Mitch Friedfeld asks:


>What is it called when the music takes the shape of what's in the lyrics?

Reviewing a disc of Ture Rangstrom's music recently I came across the
phrase 'speech melody' to describe the way in which the cadence and pace
of music fits the rhythm of a phrase or sentence normally spoken.  Korngold
did this par excellence with his film music and much later Steve Reich
claimed it as an innovation in The Cave.  (Actually in fairness to Steve,
other people claimed it as an innovation on his behalf!) But Rangstrom was
doing it in the early years of the century and Haydn did it (see the "non
erit finis" from the Nelson Mass) when God was a corporal!

None of this is a hundred percent apposite -- but this list always gets
me charging off at a tangent anyway, so I thought I'd share this one!

Cheers.

Tim Mahon
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