modern counterpoint.
if any of you, my faithful readers, have been wondering if counterpoint ever works its way into contemporary modern music, here's a good example:
Beck's "Nicotine and Gravey" exactly 3 minutes and 14 seconds into the song (i.e. at T=3:14, or T= -1:58), for 20 seconds, until T=3:34.
Note how there are two, and then three, distinct vocal lines. these illustrates a couple types of ounterpoint.
first off, note how the first two vocal lines, with the words "I think I'm going crazy, etc." are moving at different speeds, yet have the same words, and similar (though not identical) melodies. This is somewhat akin to something called a mensuration (*not* menstruation) canon. When the second line comes in, it has different words ("I don't wanna die tonight"), and avery differnt melody -- almost as if from a differnt song. This is similar to an earier medieval style of counterpoint. Anyway I won't get into the details..
Suffice it to say, that this little section is contrapuntal, because of the way the three vocal lines interact (the main musical interest if horizontal, not vertical)... So if you were ever wondering what counterpoint sounds like, this is a good clear example from modern pop music...
again, just one or two forms of counterpoint... it's not a fugue, or strict canon, but it's related...
Beck's "Nicotine and Gravey" exactly 3 minutes and 14 seconds into the song (i.e. at T=3:14, or T= -1:58), for 20 seconds, until T=3:34.
Note how there are two, and then three, distinct vocal lines. these illustrates a couple types of ounterpoint.
first off, note how the first two vocal lines, with the words "I think I'm going crazy, etc." are moving at different speeds, yet have the same words, and similar (though not identical) melodies. This is somewhat akin to something called a mensuration (*not* menstruation) canon. When the second line comes in, it has different words ("I don't wanna die tonight"), and avery differnt melody -- almost as if from a differnt song. This is similar to an earier medieval style of counterpoint. Anyway I won't get into the details..
Suffice it to say, that this little section is contrapuntal, because of the way the three vocal lines interact (the main musical interest if horizontal, not vertical)... So if you were ever wondering what counterpoint sounds like, this is a good clear example from modern pop music...
again, just one or two forms of counterpoint... it's not a fugue, or strict canon, but it's related...