"it's just rhythmless, melody-less droning with no discernible pitches. Worse, it evokes no particular emotion, it's just the same sound for hours with nothing happening."
It could very well be just that. But that doesn't mean that some people can't think it's more. That's why I compared it to the art/painting clip, where they present an $10,- Ikea painting in an art gallery, and tell people it's from a famous painter and suddenly they see all kinds of things in it.
I also would like to add that people can be attracted to certain things, and see things te way they do, even if it is not the reality for most people, or even when it's in fact not there. It's all a matter of reference. For example, if someone who has never heard music in his life is suddenly exposed to Nicki Minaj' Anaconda. He is probably overwhelmed by the melody. If someone is familiar with all kinds of music, probably not so much.
Another thing is, that I think good music is formed by 3 things. Excellent melodies that go somewhere, excellent lyrics that go somewhere, and the rare ability of combining them, so that you never feel like a note or a word comes out of the blue. That makes it craftmanship and that makes it genius. My problem with Sondheim is the melodies, they seem to come so out of the blue, that it seems that even the most experienced singers can't remember them, that tells me something about how well they "click" if you will. The lyrics often have silly repetitions and many 1-liners. And then to top it off, the music and the lyrics do nothing for eachother. Especially because I know so much music where these things are actually better connected, I can't take this seriously.
Every time it tends to go somewhere it is interrupted by a disjointed chord, repetition or pause. There are too many great composers to mention who understand this perfectly, from Boublil & Schonberg to Elton John to many other composers of pop or theatre music. For example, Elton John has the ability to build a song emotionally, start with an introduction, then perfectly knows how to make the music and lyrics match to take the listener on a journey, you fly higher and higher (emotion wise), and then at the right moment the refrain starts, that is often glorious in it's melody and matching lyrics, and then the refrain ends, and it feels like a beautiful kind of closure of that particular little story, topped off with a bow, and then we are not even in the second verse yet, which takes the listener to another place again, but it is never out of the blue, or the same as step 1, or a repetition. This is how I listen to music. When I compare that to something like "Send in the clowns". The first 2 lines have the same melody, a melody which is too simple and basic (uninteresting) for my taste. Then the "send in the clowns" sentence is repeated several times. Which doesn't add anything. Then there is this "bridge" that also leads to nowhere "sure of my lines, no one is there". And then it starts all over again with "don't you love farce". While the part before didn't go anywhere. It's like stopping a show, and then start over again for no reason. This combined with the repetition and out of the blue melodies makes it very uninteresting to me.
Updated On: 3/23/15 at 11:07 AM
