Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Depressing happy songs

“Be Still, My Soul” is a much more depressing-feeling song than it actually is. I think it’s Sibelius’s music—as much as i like his stuff, it’s way too minor key for some lyrics.
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4 comments:

Michelle said...

That's my absolute favorite melody out of all the LDS hymns. I've been teaching our branch to sing it - not easy because of the key - purely because I love to hear the melody. Somehow, though, it's not quite the same on a small portable keyboard. Yay Sibelius! Bring on the heavy minor keys!

May 21, 2009 at 3:53 AM
Heather the Mama Duk said...

I think it sounds lovely.

May 21, 2009 at 5:05 AM
Anonymous said...

It might have something to do with the fact that the melody's been borrowed from the Finnish Finlandia hymn. The English words we have now weren't originally meant to go with Sibelius' melody.

Also Finns heart minor keys even for happy joyful topics. It's a cultural thing.

May 21, 2009 at 3:34 PM
David B said...

Yeah--i heart minor keys generally, too. It's just the disjunction between the melody and the lyrics in this one case that gets me.

May 21, 2009 at 5:16 PM

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