. Most of us don't need to know it's there, but it is, and it subconsciously keeps the song interesting to our ears. The best music always has something good to offer, depending on how deeply we care to listen.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
She Thinks My Doubts are Sexy
I've noticed that a lot of movies, books, and TV I've enjoyed deal a lot with Doubt. I'll admit that I admire authors that can present a scenario making me think more specifically about where my moral standards are. Poor Valjean just wanted to feed his family, but he was arrested for common theft. Batman isn't so noble when you see the extreme measures he takes to stop the Joker. Isn't it healthy to expand our minds and moral centers to consider the vast complexities of the human condition?
If not healthy, it sure seems popular. The notion that you just don't know something. No one knows the mysteries of the universe. Religion is not the answer because it separates mankind. Lots of hot issues right now: the environment, the economy, civil rights vs. moral standards, all kinds of fun. Add to that mix a list of diplomats and debaters duking it out, each making the opposing side look more appealing all the time. It's become easy to look wise just by stepping away from the issues and withholding your opinion. And when you claim to step outside belief as an impartial judge, you seem wiser and more impressive to others.
A lot of us would blame John Lennon. His famous song that dreamed of life without divide frightens some religious because it poses the question "What if everything that causes conflict were gone?" Thus religion, along with its concepts of Heaven and Hell, wouldn't cause such despair and inequality. I mean, really. What if the issue of religion turned out to be as pointless as Kirk vs. Picard? You think only 144,000 humans in all of history are good enough to live with God, and I believe bread literally turns into flesh. Who's to say what the Truth is? Shouldn't we just get along without fighting over anything? Deep down, who really wants to know the Truth?
What if I do? Is there anything wrong with that?
And what does this have to do with music? Two words: Chichester Psalms. After the turn of the 20th Century, Classical music suffered an identity crisis. Many Classically trained composers began to experiment with unusual means of putting music together. Some felt music didn't need to end with a sense of "coming home" or "resolution" at the end. Some thought it didn't need to sound Pretty. Some even decided that it didn't need to be composed until the performance. Why not just give the performers some vague instructions and let them make it up on the spot?
Leonard Bernstein, famous for West Side Story's music took a yearlong sabbatical from directing the New York Philharmonic to study those experimental composition techniques. Then, in his own words, "I threw it all out and wrote the Chichester Psalms." It's written basically in the same style as West Side Story, but it is rich enough in its architecture and message to satisfy the intellectuals. It was the type of music he called home. Like when I start listening to Country music to please some girl, but after the relationship cools off I go back to John Williams and Death Cab for Cutie.
Many in the world claim skepticism towards Faith. How can you know for sure what God is like, or what happens to someone's essence after death? Maybe that's why I favor the LDS Church, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. One of its core teachings is that Man cannot know any Truth by himself. It must be revealed from an outside, Divine source. And that Source is willing to reveal everything we need to know to get through the human existence happily, including our reason for existing. This is just one school of thought, and not everyone thinks it's for them. But it's what feels like home for me. It frees up my mind to concentrate on other matters in my life.
I wonder how many skeptics are just sissies. I loved seeing Mike Wallace discuss the Afterlife with Gordon B. Hinckley. Wallace said "I've thought about it, but can't get myself to believe in it." Hinckey's response: "Well, then you haven't thought about it long enough." I've only taken one philosophy class in my education, but it frustrated me because the teacher loved asking questions more than solving them. He even said during one unit that he stopped teaching the class for a while because he didn't have a solution to one of the problems he thought up. When we tried discussing possible solutions, he admitted "If you ask a question you're a philosopher, but if you answer it you're a scientist."
And there it is: My philosophy teacher admitted that he lives in doubt, at least in that particular issue, because he likes the question too much to resolve it.
I compose like a scientist. I experiment. I analyze. I postulate and experiment more. The composing process doesn't quite take off for me until I know where I'm going. I look for that answer. Don't tell me I have to free my mind because knowing gives me direction. Purpose. Drive. Hope.
This isn't to say doubt has no value. Art, as in life, needs conflict in order to be interesting. But I submit that artists and people need to know where their values lie. All the conflict we create will erode our hearts if we don't know where home is in our hearts. Doubt may be stylish and impressive to others, but faith in something helps us find the joy in what we do.
If not healthy, it sure seems popular. The notion that you just don't know something. No one knows the mysteries of the universe. Religion is not the answer because it separates mankind. Lots of hot issues right now: the environment, the economy, civil rights vs. moral standards, all kinds of fun. Add to that mix a list of diplomats and debaters duking it out, each making the opposing side look more appealing all the time. It's become easy to look wise just by stepping away from the issues and withholding your opinion. And when you claim to step outside belief as an impartial judge, you seem wiser and more impressive to others.
A lot of us would blame John Lennon. His famous song that dreamed of life without divide frightens some religious because it poses the question "What if everything that causes conflict were gone?" Thus religion, along with its concepts of Heaven and Hell, wouldn't cause such despair and inequality. I mean, really. What if the issue of religion turned out to be as pointless as Kirk vs. Picard? You think only 144,000 humans in all of history are good enough to live with God, and I believe bread literally turns into flesh. Who's to say what the Truth is? Shouldn't we just get along without fighting over anything? Deep down, who really wants to know the Truth?
What if I do? Is there anything wrong with that?
And what does this have to do with music? Two words: Chichester Psalms. After the turn of the 20th Century, Classical music suffered an identity crisis. Many Classically trained composers began to experiment with unusual means of putting music together. Some felt music didn't need to end with a sense of "coming home" or "resolution" at the end. Some thought it didn't need to sound Pretty. Some even decided that it didn't need to be composed until the performance. Why not just give the performers some vague instructions and let them make it up on the spot?
Leonard Bernstein, famous for West Side Story's music took a yearlong sabbatical from directing the New York Philharmonic to study those experimental composition techniques. Then, in his own words, "I threw it all out and wrote the Chichester Psalms." It's written basically in the same style as West Side Story, but it is rich enough in its architecture and message to satisfy the intellectuals. It was the type of music he called home. Like when I start listening to Country music to please some girl, but after the relationship cools off I go back to John Williams and Death Cab for Cutie.
Many in the world claim skepticism towards Faith. How can you know for sure what God is like, or what happens to someone's essence after death? Maybe that's why I favor the LDS Church, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. One of its core teachings is that Man cannot know any Truth by himself. It must be revealed from an outside, Divine source. And that Source is willing to reveal everything we need to know to get through the human existence happily, including our reason for existing. This is just one school of thought, and not everyone thinks it's for them. But it's what feels like home for me. It frees up my mind to concentrate on other matters in my life.
I wonder how many skeptics are just sissies. I loved seeing Mike Wallace discuss the Afterlife with Gordon B. Hinckley. Wallace said "I've thought about it, but can't get myself to believe in it." Hinckey's response: "Well, then you haven't thought about it long enough." I've only taken one philosophy class in my education, but it frustrated me because the teacher loved asking questions more than solving them. He even said during one unit that he stopped teaching the class for a while because he didn't have a solution to one of the problems he thought up. When we tried discussing possible solutions, he admitted "If you ask a question you're a philosopher, but if you answer it you're a scientist."
And there it is: My philosophy teacher admitted that he lives in doubt, at least in that particular issue, because he likes the question too much to resolve it.
I compose like a scientist. I experiment. I analyze. I postulate and experiment more. The composing process doesn't quite take off for me until I know where I'm going. I look for that answer. Don't tell me I have to free my mind because knowing gives me direction. Purpose. Drive. Hope.
This isn't to say doubt has no value. Art, as in life, needs conflict in order to be interesting. But I submit that artists and people need to know where their values lie. All the conflict we create will erode our hearts if we don't know where home is in our hearts. Doubt may be stylish and impressive to others, but faith in something helps us find the joy in what we do.
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