Wednesday, March 9, 2011


This strikes me as an example of another strophic composition but here there is a call and response element between barely distinguishable lyrics and instrumental progressions. Being that this is probably the only Black Sabbath track I have consistently kept in shuffle due to its quasi-serene qualities I do not know the lyric content verbatim, nor do I care to think the phonetic significance of them will elevate the melodic experience. I suppose while the harmonic aspects of the overall integration -- here of lyric poem and instrumentation -- act out as that of the dionysiac / dithyrambic, the former is saturated in the subtle progressions of the latter.


Another example where this is similar in its elements but differs in its emphasis might be the track "No Regrets," by Aesop Rock. There is an inverse effect from the lyric as Apollonic, poetic / folksy, and the other playing the maddening & vigorous repetitive consortium of sounds instrumentalized to support the verse's content progression (this might be visually resembled by a gothic chapel tower lain horizontally along a city block, with the steeple in tact, progressively elevating from the ground beneath which real estate prices skyrocket and urban demographers scratch their heads in passing). Schopenhauer might disagree with these selections being regarded as music altogether, considering they may lack a certain purity and also appear ephemeral in the scope of contemporary culture.

As for what these selections do possess, according to my reading of Nietzsche, I would venture to posit as being tragic. For a fun example in which the spirit of the dyonesiac is elevated through the original composition above being drug toward effacement (and possibly acceptably Schopenhauery) check out this cover / acoustic rendition of the second selection (only for the daringest souls) below.

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