What’s a Melody For?

I just read Suzanne Vegas’s article “Whats a melody for?” Well, I loved the way she compares melody to sculpture , she really painted the picture for me to see what she is talking about. Then she hit me with a left-hook of this article by letting me know whats going on with the “ARTS” being cut back to the tune of $7Mill. from N.Y.State budget. Thank God the N.E.A. is getting a $50Mill. boot in the butt to kick start the arts nationally. The wind-up here is her point that none of this would get done without people getting off their butts and doing something to keep the “Arts” going in this country. My God -just thing if we had no music in the 60’s, no scuplture in Venice,Italy or no radio to listen to music. My emotions need to flow and although I can’t express myself musically, I can express feelings much better when I hear them, a song in nature when a bird sings to to Pete Townshends windmill arm swinging out “Summer Time Blues” .Thank God for the arts!

For masters of melody you left out: Leonard Bernstein, Gabriel Fauré, Paul McCartney and Stephen Foster. Ravi Shankar, Thelonius Monk and George Gershwin. Paul Simon. Beethoven. Offenbach. Barber. Mozart. And back to Bernstein: “There’s a place for us . . . ” The Greeks thought that music was the study of invisible relationships between internal objects. Melody is the light both at the head and within those objects: the song of time and space, words and music by Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein.

All the music was here before any of us came… else we would never have stayed. Song writers are audio crystal templates revealing our human hearts. The anger and frustration in our Star Machine is grinding down our schoolchildren… Can you imagine a hyper-eliminative Television Program: “So You Think You Can Write A Song?” One must note that we’ve moved from American Idol… to Americans Idle. How did “I’m Yours’ by Jason Mraz squeeze through the cracks? Touring Sweden, he was brought to tears when he saw all his Swedish Audience knew all the words to his song a few months after he released it as a demo on Utube. Music should be doing that in North America too.

You´re wrong! A song or aria is not music unless it has a melody. Anything else is poetry. That´s why most of the ¨things* mis-called ¨songs¨ over the past twenty-five years, have no ear- and -shelf life and will be unknown in the future, whereas people can still hum ¨Greensleeves by Henry the Eigth, without even knowing its origin. Late 20th century ¨music¨, whether classical or pop, meanders percussively, like film background music, but without the purpose of backgraound music. It really consists of words, with accompanying tones. The original meaning of Öpera¨was Opera di Dramma in Musica; meaning a work of drama expressed through the Music….not through the words. The public doesn´t remember many of the words in opera, but they sure do remember the gorgeous melodies. Words always have been and always will be a beloved handmaiden to a beautiful melody: a lovely accessory but not at all essential to the song.
What people see in Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen, are political/emotional symbols of an era associated with a particular social ethos, rebellion, rage or sexual philosoophy, but with little real music. They really represent the sound and fury signifying the wars, rebellion,the social and political theories of the mid and late 20th century: the most melody-less era in history. Melody heals the brain and soul. Words can create havoc. Our parents and ancestors could sing on pitch, the tone deaf person being an anomaly, but finding a group of people who can attempt even Happy Birthday on the same pitch is unheard of nowadays. What you get is a bunch of people sounding like a herd of goats on valium. In the past most people could sing, not like Pavarotti, but at least on pitch. Why? Because the songs they heard had melodies they could hum and remember, which in turn taught their brain to remember and imitate melody. Listen to the old song ¨Yesterday ¨ which soars though two and more octaves and compare its melodic richness with the Beatles´ pretty but infantiile songlet of the same title. Ms. Vega is wrong, because she hasn´t the gifts of Berlin, Gershwin. Porter, Rogers, Youmans or even Burt Bacharach , because NO so-called ¨composers¨ of today, do.

There’s nothing like a good melody – since you mention Dylan, Tangled up in Blue is a particularly apt example. But i like all kinds of music, always have. Someone like M.I.A. might be considered noise to some (my 14 year old son included), but Boyz or Come Around (with Timbaland) gets my heart racing when i blast it in the car (alone).

So it takes all kinds… If i were queen of the world, no child would graduate from the 6th grade without knowing how to read music, and the so-called “specials” (art, music) would be given just as much weight as math and ELA.

Keep up the good fight!!

Perhaps it is why so many, younger and younger, have no sense of memory, history. No Arts, No Senses, No Emotions, No Thoughts. The arts – high and low – speak to us in no other way. We even take the sounds from Industry and interpret them as Music and Prose. Perhaps this is why we are in Recession, we lost the ability to translate all that is work into all that is our heart, soul and mind.

I was glad to see that most of those who responded feel the same as I do about what has become of “pop” music. The fact of the matter is that many of those who fancy themselves as songwriters do not have the talent of those who came before. Their songs get played and some make a lot of money, not because they know what they’re doing but because the record companies promote them and they make money.
Cole Porter was before my time, but is there anyone around today who could write a song like, “Night and Day?” From what I hear, I don’t think so.

I once heard Johnny Mercer, one of my favorite songwriters (and singers!) asked, as a lyricist, about the relationship between words and music. His answer: “I think it takes more talent to write music – but it takes more courage to write lyrics. Music goes straight – directly, immediately – to the heart, while words have to make it there by way of the brain…” I learned French from the songs of the great Georges Brassens, being drawn to them, when I didn’t know a word of French, by the incredible allure of his melodies.

A fine, thoughtful piece, Suzanne – like everything else of yours I’ve read or heard.

Susanne:
I loved your essay; keep on writing.
First, “Luka” came to mind. Second, the name Dr. Aniruddh D. Patel came to mind. You must read his recent book, entitled “Music, Language and the Brain,” 2007. Oxford U. Press. Thank you for your essay and for Luka.
Hugh Buckingham
749 Rodney Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70808

It seems to me that songs without melodies are an innovation of the 20th century, maybe even the second half of the 20th century. Can you think of any examples from earlier than that?

I will point out that you need to be a pretty skilled musician to be able to sing such songs effectively. A child can sing “Oh Susanna” (as I did, in grade school), but you pretty much have to be a professional to pull off “Like a Rolling Stone”.

Actually I think such songs are a product of the 20th century recorded music revolution, when people stopped singing songs, and started listening to recorded performances of other people singing songs. Before recorded music was everywhere, the only way most people could hear music was to make it themselves, so composers wrote songs that average people could sing (at least if we are talking about popular music). But once most popular songs were meant listened to rather than sung, the rewards went to the music that made the biggest impact, which implied highly skilled singers, who, among other things, were capable of making “no-melody” songs work. Thus the no-melody popular song became possible.

I can still sing “Oh Susanna” a cappella, and it at least makes sense as music, but there are very few modern popular songs I could sing that way without sounding like a total fool, in part because I can’t manage the required vocal nuance, and also because in many cases the instrumental accompaniment is an intrinsic part of the song, and without it the melody alone sounds lame. So we’ve gained something, but we’ve lost something as well.

Is any of this making sense?

Great discussion.

If someone asked me who of all artists combine captivating melody and lyrics, you and Tracy Chapman would top my list. I have enjoyed your music for a long while and have always been amazed at how unique it is and how it is fresh every time I play it. Like a good wine…….

I would throw Delibe’s Lakme Flower Song in the chorus of melodies that are memorable.

Sorry to have missed you in Vancouver, I hope you tour in the future. Best wishes.

KC in Can

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Suzanne.
As an ESL teacher, I have found music to be a particularly useful and fun instrument for eliciting language from my students, presenting new grammar points and reviewing sentence structure with them.
Your ‘Tom’s Diner’ has always been a favorite of mine, and many of my students have recently grasped the present progressive, present perfect and corrrect use of the auxiliary verbs through it!!
Some have even begun to come to class with a new eagerness to sing along and fill in the blanks with the correct lyrics!!!
As an especially creative language teacher who works with a multilingual group of immigrants & refugees in Austin, Texas, I tend to present fairly animated lessons for my ESL students- ranging from intonation and phonetics to exercises on syntax, sentence structure, phrasal verbs and reading comprehension….

Since auditory comprehension is such a different skill than speaking, readaing and/or writing, I have to get crafty in presenting them all in edible portions-LET ALONE catering to each students’ particular needs……Since learning a second language, (or 3rd or 4th as the case may be) can be a tricky endeavor for someone who’s been isolated from Western culture/language (or hasn’t been exposed to OR NEEDED TO learn Englisj) for the better portion of their lives, bringing a great song like Tom’s Diner to class and handing out the lyrics to students from Suadi Arabia, Burma, Cuba, Ethiopia, Mexico or Tunisia has served as an especially good segway into practicing auditory comprehension and reading skills.
So I’d just like to thank you personally and tell you how much we appreciate your music here in Austin! Acquiring second language skills is a unique process for each learner— with many different variables in each equation, (relative to one’s age, cognitive tendencies, attitude, background, etc., etc.), but somehow EVERYONE seems to enjoy listening to your music and sharpens their communication skills at a smoother pace while we do these exercises!