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Post by Rob W on Aug 18, 2014 18:21:53 GMT
After taking soundings (and running out of time) I have decided to make September 'Artwork' month. The rules are as follows.
Pick a piece of artwork. It can be famous or obscure but you must provide a .jpg copy to be submitted with your song.
The song should have at least a passing 'nod' to the artwork. Obscure references that show the most tenuous of links (i.e., if you wrote the song a few years ago and hope that it fits) I'm sure the voters will look upon it poorly.
And that's it.
If there's anything that you feel I should add to the rules to make it 'narrower' or 'tighter' please let me know.
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Post by timwarner on Oct 5, 2014 8:56:43 GMT
While Rob is ironing out his problems with the web site and connecting to it, I'm getting a bit fidgety. So, in the mean time, I thought I'd review my own song for artwork month.
Tim and Julie - as I'm painted (based in Manet's Olympia)
It's unfortunate that there are so many songs based on the same (rather obvious) painting as it means the songs are even more directly comparable than normal. The sleeve notes allude to a difficult month and you a can hear how some of it has had to be crow-barred together. The sparse backing of the first verse is very brave and points must be given for Tim's ability to persuade Julie that this was a good idea. The gradual increase in the instrumentation is a good idea but it highlights that, for some of the parts, there is only a passing nod to the timing of the song, it can get very baggy at times. I like the idea of no conventional chorus, just the same phrase at the end of each verse, it would just be easier on the ear if both vocalist were singing the same tune. The sleeve notes say each verse is based on a different character from the painting, but it's not very clear from the song.
Now of the plagiarism claim: doesn't this have the same opening chords as the Requerdos De La Alhambra (famous classical guitar piece, the Fb5 is the real give-away here)? It's is a beautiful piece but this isn't. If anything it fails because it doesn't sound tortured enough (Manet never tackled anything as contentious again). This painting was mocked and ridiculed when it was initially displayed but the lyrics make all the characters sound like a load of wingers.
In short, I won't be voting for it, even if I could. It will probably be a toss up between Patrick and Colin. Lately though it's much easier to cast votes if you just imagine everyone else is voting for Patrick. This nicely frees up another vote for one of the many other worthy songs, of which, this isn't.
I look forward to actually listening to the songs.
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Post by Colin Steward on Oct 9, 2014 17:09:27 GMT
Sorry, everyone, that I didn't submit anything for September. Time got the better of me. Mine was going to be mainly piano and vocal and was pretty much classical piano playing. Coming up with the piano accompaniment is what took the time and left me none for lyrics! Just for the record, the artwork I chose was Portrait of a Girl by Millais. Maybe another time if another artwork month comes up.
So, I'm enjoing listening to those who did manage get something done and I shall still offer my thoughts on them once they've been digested and I may be a bit more critical since I'm in the safety zone of non-submission!!
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