It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Band Stuff: https://navigationofficial.bandcamp.com/album/silhouette-ep
.
.
Band Stuff: https://navigationofficial.bandcamp.com/album/silhouette-ep
https://youtu.be/ydiRZEB9F8Q
Not taking the piss, I feel this pain too, there are so many songs out there I wish I had written.
If I wanted to be mean I'd throw Frank Zappa in as an example of the former and all Country since the mid-90s into the latter. YMMV.
I should probably get out of the stereotyping business, I'm shit at it.
Firstly it’s about where it sits in the overall piece, bookended by those two magnificent and staggeringly demanding ‘alla marcia’ sections. They provide huge contrast and accentuate the lyrical beauty of the tune. And in fact like a sandwich the fast sections would make no sense without the lyrical section. It’s a real win-win situation. You really have to listen to the whole thing to get the maximum out of the 1:22-2:30 bit.
Next there’s the structure of that middle section - the fact that the main tune is repeated - the first time it’s played, you hear it with an uneducated ear; the second time it evokes a feeling of huge nostalgia because you recognise it and yearn to hear the move from dominant to III chord again - and this time the primary melody notes just seem to contain more in them even though they’re the same. And then the concluding passage - those little rising couplets suggest to us that the time is up for the gorgeous melodic section and the alla marcia section is due to start again. It feels so wistful as the melodic section draws inexorably to a close and hands back control to the fast chordal section. It’s a kind of resignation. All Rachmaninov’s pieces bar none had one moment, one climax that the music led up to, and for almost all of them that happened near, but not at, the end of the piece.
Then the actual melody itself is incredibly simple. The first section is basically (approximately) 3 consecutive ascending notes, played 3 times over the dominant or VI chord - each time a note down. That motif is then repeated (with a more developed harmony), then hinted at again, this time over a progression based on the III chord, except this time each group of ascending notes is higher than the one before. Then the whole thing is repeated an octave higher. Then there’s a few descending rising couplets. It couldn’t be more simple.
Of course then there’s the harmony. Melody is almost nothing without harmonic context. The juicy chords and shifting progressions underneath the tune are fundamental to how it sounds so gorgeous.
Plus there are actually two melodic lines - there is an underlying secondary tune that rises up and supports the main tune - and this gains more prominence the 2nd time round, almost overpowering the main tune. Rachmaninov was so clever. It provides a twisting, lilting, flowing movement to the melody.
Then of course there’s the phrasing of the performance itself; Kissin is a master. He builds all the tension then releases it. You almost hold your breath and then relax in unison with his playing. He brings out every element of the 2 tunes, he manages to hold the lines to their limits before letting them drop away again, he allows the harmonies to accentuate the tune in parts to squeeze every bit of meaning out of them.
Sorry if this all sounds a bit contrived but I hope it works for some of you.
https://youtu.be/mxnL7UrkmY4
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself