SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC031 March 2020 - Winners announced

[TrojakEW]

I'm not a fan of the nonsense-lyric vocals in the beginning... give me something that's clearly wordless any day of the week.

"A psuedo, non-lexical form of Latin is often used as accompaniment for orchestral movie and video game soundtracks. It utilizes strings of Dog Latin syllables and a deep tone to emulate ominous or grandiose Latin chants." All those epic tracks with choir spoke nonsense.

[Leonard Bowman]

All those epic tracks with choir spoke nonsense.

I'm fine with it when everything is drowned out by 8 french horns anyway, but in a cozier chill track it feels weird to clearly hear words and yet not be able to make sense of them. To me it feels moderately lazy, but you can mark it up to personal preference. I definitely took the lazy route in certain aspects of my chill track.
Also, the prototype of that epic style, Orff's "O Fortuna", does have actual words.

[TrojakEW]

I'm fine with it when everything is drowned out by 8 french horns anyway, but in a cozier chill track it feels weird to clearly hear words and yet not be able to make sense of them.

Do you know every languages that exist on this world? What if I use my national language? It will be same nonsense to you I can guarantee that.

Human voice is instrument as any other instruments. Take syllables as articulation not as something that need to give you exact meaning. For example solo violin can speak too. You just need to listen. You don't need to understand words but to listen what it is trying to say. Dynamics expression, speed of play, scale, articulation used like staccato, staccatissimo, sustain, legato, marcato, pizzicato and so on (those are syllables for it) speak to you without needing to use words.

[becsei_gyorgy]

I think Shevannai is the best Tarilonte's library.

The language is an Elvish language.
I don't speak well, but since Tolkien, it definitely means something.

[TrojakEW]

Also, the prototype of that epic style, Orff's "O Fortuna", does have actual words.

Since you mention Carl Orff you should definitely check this part of video of your O Fortuna. It may have actual words but do you really understand what they sing?
This link should open video at right time. You need just about 30 seconds to watch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7P9aN_ujgA&t=13m12s
I think everyone here will see this short part of video very entertaining.

[Leonard Bowman]

Touché

I definitely don't know every language. If you have a choice behind the lyrics I totally respect that. If you choose to not use language at all, that has its own place, too.
O Fortuna may be somewhat incomprehensible (evidenced by that great video) but when you pair it with the actual poetry (maybe even a translation if you're lucky) it takes on a new level of depth and meaning.
When you explicitly say that it's pure nonsense, I get turned off in this context. Nonsense can definitely have its own meaning but here it just felt dead to me. That's my personal preference.

[ontrackp]

It happens that I know every language, and the absolute best nonsense language vocal is the Beatles "Sun King".

[Olli H]

Interesting theme. I guess it’s about how knowledge affects the experience of music. That ”super accurate and speedy guitar solo” isn’t so magnificent anymore if one knows that it wasn’t real playing: it was programmed. Suddenly one starts to listen more if it was musically interesting.

Personally I find it fascinating as the virtual instruments are becoming better and better. It changes how I experience the music. Of course I still highly appreciate technical playing skills, but nowadays I expect more and more to hear musical ideas and feelings.

But human voice is still difficult thing. Before we learn to walk and talk we learn to hear smallest nuances and meanings in human voice. Singer from some weird language area can still convey emotions, even if don’t understand a word. Most of the time we can hear if it’s a fake or not.

But for some reason extremely skilled opera singers doesn’t convey anything human to me. But I do love to listen them as instruments, not as humans. And bigger the choir, less there is human aspect left, I think. To me big choir is a very cool sounding instrument. But it still feels funny when big choir sings ”I love you”.

[Mister Fox]

Hi everyone,

a short update on the results.


I have the whole score sheet already prepared and filled in. However, I need to wait for clarification from one participant, since the points were not listed in a clear manner (inverted, one participant got points twice while another one was left out). This in turn has a huge influence on the third position on the Winner's Podium.

I've already reached out via PM - but haven't heard back so far. Once I got that sorted out, I can post the results.



Which brings me to the most important point - for the future:

• triple check your votes
• make clear that you go by "top 20" in descending order
• use the forum usernames and not the listed names on the Soundcloud page (at this point, I know Leonard Bowman = Benjamin D, but the more participants we have, the more confusing things get)

This in turn means extra work for me, as this is not an automated process. From now on, if things are not clear to me or I have to ask several times what's going on, I will remove 1 bonus point for the "Detailed Feedback".



I will keep you updated.

[becsei_gyorgy]

little flick: I thought there was no worse voting mechanism than the Eurovision Song Contest. I realized I was wrong