This week in Great Music, I am going to diverge from the beaten path a bit. I had one of my piano students ask me “ Why do you love music so much?” As I tried to formulate an answer for the student, I discovered I had no easy answer and told him I’ll tell you next week. I could see the disappointment on his face, but I knew I could not express it adequately in words, yet. So this week, I tried to come up with an answer and this essay is the result.
It is the Heart’s and Soul’s way of talking when mere words are inadequate.
To illustrate this concept, I am offering 3 examples, one from the Popular music world, one from Broadway and one from the Classical music world. As much as these 3 examples diverge from each other musically, they all share an expression of raw emotion.
The first example is a song from the sister team, Nancy and Ann Wilson, from Canada. They call their band, appropriately – Heart. They have been successfully recording and touring for the last 35 years. The particular song I have chosen is called “Alone”. It expresses the feeling of Love, when the object of that Love does not return the feeling. When a person feels this way, the anguish inside that person, demands to be let out. When Ann Wilson sings this song, along with the powerful Guitars in the background you will have no doubt about how she feels. Since many, many people have been in similar situations some time during their life, we should all remember how you or the other person feels in this situation.
Here is a link to a YouTube video of a concert Heart played last year featuring the song “Alone”.
Heart – Alone
When you watch the video, the emotion expressed in the song is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. It’s raw and unfiltered emotion.
The next video I am asking you to watch is from the Broadway play, ‘Waitress” The music for this play was written by Sara Bareilles, a California singer songwriter who pursued music in the pop world as well as stage and other genres. It is song that tells a story of a young woman, trying to make it in the world who ends up pregnant by a man who does not love her and who is now confronted with raising a child by herself in a low paying job. Her dreams as a young woman dashed on the realities of life. Here is a video including the lyrics:
Unlike Popular music which can use lyrics to bring out and emphasize the emotions, Classical music has only the sound frequencies of individual notes, rhythm and louds and softs to portray the emotions. This is not only much more difficult to do than with pop music and lyrics but the emotions expressed are much more subtle, and many times more difficult to discern. To illustrate Classical music emotions I have chosen my all time favorite piece of music, Moonlight Sonata. It was written in 1801 when Beethoven was 31 years old. It was a time when he was giving piano lessons – just about all the famous composers did since it was the only way to really make a living. One of his students was a beautiful young woman, Julie Guicciardi and they fell in love. Unfortunately, in Austria at the time it was illegal for a commoner (Beethoven) to marry nobility (Julie).
The first movement of the Sonata is Beethoven’s love tribute to Julie. In it you will hear the tenderness and exhilaration of young and fresh love. The second movement is a exhibition of the conflicting emotions, a commoner and noble, what can, or should, we do. The third movement is full of fire and fury as Beethoven found out Julie was going to marry a Count instead of Beethoven to fulfill her nobility station in life.
Here is Valentina Lisista playing all three movements of the Moonlight. The first movement is so famous all of you have probably heard it but try to listen to the other movements to grasp the full palate of Beethoven’s emotions.
Moonlight – 2nd movement
Moonlight – 3rd movement
Hopefully when you finish this exercize, you too will understand how a person’s Heart and Soul can use music to speak better than their brain and tongue will ever do.