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Tue, 21 Dec 1999 09:46:36 -0500 |
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Mitch Friedfeld wrote:
>What is it called when the music takes the shape of what's in the lyrics?
>
>Maybe I'd better try to describe it. Take the Messiah. In "Glory to God
>in the Highest," the word "high" is on the highest note. When the bass
>sings "The Nations Shake," he is very melismatic, shaking. Outside of
>classical music, Elvis Costello in "Alison" stops the music at the word
>"Stop" (IIRC).
IIRC, it was called "the doctrine of the affections," or something like
that. Handel, of course, was only carrying on a tradition that other
Baroque composers going back to Monteverdi (the Second Practice and all
that) used, and I'm almost certain others farther back in the past did it
as well.
>This is the first time in history that Costello and Handel have been
>mentioned in the same sentence.
You have certainly forgotten about that old B movie, "Abbott and Costello
Meet George Frederick Handel".....?
Bill H.
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