I had a really good meeting with a friend last night who went “under the hood” of my website with me and offered some great ideas. One was to add a new entry under “Categories” –
* * * MUSIC DISCOVERY * * *
I think what he intended by Music Discovery was for me to feature and write about music that mattered a lot to me and/or music I stumbled upon recently and wanted to highlight. I think a new section of www.EMichaelMusic.com might spring from it. But for now, I am treating this “Music Discovery” in another way. I want this more interesting and lesser known music to be a more easily searchable item.
After we hung out, I created the category, “Music Discovery,” traipsed through all of my posts to see which contained links or references to music that I thought might be unfamiliar to some of my friends, and linked them to “Music Discovery.”
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To begin with my oldest Music Discovery-categorized post, I’ll highlight this song by Caetano Veloso.
Caetano Veloso – Canto Do Povo De Um Lugar
This is a beautiful song recorded by Caetano Veloso, one of my favorite musician/composer/songwriter/singers, and an extremely important Brazilian musical/cultural icon. In future posts I will elaborate on some of the music and creative output of Caetano Veloso as I have hundreds of his songs and have seen him live in concert several times in the United States.
In music, it is often important to be simple rather than complicated – to not reveal everything you know in one short space. There are times to fill a space with a large amount of data, but more often it is important to sacrifice virtuosity and excess for clarity and memorability. Caetano Veloso does this throughout Canto Do Povo De Um Lugar.
A few things to notice within the song –
the crescendo beginning at 0.44 as a second guitar, and then bass, enter the song
the beautiful switch to falsetto singing at 1.38
the sudden QUIET and shift of vocal register at 2.09 (pop recordings rarely/never get suddenly quiet!)
more guitar melodies in the instrumental section beginning at 2.21 – 3.28. Within the instrumental comes the abandonment of the chord progression in favor of a single chord and more solitude, enhanced by the added prominence of the organ.
the introduction of a jarring, out of place, diminished chord at 3.29 – 3.44, followed by a return to normal, then solace and fade out
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This song was selected for inclusion in my October 12, 2012 post for two reasons:
1. The melodic cell, 1-2-3-5, is the first four notes that Caetano sings. These four notes did not originate with this song. They can be heard in many other musical compositions before this – they should be free to be sung and/or performed without the threat of a lawsuit. They are, in other words, in the public domain. I included Caetano’s recording in my October 12, 2012 post as supportive musical evidence in a hypothetical music copyright infringement case. In this hypothetical case, Five For Fighting’s song, “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” is alleged to infringe the copyright of Angie Aparo’s “Seed.” I was asked to opine about this, from my vantage point as one who actually works in music copyright infringement actions, by a reader. I proceeded to analyze both songs, make the decision as to where I stood (in this particular matter, with the hypothetical defendant) and then explain some of the reasoning and evidence I would use to prove that the defendant had not infringed the plaintiff’s copyright. (The first four notes Caetano sings – 1-2-3-5 – are the same four notes at the center of the hypothetical Aparo/Five For Fighting matter.)
The October 12 post was the third and final post about this hypothetical case. (The first was from October 10, 2012; the second from October 11, 2012.)
2. Caetano Veloso’s Canto Do Povo De Um Lugar is a beautiful song. Given an excuse to promote Caetano Veloso or his music, I will! In my perfect world, everyone in the U. S. would be fascinated by the music and musicians of Brazil.
So, I think I will treat “Music Discovery” as music which I know – maybe learned a few minutes or a few decades ago – that I find intriguing, inspiring, innovative, beautiful, novel or just cool, and for which I want to advocate.
As always I look forward to your input.
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