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Naked Music


Guest MacPhee

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Is "music" played only on instruments, like pianos, violins, flutes and drums, fully satisfactory?

 

These instruments may produce a pleasant and harmonious sound. But is that enough, without the addition of a human voice.

Perhaps not. Consider this - when popular topics like "What music are you listening to" are raised, what replies do we see?

 

The replies aren't usually about purely instrumental music - like a Beethoven or Mozart symphony. Or even The Shadows playing a guitar piece. No - almost invariably, the favoured musical pieces are actually "Songs", put across by a human voice. Is that perhaps because songs have words? And the words, even if they're banal, transcend the instrumental background.

 

Words, when sung by a good voice, turn a mere tune into a deeper emotional experience.

 

Or so it seems to me. For example, I always enjoy listening to, and am moved by, Doris Day singing "Che sera, sera". Or "Sentimental Journey". But without Doris's voice, without her interpretation of the words - if there was just the bare musical tune - I wouldn't want to listen to it more than a few times.

 

So I wonder whether what we most like is not music by itself, but music accompanied by a human voice?

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Highly subjective at best.

My absolute favorite flavors of music have no words or voice at all...and then there are some that I've never heard with words and or voice that are ruined when I hear them with voice and word. On the other side of the coin if I've only ever heard the version with voice and words the voiceless wordless version is somehow less appealing. I believe it is safe to say your tastes for voice VS voiceless is entirely dependent upon what you know musically...so largely influenced by your parents and your friends and their parents tastes.

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I echo DfinitlyDstrbd observation: this is a subjective judgement. While I listen to popular songs for pleasure, the enjoyment is generally superficial and light hearted. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's not serious. For music that moves me on a deeper level, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually then I would turn to Bach, Dvorak or instrumental jazz, etc.

 

Of course there are exceptions: the Glasgow Orpheus choir singing "All in the April Evening" is serious music that is choral. And the greatest popular song of all time (by any sensible objective standard) is Cream's White Room, which is just about as serious as one can get.

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I echo DfinitlyDstrbd observation: this is a subjective judgement. While I listen to popular songs for pleasure, the enjoyment is generally superficial and light hearted. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's not serious. For music that moves me on a deeper level, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually then I would turn to Bach, Dvorak or instrumental jazz, etc.

 

Of course there are exceptions: the Glasgow Orpheus choir singing "All in the April Evening" is serious music that is choral. And the greatest popular song of all time (by any sensible objective standard) is Cream's White Room, which is just about as serious as one can get.

Hmmmmm...three of my all time favorite artists in one post (Bach, Dvorak and Clapton) and a reference to me....hmmmmm, interesting to say the least.
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This is an interesting topic, but, as stated above, music is very subjective in this regard.

 

I personally believe that the human voice is not necessary to produce music that is fully satisfying. It may add depth or meaning to a piece that said piece wouldn't have had without it, but this depth can be achieved just as well with no vocalists present.

 

Lyrics are a great, easy way to inject depth into a song, and also makes it easier for the majority of people to understand the tone of the piece as a whole. While it may be harder for an audience to catch onto this meaning without lyrics, it is in no way impossible.

 

Guitarist Vinnie Moore does an excellent job of conveying tone and meaning without lyrics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW2b2T_diTI

 

There is another way to look at it, though - and that is to use the human voice purely as an instrument, instead of using it for lyrics. Speaking personally, pieces that use voices without lyrics, or lyrics where the syllables are very long and drawn out, has always had more of an emotional effect on me than a song with words simply being sung. A great example of this would be "Ave Maria". Other similar pieces without vocalists have also elicited similar reactions from me.

 

So, long story short, no, vocalists are not required to make a song "full". They do make it easier, though.

 

Just my $0.02.

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