Something That Knows What A Song Is
The western classical tradition I am trained in has a long history
of songs for voice and accompaniment, but when you ask someone to think
of a song, that's not quite what they're thinking of. In spite of all
the technical similarities, contemporary popular songs have different singing
styles, different harmonic patterns, different melodic ideas, altogether
a different affect than songs written in classical settings,
and for some reason I think it's hard to bridge the gap. I set out
to write some songs for piano that were "just songs" without the
self-aware quality I associate with modern classical writing. I sort
of succeeded and was happy with the result, but they ended up something
between "singer-songwriter" and "classical". Regardless of style, I don't
think music ought to be complicated to enjoy, so hopefully they're at least
successful in that regard.
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