Does Melody Even Matter??

[Bombadil]

My wife sings in a couple of choirs here. First concert I saw her perform in was Mozart's Requiem. Blew me away.

[IncarnateX]

I have sung it too (tenori) in high school and attended two concerts myself during my lifetime. It is the closest thing I have ever come to a supernatural experience with music. You have a more than genius composer putting his last efforts into a Requiem, which appears to be his own. He grabs your balls and squeezes them till your tears burst. If you have come into this, there is no way out until he is done. Already at the intro I just posted: Voices from the graves raising, higher and higher, begging for eternal rest, and they are many. He takes you through Judgement day, confusion and panic, fear, sorrow, guilt, regrets, and finally forgiveness and salvation. And it does not matter shit whether you believe in any of it, it is going to get you. Consider yourself warned, folks.

[jancivil]

Yes, here and in other of his religious music (NB: I'm not religious) he achieves profundity.

[jancivil]

As to "polyphony" being such a narrow band in the widest sense of history, so is tonal music, so is...

I approach composition as multiple linear parts anyway, except when it's one line and rhythm.
I wasn't into that Church polyphony at all, at any rate, in the day, of a Music History course.
Significance of cultural weight, it doesn't do anything in itself. It doesn't really matter - edit: to me.

[fmr]

Yes, here and in other of his religious music (NB: I'm not religious) he achieves profundity.

Many Requiem Masses achieve that. Just a few days ago, I listened to the Verdi Requiem and also the Brahms one. Both achieved this sense of deepness. I think it's not just faith, it also has something to do with the fact the masses talk about death, resurrection and the end of times.

Believers or non-believers, anyone with feelings will be touched by that.

BTW - Many classic composers seek polyphony in their sacred works - somehow, polyphony, even nowadays, is connected with religious music.

[Musicologo]

In the broad history of music, polyphony was a blip and only really possible because of strict rules and circumstances, such as the belief that music was as much part of physics as the motion of the sun and the moon. It was reserved for sacred music – the music played in the local bar was still primarily monophonic, but also far less constrained in terms of modal rules.

I'm sorry but this is not true. There was along history lots of polyphonic music, mainly in folk song. Most traditions of my country were polyphonic and a lot of them lasted way into the 20th century. Lomax work regarding music cultures of the world identified a bunch of polyphonic traditions.

Melody and monophony are a product of complex societies with division of labor... Most agrarian and hunter gathering societies were polyphonic. And I dare to say in most complex societies where we have division of labor, strict hierarchies, music is seen as "art" and linked to lyrics (word based melodies emerge), melody is and will be the primary driving factor.
I highly recomment the chapter 25 of this book by Alan Lomax "The good and the beautiful in folk song", pp 213-229 which systematically describes folk song styles AND the reasons WHY they are what they are, including all the bunch of "polyphonic" driven traditions and the "solo melodic" ones and the "rhythm driven" ones. The scientific study of music seen as expressive culture is the key regarding most of the issues that come along in this forum. Those who only wear the lenses of "western based art music" are missing the point.

https://b-ok.cc/book/1004216/330049

[dune_rave]

Melody matters if you want your music to be famous after 200 years.
Listen to Debussy's music in this new Godzilla film in 2019:
If you just want a summer hit, melody not really matters

[Bombadil]

I listen to Debussy quite a lot.

[Bombadil]

Yes, here and in other of his religious music (NB: I'm not religious) he achieves profundity.

Many Requiem Masses achieve that. Just a few days ago, I listened to the Verdi Requiem and also the Brahms one. Both achieved this sense of deepness. I think it's not just faith, it also has something to do with the fact the masses talk about death, resurrection and the end of times.

Believers or non-believers, anyone with feelings will be touched by that.

BTW - Many classic composers seek polyphony in their sacred works - somehow, polyphony, even nowadays, is connected with religious music.

My wife's main choir has sung Brahm's Requiem, as well. Beautiful music. I am an unbeliever, but the music is beautiful.

[Bombadil]

Mozart's Requiem is in Dm, 'the saddest key of them all,*' so that would explain its emotional impact.











*Spinal Tap reference.

[Deep Purple]

Mozart's Requiem is in Dm, 'the saddest key of them all,*' so that would explain its emotional impact.

So glad he decided against calling it "Lick my love pump"

[Bombadil]

Mozart's Requiem is in Dm, 'the saddest key of them all,*' so that would explain its emotional impact.

So glad he decided against calling it "Lick my love pump"

I thought about mentioning that, but....

[IncarnateX]

Polyphony is definitely connected with religious music, and it has not always been allowed within the church. Its own roots are Gregorian chants, though at their time, faith was all about the unity of God and prayers, thus they sung in unison and/or parallel fifths to achieve a “genderless” unifying praising sound. It was not that harmony and polyphony was not avaiable yet, but simply not allowed within church music. During the Renaissance, when especially Greek philosohy, science and art were rediscovered, tolerance for diversity and different cultures was necessary to expand the church. So, the old sciences and arts became servants of Theology and were allowed to the extent they did not contradict the doctrines of the church. So now we had an acceptance of diversity but still under the doctrine that we are all equal parts of God’s Clockwork. This symbolism, I find profound in Palestrina’s modal polyphony, where the voices are meant to be equal and not dominate one another. Allow me to repost an example from another thread to illustrate my point:



One thing that happened with polyphony when it went into the era of tonal music was that the melodies were subordinated a main theme, and often they were placed below the main theme, now supporting it, instead of equalizing it. Thus you may not remember other melodies than the main theme, when your hear tonal classical music, but they are there, just more subtile and supportive in the voices below.

[vurt]

Melody matters if you want your music to be famous after 200 years.
Listen to Debussy's music in this new Godzilla film in 2019:
If you just want a summer hit, melody not really matters

the only true "god"

gojira!!!!!

anyone who isn't excited by the new godzilla films, well, just get out!
mothra! ghidora! rodan! and the og himself

"sploogetastic!"

did i get it right this time jan?

[jancivil]

You even got Gojira right. For extra points, can you tell us the derivation of the word, or why it's used for the monster?