atienza music

Song is the highest form of art.

Ian and X, you may debate the point. (I have a comments section now. Yay!)

But that’s the premise I’m working with because with song, the elements of poetry and music come together that, when put together properly, make for something interesting totally awesome.

A good song has music and lyrics working together in a way that augments the strengths of each element. Basically, an awesome lyrics to awesome music make both lyrics and music awesome-er.

Though they may stand alone, when put together, (i’m sorry for the cliche) a sort of magic happens.

Let me illustrate the point using a song with music written by Larry Shay and lyrics by Charles Tobias and William Jerome.

“Get Out and Get Under the Moon” (click here to listen)

I cannot for the life of me remember the key I played it in but let’s assume C major.

There is one line around a minute in which goes “when you’re all alone/any old night/and you’re feeling out of tune”

The melody for “out of tune” has a downward contour which ends with a B-flat  (for the solfeggio peeps out there, that’s playing a flattened ti), which, let’s face it, sounds kinda wierd. It may be commonplace to go from a C chord to a C7 when transitioning into an F chord but to have the melody on top end with a B-flat note after a section whose melody goes downwards (it sounds more “acceptable” going up) is musically really interesting.

Then think about the lyric that its sung to. The line “out of tune” is “out of tune”. I know its kinda pointing out the obvious but it works really well.

The line is directly followed by “pick up your hat/close up your flat/get out and get under the moon”. This next line ends with convincingly with the tonic.

Musically, having the first section end weird and having the second section end with the tonic sums up the entire structure of Western Music based on tension and release (I’ll write about this sometime). Now look at the lyrics. The first section presents the problem, i.e., I’m feeling pretty bad. The second section gives us the solution, i.e., take a jolly walk under the moonlight put two and two together (again, sorry for the cliche) and you can see how in song, music and lyrics ought to be inseperable.

I know that this is kinda long. But I find the idea interesting.

Listen to the song and bear the idea of this entry in mind. Look out for the part I mentioned and even if you don’t get the whole music theory thing, I guarantee that you’ll feel what I mean even if you don’t understand the theory behind it.

So there. Song is the highest form of art.

Music comes a close second.

-joao

Here’s the link to Get out and Get under the Moon again.

Look to the right. The menu has expanded.

Now look to the left. Comments!

-joao