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livI am looking for romantic music. Primarily for the wedding, but also for my general life. I like songs with words, and I usually care about the actual meaning of said words, so I would like to find some songs that are not accidentally break-up songs (which seem to get chosen as wedding music disturbingly often). And if possible I would like songs that are not creepy and stalkerish and obsessive, and songs which don't imply that finding The One is the ultimate aim of life.
Any style is fine; I'm just trying to brainstorm ideas here. I like rock better than r&b and I like baroque and early music better than classical, but those preferences are not set in stone. Also, any language is fine; languages I actually know are English, Swedish, French, German, Hebrew and Latin (and I can sort of kind of understand Spanish, Italian, Ladino, Norwegian and Yiddish), but if you know a good example in a language I'm completely ignorant of, then I will trust you to pick something with non-offensive words. I am particularly hoping for songs that mention weddings (for obvious reasons of aptness), and songs that mention May / springtime / summer, cos two potentials I have in mind are Telemann's Schmückt das frohe Fest mit Maien and Fauré's setting of the Victor Hugo poem Puisque mai.
This bit is more of a long shot, but I especially especially want songs that would work for communal singing, which is to say stuff that's reasonably simple musically and / or reasonably well-known, and preferably out of copyright or otherwise public domain. But not hymns. There may be no songs at all in this category, but I reckon several of my friends have a better chance of knowing about them (if they do exist) than I do.
All suggestions gratefully received (yes, even facetious ones)!
Any style is fine; I'm just trying to brainstorm ideas here. I like rock better than r&b and I like baroque and early music better than classical, but those preferences are not set in stone. Also, any language is fine; languages I actually know are English, Swedish, French, German, Hebrew and Latin (and I can sort of kind of understand Spanish, Italian, Ladino, Norwegian and Yiddish), but if you know a good example in a language I'm completely ignorant of, then I will trust you to pick something with non-offensive words. I am particularly hoping for songs that mention weddings (for obvious reasons of aptness), and songs that mention May / springtime / summer, cos two potentials I have in mind are Telemann's Schmückt das frohe Fest mit Maien and Fauré's setting of the Victor Hugo poem Puisque mai.
This bit is more of a long shot, but I especially especially want songs that would work for communal singing, which is to say stuff that's reasonably simple musically and / or reasonably well-known, and preferably out of copyright or otherwise public domain. But not hymns. There may be no songs at all in this category, but I reckon several of my friends have a better chance of knowing about them (if they do exist) than I do.
All suggestions gratefully received (yes, even facetious ones)!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-24 07:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-24 09:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-24 09:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-24 09:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-24 09:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-24 10:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-24 10:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-24 11:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-24 11:15 pm (UTC)Lots of folk songs are at least about love/sex; they are variable romantic...
I don't think any of these are wedding-suitable
Date: 2012-02-24 11:22 pm (UTC)um will think of others when more awake
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-24 11:25 pm (UTC)Monteverdi - "Ohimè, se tanto amate" ? [ISTR the words might be a bit dodgy, I can't exactly recall]
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 12:33 am (UTC)And here's a list of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers songs... Which don't fit the "everyone knows this song" criteria, but they're my favorites, so.
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Roger_Clyne_%26_The_Peacemakers:Easy
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Roger_Clyne_%26_The_Peacemakers:Tell_Yer_Momma <--this one is my parents.
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Roger_Clyne_%26_The_Peacemakers:Love,_Come_Lighten_My_Load
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Roger_Clyne_%26_The_Peacemakers:Maybe_We_Should_Fall_In_Love
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Roger_Clyne_%26_The_Peacemakers:Love_Is_The_Road
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 12:35 am (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCbD8nsxcd8
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 01:11 am (UTC)Allow me to commend:
"O Lusty May" (anon 16th cen Scots) score, lyrics (does not have full lyrics)
"Ce Moi de May" Jannequin (16th cen) score, lyrics, translation
Madame d'Amores (anon, 16th cen) I can send you samizdat if you want and can't find score. This one is from the perspective of a man singing his dedication to his true love, and I cannot find a recording which does it justice; it is so, so, so gorgeous if done in tight 16th-cen barber-shop style.
If you wind up with SSATB up to it, Revecy venir du printans (score, lyrics, translation
I'd like to be able to recommend "Wohl Kommt Der Mai" (16th cen) because it is gorgeous like whoa but I can't vouch for the lyrics, and that recording has a whole additional verse I didn't know about.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 01:51 am (UTC)So, here in this Cambridge, we get up way too early on May 1, hie down to the river bank and all together sing a lot of songs in English, many of which I understand are traditional to the Padstow and Helston May celebrations. As I recall, most of the songs are not particularly about love, excepting the (not Padstow trad :) "Wild Mountain Thyme (Will ye go lassie go)" They include "Hallantow" and "Unite and Unite". I'm struggling to remember the others (it's been a while since I've attended).
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 02:11 am (UTC)You did ask for facetious...
Date: 2012-02-25 05:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 10:51 am (UTC)Basically my three best friends from college used to do a lot of part-singing together, and my heart's desire is for them to come and sing a couple of things a capella at the wedding. But I don't know how possible this is going to be, mainly since they are currently in Cambridge (England), New York and Arkansas. There are other issues too, like the fact that people don't normally score stuff for high soprano, mezzo and bass-baritone. So recorded music is kind of a back-up in case this slightly wild plan doesn't work out. Having suggestions for possibilities, not just titles but scores, even, will be a great help if the getting my friends to sing plan does turn out to be workable.
Wohl kommt der Mai is definitely very very gorgeous. I think it might be a bit Jesus-y, though, based on trying to make out the words from the video. I have a suspicion that my choice of Schmückt das frohe Fest mit Maien may have the same problem, cos I can't find the lyrics online and I only remember the first couple of lines, and it's not really about Mayday, it's about Pentecost.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 10:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 10:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 11:03 am (UTC)Unfortunately your link goes to something entirely different, in spite of claiming to be the song you're referring to. I can't easily find a version online to listen to, partly I think because "the Elizabethans" is a very generic name for a group and all my searches are pulling up every possible instance of Elizabethan or Elizabethan style music.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 11:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 11:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 11:35 am (UTC)I generally favour songs that are about love and sex without being capital-R Romantic. Our culture is really weird about sex and weddings; everybody knows that weddings are partly about celebrating sexuality, but there are only certain ways of expressing that that are socially accepted, most of which I don't like ( / / telling dire, hairy sexist jokes during the speeches). But songs about sex in language that's old enough for the innuendos not to be immediately obvious are probably less likely to offend than the modern day equivalent, which would probably be described as "raunch".
The Bairstow is ever so nice, thank you for that. This post has led me to a whole new field of options involving English settings of romantic Biblical texts!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-25 11:53 am (UTC)