A radio show embracing the minutia of music, and loads of goofing around. On the air a different time, each time, 90.1FM KZSU Stanford. Listen live: http://kzsulive.stanford.edu Follow @moderndonkey
We had a great 10th episode (double digits!) in our second and final installment exploring THEME/MELODY VARIATION. Lots of great tunes, including plenty of solid indie rock, loads of chill electronica, and um, metric tons of absolutely miserable singer-songwriter tracks. In short, a pretty typical MD set.
Missed the show? I KILL YOU. Listen below as part of your penitence. Thanks a metric ton, as always!
Click play below to hear “Variation on a Theme, Part 2 – 03/21/12”
That’s basically it. I’ve heard “brevity is the highest form of flattery and/or patriotism”, or something, so here’s to that!
This week we’ll continue sampling songs that exemplify melody variation quite nicely, and some that do so quite poorly. Thanks for the excellent suggestions last week, and feel free to leave any more that may come to mind.
See you Wednesday! For a recap on the theme, check out last week’s preview post, and feel free to listen to the show as well. I sincerely hope all of this expounding on theme variation and repetition won’t make you guys notice just how often I recycle my jokes. Thanks for tuning in!
We had a great show this week (complete with a special guest!) which was part 1 of a two-part series on VARIATION ON A THEME. We began our exploration of songs that base their sound around taking a melody and repeating it, building on it, varying it, sometimes creating a massive soundscape from one simple motif. This is commonly found in classical pieces, but also in modern rock, classic rock, electronica – many different genres through many different times. Next week we’ll showcase some more examples, old and new, so please tune in again!
For those of you who couldn’t catch the show, which may or may not be everyone, as apparently there were some iTunes stream issues at the station, the episode is posted below as usual.
Also, to add insult to technical difficulty injuries, we had a bit of a mic problem during my chat with special guest Cheyenne in the first half-hour of the show, so some of my commentary may require you to pump up the volume a bit. Be sure to pump it back down for the remainder of the show, although yes, I am most charming when I sound like I’m going apeshit. Just ask my boyfriend/mother/cat/therapist/cat-therapist.
Click play below to hear “Variation on a Theme, Part 1 – 03/14/12”
The hippest thing imaginable – a really nicely edited video of Brooklyn Organ Synth Orchestra performing a cover of the very Oldfield movement we showcased on the show! Brooklyn! Synth! Girls in thrift store/American Apparel-esque unflattering outfits! WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?! (ok, it actually is pretty cool…)
This week will be great. In fact, it’s maybe my favorite theme of all. The theme even has the word “theme” in it, like some kind of hideously edited self-referential loop. Which is something I’m often called by those I’m arguing with, so this really couldn’t be more perfect.
And so I give you, part one of a two-part series where we explore VARIATION ON A THEME. Historically, classical musicians have often used simply melodies, or motifs, that they then build on over and over in within a piece as it grows. Then there was Wagner, whose operas are considered to contain some of the best uses of leitmotifs, or repeated melodies specific to certain events/people/objects which return whenever those things appear in a scene. But what about those of us who don’t enjoy the opera, and instead enjoy, say, Battlestar Galactica reruns over burritos? No problem, because variation on a theme is everywhere, including the Cylon army! (this is my new marketing technique – throw in nerdy spoilers that appeal to approximately 2 people you know, and alienate the remaining, um, 7 people you know)
And sure, there are plenty of pop songs that repeat a chorus, a verse, an alarmingly sensual soaring sax solo. Sure. But this week, we’re most interested in those songs that really take a melody and just keep building on it. Maybe more instruments are added, maybe the melody gets warped a bit, maybe another melody gets thrown in only to come back to the original one now more explosive than ever. Maybe a bridge is thrown in, and also a chorus, and also a ver–DAMMIT no! This is different than the general pop song, I swear. Here’s a sad little number that’s a nice example of modern theme variation/building. Bonus points to anyone who suggests a track that doesn’t leave us suicidal.
Comments/ideas/soaring sax solos welcome, as always. See you Wednesday, and thanks for tuning in!
Modern Donkey 