Information about Word Painting
Word painting (also known as tone painting or text painting) is the musical technique of having the music mimic the literal meaning of a song. For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up; slow, dark music would accompany lyrics about death.
Composers began experimenting with word painting in Italian madrigals of the 16th and 17th centuries. Word painting flourished well into the Baroque music period. One well known example occurs in Handel's Messiah, where a tenor aria contains Handel's setting of the text:
In Handel's melody, the word "valley" ends on a low note, "exalted" is a rising figure; "mountain" forms a peak in the melody, and "hill" a smaller one, while "low" is another low note. "Crooked" is sung to a rapid figure of four different notes, while "straight" is sung on a single note, and in "the rough places plain," the final word "plain" is extended over several measures in a series of long notes. This can be seen in the following example:
A modern example of word painting from the late 20th century occurs in the song "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks. During the chorus, Brooks sings the word "low" on a low note. Similarly, on The Who's album Tommy, the song "Smash the Mirror" contains the line
Each repetition of 'rise' is a half-step higher than the last, making this a clear example of word-painting.
On occasion, a composer may employ the opposite technique for a humorous effect. In the Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress, Mary Rodgers has the lead character, Princess Winnifred, belt a brash show tune about her shyness called Shy.
Composers began experimenting with word painting in Italian madrigals of the 16th and 17th centuries. Word painting flourished well into the Baroque music period. One well known example occurs in Handel's Messiah, where a tenor aria contains Handel's setting of the text:
- Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight, and the rough places plain. (Isaiah 40:4)
In Handel's melody, the word "valley" ends on a low note, "exalted" is a rising figure; "mountain" forms a peak in the melody, and "hill" a smaller one, while "low" is another low note. "Crooked" is sung to a rapid figure of four different notes, while "straight" is sung on a single note, and in "the rough places plain," the final word "plain" is extended over several measures in a series of long notes. This can be seen in the following example:
)
A modern example of word painting from the late 20th century occurs in the song "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks. During the chorus, Brooks sings the word "low" on a low note. Similarly, on The Who's album Tommy, the song "Smash the Mirror" contains the line
- Can you hear me? Or do I surmise
- That you feel me? Can you feel my temper
- Rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise....
Each repetition of 'rise' is a half-step higher than the last, making this a clear example of word-painting.
On occasion, a composer may employ the opposite technique for a humorous effect. In the Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress, Mary Rodgers has the lead character, Princess Winnifred, belt a brash show tune about her shyness called Shy.
Sources
- Sadie, Stanley. Word Painting. Carter, Tim. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Second edition, vol. 27.
- How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, Part 1, Disc 6, Robert Greenberg, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
See also
Death is the permanent end of the life of a biological organism. Death may refer to the end of life as either an event or condition.[1] Many factors can cause or contribute to an organism's death, including predation, disease, habitat destruction, senescence,
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]], "The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful.
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A madrigal is a setting for two or more voices of a secular text, often in Italian. The madrigal has its origins in the frottola, and was also influenced by the motet and the French chanson of the Renaissance.
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Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750.[1] This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical music era.
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George Frideric Handel (Friday 23 February 1685 – Saturday 14 April 1759) was a German-born British Baroque composer who was a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas and oratorios.
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Messiah (HWV 56) is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel based on a libretto by Charles Jennens. Composed in the summer of 1741 and premiered in Dublin on the 13 April 1742, Messiah
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tenor is a singer with a voice range from approximately C3 (one octave below middle C) to A4 (above middle C) in choral music, or up to "tenor C" (C5, one octave above middle C) or higher in operatic music (see voice type).
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aria (Italian for air; plural: arie or arias in common usage) in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer.
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Tanakh
Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of Nevi'im
First Prophets
1. Joshua
2. Judges
3. Samuel
4. Kings
Later Prophets
5. Isaiah
6. Jeremiah
7.
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Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of Nevi'im
First Prophets
1. Joshua
2. Judges
3. Samuel
4. Kings
Later Prophets
5. Isaiah
6. Jeremiah
7.
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B-side(s) Nobody Gets Off in This Town
Released August 1990
Format CD
7" vinyl single
Recorded 1990
Genre Country
Length 4:18 (album version)
3:45 (single edit)
Label Capitol Records
Writer(s)
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Released August 1990
Format CD
7" vinyl single
Recorded 1990
Genre Country
Length 4:18 (album version)
3:45 (single edit)
Label Capitol Records
Writer(s)
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Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American country music singer-songwriter. Successfully integrating pop and rock elements into his recordings and live performances, Brooks soon began to dominate the country singles and country album charts and
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The Who are an English rock band that first formed in 1964, and grew to be considered one of the greatest[1] and most influential[2] bands in the world.
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Tommy
(1969) Live at Leeds
(1970)
Alternate cover
Deluxe edition cover
Tommy is the first of The Who's two full-scale rock operas (the second being Quadrophenia
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(1969) Live at Leeds
(1970)
Alternate cover
Deluxe edition cover
Tommy is the first of The Who's two full-scale rock operas (the second being Quadrophenia
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semitone
Inverse major seventh; diminished octave
Name
Other names minor second
or diatonic semitone;
augmented unison
or chromatic semitone
Abbreviation m2; aug1
Size
Semitones 1
Interval class 1
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Inverse major seventh; diminished octave
Name
Other names minor second
or diatonic semitone;
augmented unison
or chromatic semitone
Abbreviation m2; aug1
Size
Semitones 1
Interval class 1
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Broadway theatre[1] is the most well known form of professional theatre to the American general public and most lucrative for the performers, technicians and others involved in putting on the shows.
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Once Upon a Mattress
'
Original Cast Recording
Music Mary Rodgers
Lyrics Marshall Barer
Book Jay Thompson
Marshall Barer
Dean Fuller
Based upon Fairy tale The Princess and the Pea
Productions 1959 Broadway
1960 West End
1964 U.S.
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'
Original Cast Recording
Music Mary Rodgers
Lyrics Marshall Barer
Book Jay Thompson
Marshall Barer
Dean Fuller
Based upon Fairy tale The Princess and the Pea
Productions 1959 Broadway
1960 West End
1964 U.S.
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Mary Rodgers (born January 11, 1931) is an American composer of musicals, an author of children's books, and the daughter of Broadway composer Richard Rodgers.
Rodgers' musical works include Once Upon a Mattress (1959), From A to Z (1960), Hot Spot
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Rodgers' musical works include Once Upon a Mattress (1959), From A to Z (1960), Hot Spot
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Belting (or vocal belting) refers to a specific technique of singing by which a singer uses his or her chest voice to produce high and powerful pitches. Technically, it is known as chest voice, or middle voice.
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'Mickey Mousing' is a film technique used to sync the actions on screen with the accompanying music. The term comes from the early and mid-production Walt Disney films, where the music almost completely works to mimic the animated motions of the characters.
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In music history, musica reservata (also musica secreta) is either a style or a performance practice in a cappella vocal music of the latter half of the 16th century, mainly in Italy and southern Germany, involving refinement, exclusivity, and intense
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