Tag Archives: Roger W. Smith Music That Catches Shades of Meaning

I was listening today to the enchanting “Lida Rose” duet (barbershop quartet and soprano) from The Music Man (track above).

In another blog, I wrote that “music distills, packages, and holds emotion.”

This is true — I guess one would say obvious. You hear music and recall precisely the circumstances when you first heard it and your state of mind at that time.

The thought that occurred to me today was that some of the best music — the best songs — are not, in this sense, “obvious”; and that they convey a sort of “intermediate” or “indeterminate” state of mind (a mind in flux); unique to the circumstances and characters they portray (and who are portrayed by the singers) — in this case, in Broadway musicals (see tracks below). that we can all relate to. They are often moments of realization, epiphany. and yet the words and music are simple and sincere: unpretentious,

Listen to these songs. The characters are at a moment of acute realization. Something is happening — they don’t quite know what, foresee the outcome.

This makes me think about — realize — the complexity of human experience.

Yours and mine.

We remember when we first fell in love. It was unique (the experience) in that it was ours alone, yet “general” in the sense that it connected us to humanity. to human feelings. Which, at the time, we would not have known to define; or have known quite what was happening.

This can be seen in the songs below.

Pop music (e.g. rock ‘n’ roll) never achieves this — needless to say — is not subtle.