After a bit of thought I realized I don't actually listen to many songs. I listen to a lot of music, but not a lot of actual songs. It did occur to me though that of the few songs I listen to on a more regular basis, Mozart's requiem would definitely rank near the top alongside "Ode an Die Freude," though I do happen to like "Tentai Kansoku" and Bump of Chicken in general when I'm sick of hearing classical music played on the radio or something.
Mozart's Requiem all in all is about 50 minutes of music; depending on the conductor could be a few minutes longer. To be honest though I'm not even sure who performed the particular recording that I have, I have even forgotten how I came upon it. I am fortunate in that the recording I do have of it is a recording of the full piece, and not broken apart into its different sections. It also never occurred to me to look up the lyrics until I tried to write this blog entry. I never liked it because of what the lyrics mean, I've always assumed that they were in Latin, because I didn't know them until a day or so ago. I did manage to find a translation and it kind of was a surprise and kind of wasn't. The god of the book religions was mentioned several times was the semi-surprise, but a few seconds after delving into the stanzas I remembered that many artists during that time and earlier in Europe had to write tributes to religion. One of the first reasons I like this piece in particular, is that unlike almost anything else that W. A. Mozart wrote, it's not a "happy" piece. One of the things I hate about most of his works is that they’re all happy pieces almost as if the guy was on antidepressants all the time he was writing. Though its origin is not entirely clear, though it has Mozart's name attached to it, it's a well known fact that he did not write the whole song (it was posthumously unfinished). We do know that he wrote at least the very beginning, as to how far he actually did write no one knows. The other composer who finished it, no one knows how much he had taken from Mozart's unfinished notes and how much is entirely his composition.
One thing I guess that attracts me to this piece is possibly the complexity. A lot of popular music is rather simplistic in the sense that most of it is a standard form that can be described almost to the exact number of measures of each part. There is also the ridiculous amount of repeated melodic lines that have a different set of lyrics. I've always been attracted to complex things, like how I prefer Go over chess, or very clever things. Though I don't actually try to analyze it, I just listen to the melody. I love the dramatic crescendos that are in it. I don’t really know how it’s important to me; I didn’t grow up listening to Mozart. I grew up listening to Chinese opera, traditional Chinese music, romantic music and baroque. I was exposed to Mozart because pieces like “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (which is one of those pieces I hate from Mozart) are so popular and as I got older, I was exposed to his concertos and that was when I really actually started to listen to Mozart. With that in mind . . . I guess it’s important because I like the melodies and the layering in different parts actually now that I think about it seems to sound like counterpoint. I’ve always been amazed at counterpoint, it’s something that I absolutely admire about composers who are able to do it well. J.S. Bach was a master of the technique and I’ve always found it just astounding how composers are able to start melodies that are seemingly independent ideas that just constantly move forward but the harmony they produce is entirely connected. It’s also a composition form that I’ve always wanted to learn, but . . . well I’m not immersed in the world of music anymore. So Mozart's Requiem I guess would be a part of my past that's no longer alive which I guess is kind of fitting.
Here is the First Video in a playlist:
I really like this blog and song. I especially enjoyed the fact that you took time to embed links into the actual blog entry to describe more about yourself as well as what you are talking about. I was always involved in dance, specifically ballet, so I have found a love for listening to classical music. I am astounded to find that when I close my eyes, I paint my own portraits and interpretations of the music. I agree, the happier works do not have much of a profound effect on me. This choice of Mozart is simply beautiful! I love the seemingly depressing state of mind the music takes. It is at first very melodic then turns extremely dramatic. Thank you for putting a link to the lyrics of the song. I myself am not very fond of religion itself. Although, I am amazed at the beauty of the language, Latin and what all the words meant. Each lyrist takes time to choose his/her words careful. With spoken words, a lyrist tells his/her own story of his/her life. This is what I love about music: the fact that one person could express what he/she feels about a facet in life and have many people relate to the words. I commend you for choosing something that is classic and old, but is still seen as beautiful in the world today.
ReplyDelete@lesley: Well for one, it's a Requiem. The song is a piece that's written specifically for a Mass that's held for the dead. It shouldn't be a happy piece. Though something I find rather interesting is that the piece though considered to be classical actually is more of a romantic piece by the characteristic dramatic silences or build ups of volume as you noted. There's also not a lot of the little ornamentation that is found in classical music. I'm actually an aetheist myself so the religion factor is . . . well as I mentioned I wasn't even aware of it until I was writing the blog. When I listen to music though, the first thing that I always notice is the instrumentation as I try to pick out the melody (I guess this is a part of the way I was trained). To be honest I actually hate most of classical music (almost all of mozart's works included), but I've always been attracted to the dramatic changes found in romantic music. In hindsight, something my best friend pointed out to me is that there are not a lot of people that know the distinctions between baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary music. I probably should've included links to those definitions.
ReplyDeleteYou do mention that lyrists choose their words carefully I'm actually not entirely sure how true/false that is for romantic/classical/baroque music. I know for example when Beethoven composed Ode an Die Freude, he had actually used a poem written by a very famous German poet named Schiller. Case in point I'm not even actually sure where the lyrics for Mozart's Requiem came from.