Listen to the Music

The following question is not a no-brainer: have you ever listened to music? Really sat down and focused your attention on the music you heard in a room? Did it make you want to dance or swell with emotion?

I had a creative music coordinator in my LDS stake in Logan. It's a very musical town because of USU's music department nearby, so the coordinator knew enough people to organize a string quartet--two violins, viola (a larger violin that plays a little lower), and a cello (Looks like a violin but is so big it is cradled between a sitting player's legs). Providing prelude music for a conference, they played hymns straight from our Hymnal, conveniently written in four parts. I was in the choir that conference so I sat behind the podium and soaked in this rare treat.

Then I looked into the congregation. Any Mormon keyboardist knows what I'm talking about. Congregations tend to view prelude like party music: pretty background for conversations with friends. Don't get me wrong, I love when friends greet me at church. And strings are often used as ambiance in movies and social gatherings. But how many church services in the world begin with a string quartet playing at the front of the church?

Most of us like music for different reasons. My friends used to like music with a "good bass" or "good beat." Some notice the songs with clever lyrics. Others are aware of the mood a song can put them in. I had a roommate that collected movie and video game soundtracks. He liked them not necessarily for their intrinsic qualities, but because they reminded him of the movies or games. He claimed that music didn't really mean much to him. I wondered how that worked, because he played a trumpet and even performed a solo once on sight in high school.

Many of us are a little practically-minded like that, and we enjoy music for extra-musical reasons. The words make us laugh, or it came from a great movie, or an old girlfriend liked the song (this happens a lot more than you think). A clarinet professor at college once said that when he hears a clarinet playing he focuses so much on the technique of the performer that he doesn't even listen to the music itself.

The most extreme case I've learned about comes from the book Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. An anonymous case has amusia, a type of sonic color-blindness. Any music sounds like chaos to the patient. Her mind cannot make sense of the patterns of melody, harmony or rhythm. The only way she tolerates listening to it is in family gatherings. Her family is very musical, and when they gather they play together. Seeing the joy her family gets from playing together and enjoying the music together is satisfying enough for her. That's as close as she ever comes to enjoying music.

I think some of us are afraid to really listen to music. It's often in the background of an event, not the focus. To pay attention to it is a little unsettling at first because nobody's talking. But that's the point sometimes. Nobody to distract you from letting the music affect you, teach you, express something beyond words. Or, if it's appropriate, stop conversing with your posse and move to the rhythm of the music the DJ or band throws down. Tap your foot if that's all you can do. It can affect your soul for good. Listeners don't realize what an important roll they play in music. Without the audience, there is no art.

A few years ago I bought a DVD of a Christmas concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and The King's Singers. The definite highlight was Mack Wilberg's arrangement of "O Holy Night." I cannot accurately describe the piece except for what I felt. The song usually sounds very static to me because the notes in the melody hold their place for long stretches. But Wilberg added counterpoints and harmonies that gave motion and emotion to the music. Add the singer's and orchestra's performance, and nothing else in the world mattered. My mother was preparing Christmas desserts in the kitchen, not really paying attention. Just overhearing the music coming from the living room she had to stop baking and come sit. We both needed to rewind the song when it finished. That's what music can do.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: If a tree makes music in the forest and there's nobody around to listen to it, does the music even exist?

Of Course I Didn't Put a Ring On It...

I was going to lay some groundwork for this entry with a few observations about song lyrics, but the issue I wish to discuss is becoming so urgent in my mind that there is no room for delay. I believe firmly in the dignity and virtue of women. There is a need in Western Civilization, if not in the whole world, for more positive female examples in the Arts. This need includes popular songs, a field in which females are often rewarded for exploiting their femininity. But the more I hear "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)," the more insulted I feel that this song should be so popular as an anthem for anything.

That's right. I'm taking Beyoncé on. I may alienate friends or family, but the truth must prevail.

"Single Ladies" could have worked much better. The concept has potential, and the tune has some fun, exciting moments. It begins as the title says:

All the single ladies/Now put your hands up.

It's a rally. The phrases glide of the tongue. We're gathered today to celebrate the unattached ladies of the world, who don't need anyone's pity. The chorus is pretty good, too:

Cause if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it
If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it
Don't be mad once you see that he want it
Cause if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it

I'll point out that "shoulda put a ring" hides a little rhyme, adding punch to the lesson for whoever dumped the girl. And I don't know if I would have thought of rhyming the line with "he want it." Sometimes it pays to stretch the boundaries of acceptable rhymes. Now what story do the verses tell?

Up in the club, we just broke up
I'm doing my own little thing
You decided to dip, and now you wanna trip
Cause another brother noticed me

Okay, she's back on the scene, being her pretty self, and caught someone's eye. She's getting someone jealous because she can get any man she wants now.

I'm up on him, he up on me
Don't pay him any attention
Just cried my tears for 3 good years
You can't be mad at me

This is where I begin to question. Revenge is good and all, but isn't she just jumping back in with someone after a three-year abusive relationship? Doesn't she want to enjoy her freedom for a while? She might make "All the Single Ladies" jealous at having landed another man so soon.

The second verse offers more of the same, but some of the words seem like filler:

I got gloss on my lips
A man on my hips
Hold me tighter than my Derion jeans
Actin' up, drink in my cup
I could care less what you think

Was it necessary to specify there was a drink in the cup? Do nuts or nachos get served in cups at night clubs? I was at a wedding reception and didn't have a glass for toasting the couple. I had to use the miniature glass at the table that was filled with M&M's. Maybe nothing serious goes on between two people at a club if they only eat nuts from a cup. As for "I could care less what you think," if you didn't pay attention in English class, you won't pay attention to me.

I need no permission, did I mention
Don't pay him any attention
Cause you had your turn
And now you gonna learn
What it really feels like to miss me

Yes, Beyoncé, you did mention it. I know you're trying to make things rhyme but it sounds like you've run out of things to say, or you aren't even keeping track of what you're saying.

Now the song gets pretty darn funny:

Don't treat me to these things of the world
I'm not that kind of girl
Your love is what I prefer, what I deserve

In the first place, is she addressing the same guy? The one who made her "cry her tears for three long years?" Why would she prefer/deserve his love? And why is she playing with some new guy when she still has feelings for someone else? The new guy will not be pleased that she's taking out her feelings on him.

In the second place, how did we get sidetracked into the song "Can't Buy Me Love?" She's trying to say she isn't worldly or high maintenance, but what does that have to do with the guy's lack of commitment?

Is a man that makes me then takes me
And delivers me to a destiny
To infinity and beyond

Does she sound needy to anyone else, wanting a man to take her and deliver her? Maybe she exhausted her boyfriend and she's looking for fresh meat to prey on. Maybe she's never stood on her own feet in her life. Quoting "Toy Story" in describing her romantic ideal suggests that she has some growing up to do.

Pull me into your arms
Say I'm the one you want
If you don't you'll be alone
And like a ghost I'll be gone

I thought she was already gone. She's in the club with a new guy. I don't think she's completely gotten over the breakup. She doesn't seem like such a strong example for "Single Ladies" anymore. What could have been a very biting vindication for women collapsed from a weak foundation in the lyrics.

There are healthier substitutes. I prefer "Someday" by Mariah Carey, or "Karma" by Alicia Keys. My Fair Lady had fun with "Without You" and still had room for the chauvinistic "Hymn to Him." Join me in finding more songs that Single Ladies can actually be proud to sing.