h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello good fishwife (and that's entirely accurate here)

So here we are in work with a gulf between for the first time in many moons. But to be honest it is ok cos we can talk through this wonderful invention that is H2G2. So kudos to this whole system , and I hope it will still all be ok after the bbc faffs about with it.

So today my main theme is my SA. Having thought briefly about it on the bus, I can see that I let the subject, and my vague couching (?) of it confuse and overwhelm me. I'm going to make some notes this shift, and talk to you about it as well, and I hope that by the end of the day I'll have a clearer idea of what I'm writing about, and then I can type them up, and send them to Lisa with an explanatory note about this summer's fresh hell.

So, firstly. I always find the best place to start formulating an SA plan is to ask questions of your area, in order to both start on the road to answers, and to find out just what interests you. So here are some of mine thus far.

1) Whay do people chose the music they do for their work?
2)How does the story/history of the song/artist affect what we're watching? Does it at all?
3)Are lyrics dialogue/monologue in the context of a soundtrack? Certainly they are in both Moulin Rouge and Dennis Potter. But in Moulin Rogue, at least, the songs are almost completely shorn of their ariginal context and meaning, through the means of both rerecording and rewriting. The lip-synching in Potter has a very different effect, I should say. I'll have to watch Lipstick again, and get hold of Detective. I've got the screenplay, but I doubt it hass all the songs listed, and anyway, far easier to get the show that to start looking for all the songs in it individually. That would be a long and pointless torture. Also, mum and dad have the soundtrack for Pennies, but I've neither seen it nor read the screenplay.
Interestingly, the screenplay for Lipstick has some differences between the music it lists and the music actually used. I'll get back to you on this at a later time.
4) How far is our reaction to the music based solely on it's lyrics? Is it not the music itself that affects our emotional reaction? HOw does this interact with ahet we're seeing? In cases of seeming incongruity, what is the director/writer aiming for with this juxtaposition? Is all use of music a fundamental juxtaposition? I.E is a soundtrack an alien idea, or do we all soundtrack our lives anyway? (By the way, yes, at least in some cases.)

For now, as I have to switch PCs, that's all. Don't expect silence though.

Fatty

Obviously, that's Fatty there. And sorry about the double posting, the damned computer fouled me up.

Oh well. I am pleased to say that I just had a page of ramblings, which I accidentaly deleted. Though most of it was just simple rambling on. I lost my flow after moving PCs. I did get involved in discussing musicals in all their forms, and wondereing if it was relavant. I decided that it was not, but better to be aware of it all anyway, as it is in the same ballpark, and it's neccesary to have a wide and varied background knowledge of any area you wish to write about. if you want to do it really well I suppose. So maybe here I should give a mention to opera, and to all those plays that have employed music since the beginning of eternity. I'm sure that Greek plays probably used an awful lot of music. I wonder if it was specially composed? Sometimes, I should say. As you can tell, I know nothing about this, but I'll have to research it. Because this will have been a long an d healthy traditiojn that the soundtracking of tv and film has emerged form. Well, and theatre, as that is what I will be 'tracking for. Um.

I suppose as well that by choosing songs, and giving more thought to that aspect of the piece, I not only get more insight into the subject of my SA, but it also builds the play itself, as I think I'd like to use that, and wouldn't it be good to use this song and have them do this little thing, and it builds the paly. I have to become more familier with Dusty, and I have to check e-bay for her albums, because I've realised that I really do need them. Oh lord. So it buiulds from all places, and it helps to have that music. Because the music rewally must guide and also follow and fit perfectly with the pacing and the events of the play. The music should be an emotional journey in itself. Music is an emotional journey. A song, an album. And then of course there are artists whose whole catalogue is one gigantic emotional journey through them. Certainly that's so with the Beatles, god bless 'em. I'm rambling again. It is a slow night. Tell me, can I save these pages at home, so I can refer to these notes at home? I'm sure you'll tell me when you've finished. I am a little bored, and I'm going to go and play a mindless game, so I can get further than these questions.

Yours with glee Fatty

I think it probably goes back to pre-greek times, particularly in religious ceremonies, which are a type of performance after all. 'Music in the performance of religion through the ages' has a ring to it, but that's not the essay you have to write.

Greeks really invented the modern play so that is a natural starting point if you are going to do the whole historical overview thing. But I'm not sure how much you need to go back in the link between music and performance. The most modern incarnations, television and film, are your subject matter, what point is ther in going so far back?

No, not to write about, just to know about. It makes for a very broad base of knowledge to start from, and I think it will help enormously, just knowing about these things. I won't be writing about it though. I don't know where I'll start. Just a rambling intro, then talking about diff. techniques and reasond, utilising many different examples. I just want to know what I'm dealing wih, so I don't vague up on anything.

Fatty

Oh, I see.

Well at its most basic level music is just rythmic noise. It helps to focus the attention and the tempo controlles excitement levels there's probably a physical arguement that you could find out oabout, you know, why a fast pulse like beat raises blood pressure and so forth.

Then I think once you go up a level of sophistication to singing or chanting, there is a distinction between performances where the audience is and is not supposed to participate. They are probably quite different in feel. Inclusive vs exclusive.

Yes, I should say. But, although there will be elements of that kind of thing, because I'm focusing more on specific songs and artists, and uses of songs ( in the modern sense of the word also), I think that will be a limited part of it. Um.
And I think the very nature of music is that it is inclusive most of the time. Music does move us, very literally, and we are involved in it. Because music (lyrics and music) can be and is applied to one's own life, it cannot but help be inclusive. Audiences at concerts sing along, you tap your foot. It involves you. Music is, I think, one of the least passive art forms.
So it will be dealt with, but to a certain extent, it misses the point. Do you see?

Fattybethanie

I suppose formal and informal might be better than exclusive and inclusive. My thinking was you don't join in at a concert, well not at opera and suchlike, you might sing along but you're not ususally part of the performance. But in something like church, singing round the piono, campfire, making your onw entertainment, eveyone is an active participant.

I do see your point. But I feel it's maybe a little irrelavent in context of this essay? But I see what you mean. Umm. Yeah.

Fatty