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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rambi who wrote (235311)	1/20/2008 6:54:10 PM
From: ManyMoose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793896

Were we disagreeing? I thought the opposite. Music is like the shimmering echo of God, whether it's religious or not.

To: Rambi who wrote (235311)	1/21/2008 10:24:22 PM
From: ig	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793896

Really nice post there. The use of music, from Gregorian Chants to John Philip Sousa, has been instrumental in recruiting the masses into various large-scale organizations and campaigns. Most people judge the truth of a proposition not by what they think, but by what they feel. I remember the first time I went to Catholic church when I was 7 years old: the beautiful stained-glass windows, the solemn statuary, the fantastic hush that followed the ethereal music. I was told that I was in "the house of God." Based on the feelings that were created in me by the exquisitely calculated art and mood of the place, it was clear to me that it had to be true. Not long after, in the 2nd-grade in public school, I was thoroughly immersed in the patriotic music of Sousa, Berlin, and the like. Our teacher was a sweet little old lady who had lost her husband in WWI and she knew the entire canon of the patriotic music of that time. She taught us a new song every week. We had a blast singing From the Halls of Montezuma (The Marines' Hymn), Over There, It's a Long Way to Tipperary, Caissons Go Rolling Along. etc. Singing stirring martial music like that, you just knew that you were living in "the greatest country on Earth" (and you'd fight anyone who said otherwise). When you can heavily influence how people feel about something, then you can heavily influence what they believe to be true. For most people, emotions are Truth.

To: Rambi who wrote (235311)	1/21/2008 11:25:26 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793896

>>two books I ordered last year - one called Your Brain on Music, the other The Singing Neanderthals<< Those sound quite interesting, so I'll check them out. My tastes in music are rather eclectic and non-focused: ranging from Andalusian flamenco to Zydeco blues. Mostly I listen to music on the radio, and only remember bits and pieces of it. This leads to considerable "song fragment buildup", a term I picked up from Garrison Keillor. It feels like my subconscious is always straining to resolve an unfinished measure, like when you shut off your car while the windshield wipers are on and they stop in mid-stroke. Or like the agony of Han Solo, when Jabba the Hut froze him into a block of carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back. Thanks to Google and YouTube, I finally started a project to resolve these tensions. Whenever a song fragment bubbles out of my subconscious (often from the Sixties), I write down the few words I remember and start searching on Google. If I can pin down the song, I can often find a clip of the original performance on YouTube. I add each successful find to a spreadsheet, so I can keep a permanent record of all these half-forgotten songs. It's sort of like defragging my brain, and it seems to be working. Pinning some of these down is awfully tough. Here is one where I had the tune and the rhythm, but not the words. I finally nailed it while listening to a documentary on Joni Mitchell. It turns out that one of her big inspirations was a singer named Annie Ross, who sang in a style called "vocalese"... Annie Ross - Twisted (1959) youtube.com