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.

Modern Poetry

So, I love poetry.  It's awesome.  I had forgotten how much I love it.  Not having read much of it since I got sucked into the monochromatic, boring, borderline psychotic world of college engineering courses.  Yucky.


Anyway, I'm in Italian 443 - Romantic Era Italian Literature.  It's awesome.  And we're reading some really awesome poetry, and I am absolutely loving it.  It's really sweet.


I've been thinking about modern poetry and how it's not really a major part of our culture anymore.  I mean...how often do you (Rosemary excluded) sit down with a really good book of contemporary poetry?  How many contemporary poets can any of us name besides Shel Silverstein?  It's kind of depressing.


And then I realized....there is poetry all around us.  Yeah, the older form isn't very mainstream anymore.  Now, I know that my English major friends are going to scream and gnash their teeth and stuff, but it's true.  Poetry isn't cool anymore.  We really don't care about it.  Except that we do.


You see, most of the poetry that's being consumed by the masses now comes neatly packaged in the form of music.  In the past, music really was either instrumental, was an opera, or was a Mass/Requiem.  Now, we have words with everything.  And it's kind of cool, especially when someone churns out a really good poem and then adds screaming guitars and the clatter of drums.


Take, for example, Bob Dylan's amazing work, All Along the Watchtower.  Just read the lyrics...they're amazing, and read just like a poem.

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”

“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late”

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl

Seriously.  If you didn't read that out loud to yourself, go back and read it.  Now!  I'll wait for you.

Okay.  I'm done waiting.  I'm just going to talk again.

Seriously!  These lyrics are very poetic.  The song follows a basic AABB rhyme scheme.  Sure, it's simple.  But it's still pretty.  I like it.  In fact, I love it.

I've actually really fallen in love with a new cover of it.  Yes, Dylan's and Hendrix' versions are amazing, and I would love to hear U2's version.  Dave Matthews' version is...interesting.

Anyway, it's Bear McCreary's version from Battlestar Galactica.  Yes, I am now a Battlestar addict.  It's good!  Shut up.  Don't mock me!  You already know that I'm a nerd!

So, basically, they build the entire second half of the third season finale around this song.  They even worked a bunch of lines from it into the script, inserting snippets throughout the entire episode.  The intro to the song kept playing during the episode.  In fact, the song was a key plot element.  Then, during the final scene, as everything descends into chaos, they play the whole song, complete with lyrics.  It's amazing.

Yeah.  Awesome, Huh?  And I have a theory about how two of the characters could be viewed as the joker and the thief.

I really like song lyrics.  It's really cool when you find a song that has great music and lyrics that blow you away.

And...of course, I can't think of any other amazing song lyrics right now.  It's been a long week.

Anyway, I hope nobody hates me for kind of bashing on contemporary poetry, but it's true!  There are very few people running around quoting contemporary poetry these days, but there are tons who know all of the lyrics to every song ever written.  I think that it's going to be our music lyrics that really define the poetry of our time period.