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Jazz 24's top 100 jazz songs - Page 2

post #16 of 22
2/13/11 at 11:13am
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post #17 of 22
2/13/11 at 11:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Y View Post
A pet peeve of mine: a piece of music is not a song unless it's sung by a voice. Calling "Take 5" a song is like calling Michelangelo's David a painting.

--Andre

I agree, Andre, but even many jazz musicians refer to compositions as "songs" (I recently saw John Scofield and he referred to one of his own pieces as a song...interestingly enough, he referred to one of Carla Bley's pieces as a "composition").
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post #18 of 22
2/13/11 at 2:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Biggskip View Post
Not trolling, but what would you call it, a tune?

Piece or composition but I realize I'm tilting at windmills especially after "song" was institutionalized by MP3s.

--Andre
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post #19 of 22
2/13/11 at 10:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Y View Post
Piece or composition but I realize I'm tilting at windmills especially after "song" was institutionalized by MP3s.

--Andre

They should use "track" for MP3s.

Actually, perhaps the terms should be "tune" or "line" for something that a "head" for improvisation (e.g. all Charlie Parker compositions, which are melodies placed over chords of existing pieces), "song" for a piece with lyrics (i.e. standards - Porter, Gershwin, Berlin...) and "composition" for more structured pieces designed as a framework for jazz improvisation (e.g. pieces by everyone from Duke Ellington, to Thelonious Monk, to Ornette Coleman, to Dave Douglas, to Anthony Braxton...). Just a thought.
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post #20 of 22
2/13/11 at 11:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ld111134 View Post
They should use "track" for MP3s.

Actually, perhaps the terms should be "tune" or "line" for something that a "head" for improvisation (e.g. all Charlie Parker compositions, which are melodies placed over chords of existing pieces), "song" for a piece with lyrics (i.e. standards - Porter, Gershwin, Berlin...) and "composition" for more structured pieces designed as a framework for jazz improvisation (e.g. pieces by everyone from Duke Ellington, to Thelonious Monk, to Ornette Coleman, to Dave Douglas, to Anthony Braxton...). Just a thought.

I'm glad someone is more OCD about this than I am.

--Andre
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post #21 of 22
2/13/11 at 11:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Y View Post
I'm glad someone is more OCD about this than I am.

--Andre

I don't think it's so offensive when it comes to jazz, since so much of jazz appropriates the melodies of songs anyway. What I do have a problem with is when people refer to a Beethoven piano sonata as a "song".

In a more general sense, "song" for me conveys some form of storytelling, with buildup, climax, and dénouement, delivered homophonically with clear and discrete phrasings. it is very possible for a piece of music to be recognizable as "song" even if there are no words. I actually wrote a series of piano pieces called "Apple Blossom", and I'd have no problem with anyone calling them "songs", because that's what they are, in essence.

A dynamically homogenous house track, on the other hand, is a "song" in no sense of the word. It is a piece of music designed to be blended into other pieces of music, and is not concieved in terms of beginning, middle and end. On the other hand, would you ever consider fading out a Johnny Cash song right before the last verse?
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post #22 of 22
2/14/11 at 12:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Y View Post
I'm glad someone is more OCD about this than I am.

--Andre

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