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27 May 12 - 07:46 AM (#3356107) Subject: Melisma mania From: GUEST,Stuart Reed Melisma - I must confess that the first time I came across this word was in the obituaries for Whitney Houston but I'm now grateful to have a pretentious handle for dismissing the infuriating vocal style currently employed by many young pop singers. (And don't get me started on their appropriation of the term R&B...) On the other hand, I am entranced by the Irish Sean Nós style, so I suppose I'm a musical snob. Just wanted to get it off my chest. |
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27 May 12 - 09:30 AM (#3356124) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: GUEST,leeneia Are you compelled to listen to pop music, say on the job? If so, you have my sympathy. Melisma has been around a long time, (see examples) but it's a special effect and should not be overdone. Examples: Handel: And He shall pur-i-fa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a y the sons of Levi Tab Hunter: They say for every boy and girl there's just one love in this whole world and I-I-I know I-I-I've found mi- ine. Anon: Dinah, won't you blow your ho-o-orn? And the idea of melisma being used a lot by singers who need Autotune to help them through a melody gives me chills down the spine. |
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27 May 12 - 11:50 AM (#3356158) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: GUEST Mary Hopkin's blog has some funny recent posts on the topic of Melisma and other vocal tics: http://www.maryhopkin.com/blog.html |
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27 May 12 - 01:21 PM (#3356190) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: GUEST,Tunesmith I predict that a few years down the road, critics/and the public will look make on this period of "melisma madness", and write it off as some weird aberration. |
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27 May 12 - 01:34 PM (#3356195) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Q (Frank Staplin) Thanks for Mary Hopkins on milismation. It has its place, although misplaced by some current "singers." |
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27 May 12 - 06:15 PM (#3356299) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: michaelr That's hilarious! (the Mary Hopkin blog) |
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28 May 12 - 01:15 PM (#3356443) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Marje I'm glad you've explained the word. I had come across it but not taken the trouble to find out what it was. I didn't even know there was a word for this, but now I can explain what it is that irritates me about modern wannabe pop singers. I know there are legitimate uses for melisma - in musical works where each note is notated and sung deliberately, or in gospel where it has its place in intensifying the emotion of the song in worship; but the way it's used now, to mangle and distort up both the words and the tunes of what were once perfectly good songs with endless, self-indulgent ad-libbing, that's something different. I'm very pleased that I now have a word for it. Marje |
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28 May 12 - 01:26 PM (#3356450) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: GUEST,Tootler Perhaps we should call what pop singers do malisma to distinguish it from the real thing. |
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28 May 12 - 01:37 PM (#3356459) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Q (Frank Staplin) Or Miasma? |
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28 May 12 - 05:12 PM (#3356546) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Geoff the Duck And I thought it was just that Maria Carey couldn't hold a note in a bucket. Quack! GtD. |
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28 May 12 - 06:05 PM (#3356567) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: michaelr Melingeons! |
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29 May 12 - 08:57 AM (#3356765) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: GUEST,leeneia I haven't heard any current pop singers doing melisma, so I don't know how it sounds. I only hear pop music in retail places, and the tunes tend to be oldies. Any chance it's been borrowed from the musical style of the Middle East? Wars are terrible, but as a side effect they do cause exchanges of culture. |
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29 May 12 - 03:00 PM (#3356925) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Tunesmith Well, I would say that it comes from black gospel singing, but has become more and more elaborate/exaggerated as time has passed on! |
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30 May 12 - 06:32 AM (#3357166) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Marje Yes, I think the affectation that afflicts modern pop singers is rooted in Gospel and R&B rather than any Middle Eastern musical styles. Marje |
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30 May 12 - 12:23 PM (#3357283) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Q (Frank Staplin) Long history in European religious works and operatic material. Listen to some of Vivaldi's and Handel's operas as well as Josquin and others of the late Renaissance and Baroque periods. It is part of the western traditions and probably eastern as well, so its roots are much older than gospel, etc. The problem with its use by pop singers is that most have a poor idea of when and how to use it. |
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30 May 12 - 03:00 PM (#3357337) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: GUEST,crazy little woman I'd like to get in touch with contemporary culture. Can anybody name a singer and song that I can listen to on YouTube so as to hear this kind of singing? |
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30 May 12 - 03:19 PM (#3357347) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Will Fly Wasn't Melisma Mania a singer in the recent Eurovision? |
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30 May 12 - 05:49 PM (#3357397) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Gurney Is there a name for the practice that some singers employ when they elongate a note but try to extend a consonant instead of a vowel? Some popular Irish folksingers do it often. Is this the reverse of Melisma? |
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30 May 12 - 08:11 PM (#3357448) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: gnu Q... "The problem with its use by pop singers is that most have a poor idea of when and how to use it." Indeed. I enjoy the TV "talent" competition shows to a certain extent but the "wailing" that goes on in many performances is extremely upsetting. As it is by "stars" on various media. |
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30 May 12 - 09:23 PM (#3357467) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker Alicia Keys's diabolical performance at Whitney Houston's Funeral might be a contender for unrestrained contemporary r'n'b stylising at it's ear torturing worst !!!??? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9weHLXocVY |
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31 May 12 - 04:53 AM (#3357555) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Tunesmith I've come with an analogy. Remember when flared trousers were popular? Well, as time passed by they got wider and wider until someone said, "Hey, they look stupid!". And, everyone - well nearly everyone -agreed. Hopefully, the same thing will happen with "melisma mania" |
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31 May 12 - 07:40 AM (#3357588) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Marje i do understand that melisma has existed in many song styles and cultures for centuries. But I still think that the particular style of ad-libbing that is so prevalent in modern pop singing (a very self-indulgent, wavery, wailing) is measurably different from the sort used in, say, classical opera or oratorio. In classical music, there are clearly defined sections for the soloist, sometimes marked "ad-lib", for a few bars or one extended bar at a climactic point in the music; there are also choral or solo sections where the music is notated in a way that places a single syllable across many notes ("Unto us a child is bo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-orn", etc). But this latter form is precisely notated, and sung strictly in rhythm and pitch as written, so it can be done by a whole choir or section of a choir, as one. They are not improvised riffs or flourishes, they're just sections of fast-paced music in which a few syllables are stretched across lots of short notes. The currently fashionable melisma is much closer to the style used in gospel music, adn I think there's a direct link there, as gospel has had a big influence on American pop music. Marje |
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31 May 12 - 08:21 AM (#3357600) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Tootler Well put, Marj. It does seem that a similar thing happened in the eighteenth century. The coloratura style of singing became so over the top that there was a reaction against it and later eighteenth century composers. Gluck was one of those who rebelled against the earlier style. This from Wikipedia Orfeo, which has never left the standard repertory, showed the beginnings of Gluck's reforms. His idea was to make the drama of the work more important than the star singers who performed it...Something familiar about that. It pretty much sums up for me the difference between folk song and pop song in its current form. I listened to Alicia Keys performance that punkfolkrocker linked above. It was pretty dire; not only ott with melisma but also poor phrasing. Even my computer got fed up as the OS crashed near the end [grin] |
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31 May 12 - 10:23 AM (#3357642) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: GUEST,crazy little woman thanks for the link, punkfolkrocker I believe I've heard worse. |
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31 May 12 - 01:32 PM (#3357708) Subject: RE: Melisma mania From: Mooh It drives me crazy, not because I don't understand the music, but because it is most often overdone, and poorly done. If one can't carry a tune, one can't carry it any better by adding twice as many notes warbling all over the place. Peace, Mooh. |