Today's Expand Your Musical Horizons Suggestions


What do Samuel Barber and Prince have in common?

Back in college I took an orchestration class (I was a music minor after deciding the music major was too tough for me.) I remember very clearly a lecture we had about how sound is something that is experienced physically, and that emotions are also matched with physical reactions, and how certain sounds can evoke certain emotions, almost without fail. We were all asked to bring in some pieces that we felt achieved such automatic physical and emotional responses.

I brought in these two pieces:

Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings
Prince's Purple Rain

You may be familiar with the Adagio from the movie Platoon. It is some of the most sorrowful string music you will ever hear. But at its climactic moments it goes beyond sad and poignant to become nearly unbearably painful. I dare you not to close your eyes and wince (and think of something that has happened to you that you'd prefer to forget) when the strings reach the very loudest, highest pitch...and then hold that chord for what feels like an unending amount of time.

You might be wondering about my choice of Prince for a second such song, but Purple Rain also brings itself to a rather fevered climax, first in the blazing guitar solo followed by a repeated, deliberate, wailing guitar riff, finally crowned by Prince's clear descending falsetto wail over an ascending string and bass line...like the coming together of voice and music. The great guitarists always seem to handle their guitars like they're a sexual aid...and after the long, slow, sultry build up of the first 4 minutes of the song, the final 4 minutes are like a long musical orgasm. Seriously.

Anyway, Adagio for Strings just showed up in my Party Shuffle menu, and I was reminded of both these songs, and how no matter how many times I hear them they always evoke the same reaction...and how that's no accident.

Posted: Thu - January 5, 2006 at 09:38 AM       EmailFeedback

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