Music!

Yeah, that's right, I'm posting about music.

I've been thinking about music a lot lately.  My thoughts have been focused on how much music affects us, especially emotionally.  For example, there are some songs that I just can't listen to without tearing up.

What really got me on this thought process was, oddly enough, Battlestar Galactica.  I was re-watching a few episodes a little while ago, and one of the songs just stuck out to me.  I really wanted to listen to it, so I took the iTunes gift card that I had gotten for my birthday from my little sisters and bought the soundtrack for that season.  This was followed by me loving it and buying all of the other seasons as well.

Anyway, it was amazing to me to listen and to be able to feel the emotions of the show without actually watching it or knowing to which episode (or part thereof) a given song belonged.  I could tell when I was supposed to feel happy, sad, triumphant, reminiscent, etcetera.  It really impressed me that I was able to feel so many different emotions and deep they could be, just by listening to this music.  And it's not like I had seen the show so much that the emotions of the show had become associated with the tunes; I've only watched the show through once, and that was like a year ago.

The perfect example of this is the song that got me to buy all of this.  I'm going to post a link, but first let me tell you that the key part, at least for me, is the part at the beginning, before the words start up.  Though the words do help to prove my point ;).

Okay.  Here's what I feel about this song.  The first part, and the song in general, feels so triumphant, yet there is a definite feeling of melancholy and sadness - mourning, even - that underlies the triumph and celebration.  It's wonderful!  And I love the title, 'Wander My Friends.'

It's amazing how this song works, especially when used in the context of the show.  You see, the tone of Battlestar Galactica is very dark. I mean, the show begins with the complete and utter annihilation of the human race, save some 50,000 people who escape in a fleet of starships.  This fleet, defended only by a battleship that had been retired from service, flees before the relentless pursuit of their enemies, who want nothing more than to destroy what remains of humanity.  The opening episodes of the series are very dark, as everyone comes to terms with the horrors of nuclear apocalypse and deals with the loss of everyone who had been killed or left behind.  Then, in the episode in which this song is played, the fleet wins their first victory against their enemy.  This song is played during the celebration following the victory, and it's perfect!  In that instant, what you see on the screen, which is what you want to feel, contrasts with the tone of this song.  While the song still fits the celebration, it adds a mournful undertone that makes you thoughtful and reminds you that, while this is a victory, it comes at the end of a brutal string of defeats.  It honestly rips your soul apart to feel both the elation and the sadness that this scene provokes.


Anyway, the way that music is used is really cool.  And I mean REALLY COOL.  And this isn't something inherent in the classical music that is composed for TV shows or for movies.  Classical music has always had this ability.  Certain pieces are carefully constructed by their composers to evoke certain feelings and images, and it amazes me how accurately they can do that!  When you can get an entire audience to feel and imagine the same sorts of things with a single piece of music and without the aid of visual or lyrical cues, you know you've done a good job.

This stuff is cool, and makes me wish that I could make music.  I'm going on a bit of a classical kick right now, and I'm totally okay with that.