The Music I Love: My favorite pop songs

If you hadn't noticed by now...I LOVE music. It's an addiction, and one i will never ever give up...I'm in too deep now. But for me, my obsession with music started not with classical music, but is firmly rooted in the land of pop music. Growing up, there wouldn't be too many weeks where I would miss Casey Casem or Rick Dees as they counted down the top 40 songs in the US. But it wasn't the early 90s pop I was so interested in...I grew up in the world of the Beatles, Billy Joel, Elton John and other amazing singers and songwriters that I just happened to almost miss completely on account of my being born about 20 years too late. But I'm lucky I've learned to appreciate music from the last 60 years and it holds a special place close to my heart. I do have some stuff from the last 10 years, because I believe it to be really amazing songwriting. But I've tried to compile a list of my favorite, absolutely perfect pop songs (only one from each artist...so I didn't have like 20 Beatles songs in here), I went with 20 in no particular order...

"God Only Knows" - The Beach Boys
"In My Life" - The Beatles
"Just the Way You Are" - Billy Joel
"I Know You by Heart" - Eva Cassidy
"What Sarah Said" - Death Cab for Cutie
"Hallelujah" - Jeff Buckley
"Something in the Way She Moves" - James Taylor
"Samson" - Regina Spektor
"In the Air Tonight" - Phil Collins
"Madman Across the Water" - Elton John
"Tears in Heaven" - Eric Clapton
"Out of My Head" - Fastball
"The Luckiest" - Ben Folds
"The Only Living Boy in New York" Simon & Garfunkel
"Cannonball" - Damian Rice
"Crazy Love" - Van Morrison
"You Get What You Give" - New Radicals
"Seek Up" - Dave Matthews
"Baba O'Reilly" - The Who
"One" - U2

Three God(Love) Songs

As I've said before one of my favorite poets of all-time is the brilliant e.e. cummings. I consider him one of the most romantic writers of the 20th century. Although his experimentation with syntax, grammar, punctuation and even letter placement can render some of his work nigh incomprehensible, from a purely emotional standpoint his poetry is bursting with deep insights into a soul infatuated with love and God. I took 3 of my favorite poems: "love is the every only God", "i thank you God for most this amazing" and "i have found what you are like" and made a small song cycle out of them. I really like the texts because they deal with love and faith, and how the two intertwine. Love and faith are very similar concepts...they both involve putting a tremendous amount of trust in something or someone outside of you. Love takes faith and faith takes love. I accompanied the voice with harp, because I wanted there to be plenty of sustain and a simple beauty to the piece. Of course it can be played on piano, but I like the quality that orchestral harp gives. Cummings' text has a definite lyrical quality, and I believe he selected words as much for their sound as their meanings often. This allows for a lot of tone color in the accompaniment. I used a lot of small ideas pieced together to bring the written words to life. I tried to piece them all together harmonically using similar motives and harmonic language. I try to use the fullest comfortable range of the voice in a lot of different colors to convey what I believe the texts to mean...

Mommy, where do songs come from?

Sometimes music comes from odd places. Whenever I sing music in choir, or I hear something in passing or I'm listening to the radio I have a tendency to pick up on certain background idea that I think is really neat (for example: Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" has a really cool overdubbed phaser sound on the second half of the refrain...next time you hear it listen for it, it's a little thing that's really cool). This usually will kick around in my head for awhile, until it finds something to connect with. Many times this doesn't lead anywhere, but every once in awhile a small melodic cell can lead to a full blown musical idea. This happened recently with the composition of a "Magnificat." For those who don't know, the Magnificat is based on the words the Virgin Mary spoke after being greeted by her sister Elizabeth. The words are full of promise and hope, because she knows that she has truly been blessed by God. I started right at the beginning, with this really simple rising figure (la-ti-do-sol) that I lifted from a short line of J.A.C. Reford's "now that, more nearest" which used an e.e. cummings text (by far one of my favorite poets of all time) about "how should some world doubt"...which I take to mean how can a world with all this wonder in it doubt the existence of something greater than us (be it God, Buddha, Vishnu, Flying Spaghetti Monster, whatever). I tried to take that sentiment and put it into this version of the Magnificat, since it was through Mary that God came into the world (if that's what you so believe, I just happen to like the sentiment myself). But around that small 4 tone sequence I built an entire piece...and that's something I'm really proud of...I posted the results on my myspace music page for everyone to enjoy...it's the third one down.

When I Sail Away

This is a poem written by my great great uncle on my mother's side. For many years my mother's family has been tied to bodies of water, usually the great Lake Champlain. Her family worked on running the ferry there between NY and VT in the days before a bridge connected the two. I really don't know much about Oliver Wiggin, except for this poem that hung for many years in my maternal grandmother's home:

When I Sail Away

Sometime at eve when the tide is low

I shall slip my mooring and sail away

With no response to the friendly hail

Of kindred craft in the busy bay

In the silent hush of the twilight pale

When the night stoops down to embrace the day

And voices call o’er the waters flow

Some time at evening when the tide is low

I shall slip my mooring and sail away

Through the purple shadows that darkly trail

O’er the ebbing tide of the unknown sea

I shall fade away with a dip of a sail

And a ripple of waters to tell the tale

Of a lonely voyager sailing away

To mystic isles where at anchor lay

The craft of those who had sailed before

O’er the Unknown Sea to the Unknown Shore

A few have watched me sail away

Will miss my craft fro the busy bay

Some friendly Barks that were anchored near

Some loving hearts that my soul held dear

In silent sorrow shall drop a tear

But I shall have peacefully furled my sail

In moorings sheltered from storm or gale

And greet friends who have sailed before

O’er the Unknown Sea to the Well Known Shore

January 10, 1948

-Oliver Wiggin

I really love this poem and I'm thinking of putting it to music, as a gift to my mother.

Another new song posting

I also added the recording of "Sure on this Shining Night" to my myspace music page. I figured since I talked about it, you might as well be able to listen to it.

Setting a musical landscape

So I've been thinking a lot about my music lately, and the particular moods I want to set for specific things. I think a lot of my compositions seem to come from a similar musical space in my brain, I tend to write good mellow and happy songs. I love tonality more than constant modulation and I tend to use accidentals sparingly and for only specific purposes, usually to extend a suspension and create tension for a fuller catharsis on the resolution. I like to use the dissonance created within the tonal scale to produce most of the interest in my pieces. In fact, one of my favorite pieces I've written so far is a setting for 6-part women's choir of James Agee's "Sure on this Shining Night," an arrangement that contains not a single accidental, all the dissonance is based up stepwise movements and the interplay between half/whole steps. One of my favorite progressions is to overlap Do-ti-sol in the scale to produce this naturally beautiful harmony full of dissonance, but also well grounded in the tonal center. Anyway, a lot of my music tends to ebb and flow very well, slowly building and backing down, utilizing a lot of pedal motions and "blooming figures" where on note separates and "blooms" into a full chord.

My newest re-write of a piece uses this effect a few times throughout. I incorporated the lullaby idea into a new version of "O Nata Lux" which is about the birth of Jesus. I also used echo effects to link sections together, which creates tension through suspension (the pedal action I employ a lot, this time basically used in reverse, from top to bottom instead of vice versa). This creates a simple but effective palette of sound, which is exactly what I wanted to convey for a small little lullaby about a baby lying in a manger. I leave the ending unresolved for a specific reason: that even though Jesus came down to redeem us all, right now he is still a baby and there is so much left for Him to do in the world. (I know I keep talking about him as a child, even though it's not mentioned in the text, but the "O Nata Lux" is often done during advent, the preparations for Christmas, so I have that in mind as well.) Here is the Latin text with English translation (thanks to CPDL):

O nata lux de lumine,
Jesu redemptor saeculi,
Dignare clemens supplicum
Laudes precesque sumere.

Qui carne quondam contegi
Dignatus es pro perditis,
Nos membra confer effici
Tui beati corporis.

O Light born of Light,
Jesus, redeemer of the world,
with loving-kindness deign to receive
suppliant praise and prayer.

Thou who once deigned to be clothed in flesh
for the sake of the lost,
grant us to be members
of thy blessed body.

I use a lot of sacred texts, not because I'm overtly religious (I'm more covertly religious), but rather the offer a great text that has been refined for hundreds of years and lends the music a more powerful air. Not that I would ever ask anyone to believe the words that are being sung, but I would rather let the music support the sentiment of the writers of the text. I'm very careful to make sure that any piece I put to music retains and supports the overall idea I believe the text is trying to make. This is much easier when I am the one writing the text, but I believe it's just as important for any work I undertake, understanding the meaning of the text, not just from a literal background, but what is implied by every word.

You can listen to the entire composition on my Myspace Music page, I'll put it up in the first position.

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Now playing: Matthew Brockway - O Nata Lux
via FoxyTunes

Another Saturday Night at the Restaurant

So as any self respecting artist is wont to do, I work in a restaurant to help pay the bills. It's a wonderful authentic Italian place with a great wine list and high enough prices that my tips aren't too lousy. I love the work because I love food, I love talking to people, and I love talking to people about food. Food is probably my second passion other than music. And if you've ever seen me eat...I'm sure you know that. But one of the other perks of the job is every once in awhile I'll sing to a table, putting my voice to good use. Now I know I'm not blessed with a truly wonderful operatic voice, but I think my voice is nice and pleasant, and people seem to really enjoy it when I sing. I love to do it because it makes them happy, and gives them something to remember. OK enough back story...

Last night I was closing up, and I had the last table of the night. I was in the second dining room and the only three people in there were me and the couple. They were very nice people, very chatty, and it helped make it a little easier to make it through the last hour or so before closing. We talked about their kids, their jobs, and definitely about the food (they got the aragosta cotta, it's a whole lobster, split, then grilled and stuffed with crab meat and finished in the oven with white wine sauce, it's DELICIOUS). But they asked me what I do besides wait tables (of course everyone assumes that people who wait tables must do "something else" in order to survive), and I told them that I'm a singer and a composer. They asked me what kind of music I sing, and I told them mostly classical and opera. Her eyes got wide when I said this, and she told me that she had never seen or heard any opera performed live before. I told her I was happy to sing for her and she obliged. I sang a short song by Bellini and it had her in tears. She said she had never heard music that beautiful performed live. I was honored that she thought so highly of me, and I'm really glad that I could make her day. It's another reason why I love and study classical music, it has this intrinsic connection for people, especially the voice...even if people can't understand the lyrics they can somehow understand the universality of the sentiment.

Today's selection by Thomas Tallis. If you don't know Thomas Tallis (and you should), he was a renaissance composer in the 16th century in England, where he is widely considered one of their best early composers. His music is strikingly beautiful and simple, with almost textbook voice-leading. His use of harmony really sets the stage for William Byrd and other later composers. His ability to overlap a single line of text in all 4 voices is really astounding. His music has a natural lilt and pulse, almost like the piece has its own heartbeat.
This particular motet is set for 40 voices in 8 5-part choirs. It uses all the stylistic elements of that time period, from antiphonal sections, to dynamic shifting, and even putting voices of the same part in different choirs in counterpoint with each other. At other times you'll hear some sections holding long chords while the theme is sung in another choir, lending an almost organ pedal quality to the sound. He even puts in a part where all 40 voices sing in 4 part harmony, like a Protestant anthem. He pulled out every trick of the time in order to write the motet. It's really textured and astoundingly complex, and I'm pretty sure it was done as a bar bet. That's the only way I could see someone writing for 8 choirs simultaneously. I'm sure some Italian wrote something ridiculous for 32 voices and someone in England heard about it and drunkenly told Tallis one night, "hey Tommy, some Italian guy just wrote for 32 voices...bet you couldn't do that!" And Tallis was all like "Pssssh, amateur, I bet I could do 40...easy!" And thus "spem in alium" was born.

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Now playing: Peter Phillips | The Tallis Scholars - Spem in Alium
via FoxyTunes

The British call today "Friday"

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Celebrate the birth of this country by blowing up a small portion of it. I prefer to celebrate my independence with 80s rock, hair metal and the windows down while I'm driving down the highway...this seems the most appropriate way to graciously thank our forefathers for the unalienable rights of all men: Steve Perry's golden voice being pumped through the speakers of a Japanese-made pickup for all to hear. God Bless America! And never ever ever stop believing. Ever. For one second. I mean it.

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Now playing: Journey - Don't Stop Believing
via FoxyTunes

Lullabyes

So I've been listening to Eric Whitacre's new piece for choir and piano over on his blog. (scroll to the second entry down, it's in the flash player there) The piece is just incredibly beautiful. Although I think it lacks the complexity of some of his other pieces, it doesn't really need anything more than what he put. It's rich and beautiful and really captures the lyric of Kipling's text well. Apparently he submitted it for an animated movie by Disney but it was rejected, which just shows how far Disney has fallen lately (Pixar completely excluded...Wall-E was awesome and I think the score is Oscar-worthy). Just because something isn't thoroughly modern doesn't mean it won't resonate with younger viewers. In fact, I think that this music would probably help more people come to understand the underlying message of Disney films better than most of the redone pop tunes that have been in vogue lately. Here are the lines that begin Ruyard Kipling's story The Seal Lullaby:

Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,
And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.

Where billow meets billow, then soft by thy pillow;
Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,
Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.

Just in printed form I can feel the slow calm of the waves, lapping at the rocks beyond the breakers where the seals come to rest after a long night of fishing. According to Whitacre the studio wanted to go for something "more hip-hop." While I definitely agree that hip-hop has it's place, I can't see how it could match with the serenity evoked by the lyric. Whitacre's music pefectly adapts to it...and he even took steps to make it sound more theatrical (with some brilliant Elfman-esque chordal shifts) and I think it has a beautiful sonic feel. I've been experimenting with writing my own lullaby, based upon sailors on the sea. I think that the ocean is one of the most beautifully serene places in the world to be, but its vastness has a distinct loneliness accompanying it. That and leaving your family behind with no real knowledge of your return has to be taxing on the psyche. Either that or I've been watching too much Deadliest Catch again. But I know there's an idea in there to be mined...all it takes is some time and effort.

Something that I've written so far:

Northern star, your flickering arms may guide us
across the waves, to land on foreign shores.
With humble moon, to pull the waves alongside us
until we moor upon our docks once more...

The ones we love, they wait with candles burning
within the windows, that face out towards the wharf.
Unyielding night, has swallowed up our rigging
and so we sleep, waves rock us back and forth.

the sky is red, and twilight is upon us
no storm in sight, and yet we feel alone.
I see the light, from the house upon the breaker
to reunite, again we have found home.




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Now playing: Brigham Young University Singers - Sleep
via FoxyTunes

Exposition

I started this blog as an attempt to chronicle my thought processes and other ideas and opinions that go into my compositions. As a modern composer, I draw inspiration from many things, from the music I hear in everyday life, to the masters that have come before me, to even the basest human emotions. Between this and my MySpace Music site, I hope to create new and different works, as well as a different way to view them. The thing I found most interesting in my musical study was how a composer's everyday experiences could effect their music. This blog is a modern man's attempt to display the mundane to extraordinary circumstances that produce music. I will never pretend to be anything more than what I am: a music nerd with a brain full of ideas with music as my language of choice. I listen to everything under the sun and find melodies and rhythms in the weirdest of places. I am unabashed in my love of music, especially modern choral music. The human voice is, to me, the most impressive instrument ever conceived, and most of my creations reflect my love of the human voice. I'll probably also do running commentary on pop culture as I see it, which usually seems to be mildly amusing.

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Now playing: Muse - Starlight
via FoxyTunes