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| Originally called Northwest Passage… |
A descending four chord meant to evoke sorrow
What is meant by this? These frequencies/progressions “evoke sorrow” but why? Is it that simple? For the majority of the listening audience they will tap into this sorrow. But is there something inherent to them that makes them sorrowful, or some cultural/sociological sense of them being sorrowful. People will not always act uniformly to sorrow (laughs at a funeral, laughter at a nervous event, laughter when being scared).
Could it then be that with a drift of years and years. Will it also be that all of the past becomes a type of sorrow at the passing of time, and it being lost. Only so much song is captured, and it is a fraction of all song (the practice sessions, all of the errors that are lost in production, the learning of the song, the internal repeats or hums that follow the singer throughout the day). We hold a fraction.
Lynch: Angelo brought me into the world of music. I didn’t know how much I wanted to go there till that happened.
Isabella Rossellini was unable to match the key of the piano player so AB was brought in for Blue Velvet. Lynch was so impressed by the result that AB was kept on to compose more tracks for the film.
Daniel Levitin
Each time we hear a musical pattern that is new to our ears, our brains try to make an association… we try to contextualize the new sound, and eventually, we create these memory links between a particular set of notes (previous listening experiences)
(With this, you and I can explore a song together and wander on this novel path between the both of us)
In “David Bennet Piano’s - Major isn’t Happy, Minor isn’t sad” he offers this equation:
- sad + major = tender, heartbreaking
- sad + minor = mournful, hopeless
- happy + major = upbeat, brilliant
- happy + minor = upbeat, dark The tempo also dictates mood, as he demonstrates by playing the Tetris theme (initially happy minor) with a quicker tempo for a more upbeat feel.
Relative tonal brightness use, rather than emotional connotations give us a tool to work with.
Hearing music is the verification that things are going the right way
Often when hearing a song I am struck by this, that everything is precisely in the right place. (I might hallucinate sub-rhythm of a techno track or something but that previously mentioned sense is there.)
I’m thinking on this: When learning a song it is always a sequence of failures, up to a point where the song can be played regularly (and then perhaps fluidly or with deeper expression). In electronic music it can be even a stronger notion, that the produced object is attempting perfection. Everything is in place and going the right way. What we hear is “correct.” Almost all songs are crafted this way with the same destination.
But why not a song that is jangly and broken. Snapped strings and errors. Not practiced fully. Why not a song incomplete. Why not a decaying song? Something that we see brilliantly but then deforming, maybe combusting like a firework leaving only traces of smoke and falling embers.
“Beautiful darkness” - one audience member revealed she was so scared by the music she often had to leave the room.
Also present in Badalamenti’s jazz are its trademark finger snaps: an instantly recognizable cultural signifier of cool.