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-- Help me out with this, please.
Help me out with this, please.
I'm very much into classical music, and one thing that is absolutely astounding with classical music, is that it can tell a story, or have a theme without any words at all. Probably the most recognizable piece of music is the orchestral interlude, "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Another example, will be Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition". This suite consisting of ten pieces, is probably the most desriptive and colorful music I have ever heard in my life. Each and every piece has a story, "Gnomus", which is based ona toy nutcracker shaped like a gnome with deformed legs. And "The Market at Limoges", which is a piece about a busy market in france, truly captures the theme. If you all understand what I am talking about, I will get to my question.
In trance, there seems to be a lack of any recognizable theme, or story in songs. In Cosmic Gate's "Exploration of Space", I wouldn't be able to guess that the track was about exploring the cosmos if some guy wasn't saying it over and over again in the song.
I know there are song's out there, so help me out. What tracks have a story, or theme that is recognizable just by listening to the music? The music has to be non-vocal.
I'm truly at a loss, so if you can help me, I thank you in advance.
I'd like to see the responses
I think 99% of the time there is no relevance between the construction of the track and the name of the track. There may be for the producer, but most people out at a club couldn't care less what the track is called.
Mauro Picotto - Lizard, for example.... you could have called it Wooshaboosha and no one would have thought any different.
Jarv
I'd also like to see the responses, because I think such a trance song is pretty rare. All the non-vocal trance I know is more abstract, and can inspire far different images for whoever's listening.
Edit:
What about Rank 1 - Awakening (especially the Cosmic Gate remix)? IMO, the title seems to fit well with the song, although it doesn't really qualify as a story.
a few off the top of my head that have a title that i feel is reflected through the track :
POS - Remember (Summer Sun)
BT - The Internal Locust
Hybrid - Last Man Standing
Re:Locate - Waterfall
Pulser - Cloudwalking
LSG - Netherworld
Mikka Leinonen - Calm Waters
Now whilst these don't really convey a story so to speak with the possible exception of the BT track they are definately have a correlation between their name and the mood and sounds of the music.
shane 54 - equinoxe 4 (mat silver vs. tony burt remix) has a rather epic feel to it, no so much space but definately travelling somewhere, jean michel jarre whatdya expect? 
These are pretty rare. The most obvious one for me is composed by Sister Bliss, who is classically trained. It is Faithless - Drifting Away. Not only is the track pretty dreamy and surreal but the melody itself does indeed feel like it's drifting.
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| Originally posted by SYSTEM-J These are pretty rare. The most obvious one for me is composed by Sister Bliss, who is classically trained. It is Faithless - Drifting Away. Not only is the track pretty dreamy and surreal but the melody itself does indeed feel like it's drifting. |
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| Originally posted by basd Original or Paradiso remix? |
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| Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Well the melody is (for the most part) identical on both. The production on the original accentuates the overall effect, but the melody itself to me fits the title perfectly. |
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| Originally posted by basd Fair enough.. It's just that most people automatically get overly enthusiastic about the Paradiso remix, thereby forgetting the indeed equally great (if not, better) original.. |
Sounds exactly like something they'd do.. Indeed. Always reworking their tracks live.
If only some 'live acts' would take notice. That's an entirely different topic though.
Yeah- it's a shame their live versons aren't available. They opened with a fucking epic version of Sweep that I would kill to own. The version on No Roots is puny in comparison.
I'll have to put on Live at Alexandra Palace again somewhere this week, it's been a while.
Thanks for all of the recommendations, but I was really hoping for more of a discussion about the tracks.
I totally forgot about cloudwalking, I'm gonna give it a listen, and brush up on it.
Nice topic. Although i think you talk about romantic classical and not classical in general e.g. the classical Baroque, or the modern american minimal because not all types of classical invoke this instrumental "story-telling" you describe. A very good example would be the frech "impressionistic" school of Debussy, Ravel and Satie. From what i have red (and listened) these composers didn't care so much about the structure and the detail and hence a particular linear theme that would be representative of a kind of "storry-telling". What they were actually trying to achieve was to create a somewhat "dreamy", "hazy" feeling in their compositions. Examples are the very well known "Bolero" by Ravel, where clearly there is no story telling or any particular direction at all, just some abstract emotional expression that derives from the repeatitive structure. Another example would be the absolutely fantastic "Prelude A La Apres Midi D'aun Faune" (Prelude of a Faune's afternoon sorry for my french-correct me if i'm wrong)by Debussy. As the title suggests, this was intented to create an abstract (mystical/mythical/dreamy) emotional feeling and while there is a continuous complex development in the melodies and patterns, there is no clear story-telling or whatsoever..(although there are some trully beautifull ethereal themes popping here and there through-out the tune).
Another example would be the minimalistic school (modern classical) of steve reich and philip glass, where the repeatitive (somehow "trancey-in case of reich"-)patterns are very abstract, dreamy and even primitive with no particular intentions or somekind of higher-order structure. Even the staccato melodies of the baroque composers such as Vivaldi's four seasons are probably out of this "perfectly-structured-long-epic-thematic-worked-to-death" classical music category, from the romantic or/and neo-romantic eras. (Spunning both the 19th and 20th centuries). Oh, irrelevant Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" is awesome!One of my favorite pieces of music of all time!
Now for trance, it will be very difficult, especially nowadays, to find this kind of feel you are looking for as most of todays "uplifting/epic/melodic" trance is full of generic 3 or 4-note melodies. take a look at the other thread where a producer accussed some other producer that he "stole his track". The "accused producer" defended himself that this couldn't be true(the act of stealing), because "he just used some random notes, pressed the automatic arpeggio button" and hey presto!-another modern trance tune was born!This probably reflects very well the zeitgeist of trance (and maybe most of today's music in general) where there is no particular direction, pattern, creativity, artistic-perception, or hell any serious contribution other then "lets just hit a few notes in fruity loops, create a dancefloor-bomb, get played by all the big names and get famous".
Now sorry for my long post (i just had some thoughts) but there is a kind of trance that has some themes and nice melodies. I don't know if you know them (i have suggested them again numerous times) they are Planisphere and their album is called "Lektrophony".The tracks are very long, but they have some absolutely stunning melodic breakdowns and lead-lines, which will surely bring to mind a beautifull classical adagio.You can find samples here:
http://www.4djsonly.com/4DJ/index/p...roductID=101878
You have to create an account and this is very easy to do.Pay attention to "NYE", "Moonshine" and "Symphotek" they are particularely nice. I don't know though if you find these to be "thematic" enough.Also check-out staff by Airwave such as "Alone in the Dark" and "Revelation" (or something like that it was called). Check-out "Reflections" and "Touched" by Firewall as well, they are the most thematic tunes i've heard in epic trance (together with corsten's remix of Barber's adagio for strings-which actually is not originally trance but classical), dramatic, epic "classically-edged" melodies which could have been featured in a movie soundtrack.Even typical trance such as Gouryella's "Walhalla", solar stone's "seven cities" , fire and ice's "neverending melody" are quite thematic in relation to the majority of standard epic trance, but i don't know how much you are exposed in 90s epic trance. If not i suggest you start exploring it, especially old compilations by Paul Oakenfold such as "GU-New York" and even Armin's "Boundaries of Imagination".
p.s. Sorry for the long post!
I always create a little world and story for almost every song I listen to. I get these insanely awesome pictures and I've even made up characters and stuff that's been doing things in these worlds.
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| Originally posted by DRM a few off the top of my head that have a title that i feel is reflected through the track : BT - The Internal Locust Now whilst these don't really convey a story so to speak with the possible exception of the BT track they are definately have a correlation between their name and the mood and sounds of the music. |
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