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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsMelody is *everything* - lyrics expendable. I rest my case.
Last edited Thu Mar 26, 2020, 11:48 PM - Edit history (2)
There's a thread in GD featuring "Bohemian Rhapsody" (the music) with the lyrics substituted with buzzwords from COVID-19: "flatten the curve ... wash your hands ... social isolation ... " and on and on. This called "Coronavirus Rhapsody."
As noted before, Lennie BERNSTEIN demonstrated in a Young People's Concert that music/melody is its own thing, that whatever piece of music can have lyrics or not, that the most wonderful song can have its lyrics removed and replaced with random others or nonsense words and the music is STILL THERE. SHUBERT's "Ave Maria" or LENNON's "Imagine" can have whatever replacement of lyrics and the beauty of the music is STILL THERE. Porn words, blasphemous words, grunts or farts.
So I didn't post into that thread because I try not to Debbie Downer where people are having fun or ecstasy or whatever. The message of "mortality" in this thing sounds precious in a self-indulgent way to me, but some clearly find it profound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=8KPbJ0-DxTc&feature=emb_logo
ZZenith
(4,133 posts)Methinks not.
UTUSN
(70,779 posts)Being consistent with my conviction that MUSIC is primary, I couldn't admit that *lyrics* would be decisive in ruining a melody either.
Regarding this re-do, the performing of instruments and voices is fine.
ZZenith
(4,133 posts)but Bohemian Rhapsody worked so well back in the day because its harmonic, rhythmic and melodic content so perfectly reinforced its lyrical content.
I used to downplay the importance of lyrics until I tried to write some good ones. Much, much harder than I assumed, and no matter how good my melodies were I would lose people if the words didnt resonate with them.
UTUSN
(70,779 posts)I fully realize that one way of doing things is to use lyrics written first or for a composer to find a text he wants to use and then write the music for it.
But I say that when there is a wonderful melody, it makes the composer and his lyricist want the lyrics to be fittingly wonderful, too. I mean, HAMMERSTEIN or SONDHEIM words do wonders for fitting the music, but the music can do without anything.
I mean, for the purposes of an opera or a musical or for religion or secular propaganda, the lyrics can make or break something but a killer melody will live by itself.
I don't mean that lyrics are easy. Even a great "message" song like Imagine can be made ridiculous, just yesterday when a bunch of elite movie stars went online singing "Imagine" as some kind of statement about COVID-19, and some comedian ragged them to pieces about how spoiled and superficial and self-important they were to sing that song to feel good about themselves while something deadly is happening. So the lyrics don't even have to be changed to do some damage to the music.
ZZenith
(4,133 posts)I just cant go quite as far as expendable. Some songs have meh melodies but the poetic quality and philosophical content of the lyrics carries the day (Im looking at you, Robert Zimmerman!)
If I hear an instrumental version of Yesterday I might find the melody pleasing but if I didnt know the original lyrics it probably wouldnt have the same emotional impact on me.
Kaleva
(36,384 posts)But there are many songs I enjoy listing to even though I may not understand what's being said. The singing is just another musical instrument.