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Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty by: Ben Ratliff

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Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty by: Ben Ratliff

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Ratliff, Ben. Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty. New York: Picador, 2017. EPUB. 1 Aug. 2017. Web. 4 Oct. 2017.

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"But there is an extreme form of emotion in music that transcends specific moods. I’ll call it a state of transmission. There are stories of Sufi masters, with divine agency, who use their powers of intent to send energy forth to their students. Students or seekers can feel the power of transmission by seeking to let go of their own existence and perceive the essence of their god. Receiving transmission (or tawajjuh) in the Sufi tradition has been compared to falling into a sea—a pleasant form of drowning, all-consuming, all-immersing. It is two things at once: a state of pious selflessness and a beaming forward; the musician’s simultaneous connection to eternity or inevitability—as exemplified by a sound only he can make—and to the listener." (Ratliff 54)

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I can understand what he's trying to say pretty well myself since I tend to actively seek out the emotion in a piece. Personally I feel that instrumental pieces do a better job of getting this across because you aren't as influenced by the lyrics.

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The Fundamentalist vs. Expressionists Debate according to Ratliff: 

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The Fundamentalist vs. Expressionists Debate according to Ratliff: 

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"There exists an old debate, especially in the classical-music world, between so-called formalists and expressionists (or autonomists and heteronomists). Formalists believe that music, in and of itself, means nothing, or has nothing to do with the world of emotions; it is the result of a composer bringing his tools and craft to neutral material (tones, chords, rhythms, textures) and creating something formally pleasing to the ear." (Ratliff 53)

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I don't really see the point of a debate since both sides are kind of right in their own ways. In the olden days music was encouraged to be more technical, but composers still tried to slip in emotions into their work. Meanwhile, some modern singers are encouraged to "get personal" with their music, because people love it even if they don't really feel that way. Of course there are exceptions in both cases.

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Apparently this was  written for his mother after she passed away. :(

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John Lennon / Julia (Version 1, Demo 1968) The Beatles / Rare

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John Lennon singing in a rare demo for the song of the white album Julia.

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She was 60 when she recorded this.

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Vashti Bunyan - Here Before Album "Lookaftering" (2005) http://www.fat-cat.co.uk/site/artists/vashti-bunyan "Once I had a child He was wilder than moonlight He could do it all Like he'd been here before Once I had a child She was smiling like sunshine She could see it all Like she'd been here before Then I had a child Took his while like northern summer And he knows it all Like he's been here before."

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In this dedication to "Julia", John Lennon composed a sublime hymn to the loss of his mother and the longing to see her again. He sings in a swaying motion back and forth like the ocean waves that he alludes to in the lyrics making it feel as though he's calling out to her from afar while holding her close to his heart. It's a very touching song and one can clearly hear his reluctance to let go of Julia in the way he elongates the pronunciation while holding the last notes for as long as he can before it spills out into the surf.

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From the very first churning notes, listeners are instantly sucked into the mysterious wonder Bunyan crafts around the peculiar existence of children in their purest state. It's a surreal experience.