From every 100 tunes you listen to, there is always one you really HEAR. It speaks to you, and you remember it. You hum it for days afterwards. It rattles around your head. You obsess over it, diddling it incomprehensively while you’re loading the dirty clothes into the washer. You sing it as LOUD AS YOU CAN in your car on the way into work. Doesn’t matter that there it's wordless– de-diddle-um-diddle-um-DAH-DE-diddle-um – is enough. I’ve recently heard a John Williams rendition of the humours of Kilclogher, and it’s had that effect on me.
What tunes have hijacked you? Why does THAT ONE appeal to you?
Why? Don't know for sure. But it surely helped that it's a "circular tune". I have several recordings of this famous tune, but the hijacking took place after hearing it from a fiddler at the local session.
While taking of it, I would be happy to know what you do to *clear* your head from a tenacious tune?
Yeh, but...
Candy man notwithstanding (puppet on a string tortured me this morning)
There are tunes and there are TUNES. What is it that makes one, in particular, lovely? There are SO many tunes, but of course, some appeal more than others. What's the one that pushed your "lovely" tune button?
The first time I heard the Fanny Poer waltz, it stopped me short and I cold not get it out of my head. It had become the closing tune at our session, and I had not been there for a few weeks. I made an arrangement for my school orchestra and we played it in our spring concert.
Why do some tunes grab us so powerfully? That may be for the psychologists to answer. I think it has to do with music's particular patterns triggering memories and emotions deep within each of us. Every now and then, one really clicks.
I've always felt instantly drawn to the mixolydian tunes - they seem to have that signature lilt to them that hooks me - tunes like The Girl who Broke my Heart (reel) or the Mooncoin Jig.
Mmm. I've found that some tunes are easier to learn not necessarily because they ring a bell, but because the tune evokes something that "makes sense" to you. The tunes that are the hardest to learn are the ones you don't like particularly well.
I find associations with places, people, and events also have a lot to do with it. I've been in halifax, nova scotia all week and I haven't been able to get Stan Rogers out of my head for days.
The Otter's Holt is one of those, for me. When I was very young I read Henry Williamson's story "Tarka The Otter", about the life and death of an otter in Devonshire, where he was living in the 1920s. The writing about the natural world and its creatures has an uncanny beauty and expresses that world's loneliness and menace (Williamson, a WW1 veteran, was quite a disturbed man).
A film was made of the book; on TV I had a glimpse of it - a well-trained otter dutifully trotting around to some banal soundtrack. I didn't linger. But Matt Molloy's rendering of The Otter's Holt and probably other tunes as well chimes in for me with the mood of the book - which I doubt is filmable, really.
I had the 10 pound Float in my head every morning when I woke up for bout a month... Actually,it was just the A part, because I didn't know the name or the B part....
Anna's Big Coat, a lovely little tune from the Outer Hebrides. It was kind of the tune of the week at a music program I attended on South Uist.
Tame Her When the Snow Comes, from the Shetlands.
Roaring Water. When I play this, I always think of the beautiful, miles-long beach on the western side of South Uist.
The Shingly Beach by Tom Anderson. A shingly beach is one made of stones, not sand. The washed stones make the most wonderful sound, kind of a whoosh and a glissando combined, as the waves roll out and in. I can well imagine that sound inspiring a gorgeous, reverent tune like this one.
Of all the tunes I've heard this has to be a strong contender for my all time favourite. I first heard it on a Four Men And A Dog album (Doctor A's Secret Remedies, I think) and their version has stuck in my head ever since. It's quite popular in local sessions.
There's an unnamed O'Carolan at the end of one of Fairport Convention's medleys that runs a close second, but it's a b*gger to play on the box.
"The Durrow Reel" played by Kevin Griffin (Ceili Bandits, Hangin' at the Crossroads). The way he plays it exudes such, joy, humour and antiquity. He trancends playing the instrument.
It sounds like the banjo is playing itself.
I find that a tune with what I would call a 'lovely structure' would be the sort of thing that would stick in my head. The jig 'Ronald Cooper' would be such a tune, probably because of the lovely key changes. In the modern idiom a song that I can't get out of my head is I can't get you out of my head.
and so everything returns to Kylie
truly she is everything to all people
chuneboi, I would say the same about Kevin Griffin's playing on Belles Of Tipperary on that same CD, in fact the way the tracks are confusingly named we might even be talking of the same track
it just sort of steams out of the banjo like he found the tune in there when he picked it up
Bren. Indeed the "Belles " is a magnificent rendition by Kevin as well, but it is a separate tune. It could be in the same set though? I would have to check on that. I hope your not too cold over there cobber! chuneboi.
Isn't WHY a tune speaks to you really about the person who wrote it?
Sometimes there are tunes that just seem to speak to no-one!
When a writer puts a bit of their character, personality, (perhaps their soul?) into a tune, really CREATES it, rather than just plucking notes out of the air, this is when a tune really starts to speak to people. Isn't it about that bit of the tune, the Creator's own bit, that is really speaking to you? (- and so what is it saying?)
Thoughts please......
Queen of the Fair is one of my earworms. One of my CDs has a set where "Happy to Meet Sorry to Part" is followed by "Queen of the Fair" and they have become connected in my head.
You can't remove an earworm. You just have to replace it with something else. "Slaibh na mBan" does the trick for me.
I disagree with the notion that earworms have a "bit of soul". Some earworms are absolutely bog-awful - they just have some cute riff that wriggles into your head.
When I get glued to a song and then find another artist's rendition of it, I initially get excited only to be disappointed because I barely recognize the melody or rhythm, or whatever caused the strong emotional response in me originally. Sometimes it's the arrangement and individual style of the musicians that make an otherwise forgettable song seem inspired.
I began playing flute because of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. There is a two-flute opening to the song "Reasons for Waiting" off of the "Stand Up" album that touches my soul and sends me to another place every time I hear it. It doesn't matter what I'm doing or the mood I'm in when it comes on. It has consistently done this for 40 years, now, which is amazing.
(Earworms don't 'speak' to you in the way we're discussing here: they just stick in your head, that's a very different thing.)
So if the tune only 'speaks' to you when its a specific person playing it, then it IS to do with the creator. Not just the one who wrote the tune in the first place, but the one who continues to create with it by making it their own.
('A bit of soul' in the tune is not the best way to describe it, but I am stuck for the right language to use on this one!)
It's more than a month later and I'm still hearing the Humours of Kilclogher rising up from the steady hum from the back of my husband's motorcycle - of all places. Over and above all the other tunes. An earworm indeed. But that particular tune is not unique.
My conclusion, having read the very interesting and illuminating reponses to my initial query, is that the tune that "speaks" to you is entirely subjective (duh!).
It depends I think on what you attach to it when you first hear it.; how you feel, what state of mind you are in, what emotions you can or may attach to it.
You might not hear the tune again until many years later, but when you do it opens things up like a Pandora's Box. You might not even remember why the tune once had significance to you. All you know is that you RESPOND to it. And isn't that enough?
Tunes that "speak" to you
Tunes that "speak" to you
From every 100 tunes you listen to, there is always one you really HEAR. It speaks to you, and you remember it. You hum it for days afterwards. It rattles around your head. You obsess over it, diddling it incomprehensively while you’re loading the dirty clothes into the washer. You sing it as LOUD AS YOU CAN in your car on the way into work. Doesn’t matter that there it's wordless– de-diddle-um-diddle-um-DAH-DE-diddle-um – is enough. I’ve recently heard a John Williams rendition of the humours of Kilclogher, and it’s had that effect on me.
What tunes have hijacked you? Why does THAT ONE appeal to you?
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by bindicat
Hijacked by The Steampacket
Why? Don't know for sure. But it surely helped that it's a "circular tune". I have several recordings of this famous tune, but the hijacking took place after hearing it from a fiddler at the local session.
While taking of it, I would be happy to know what you do to *clear* your head from a tenacious tune?
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by sixholes
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
Danial O'Connell.Cant get it out of my Head!!!!!!!Dum...dah de dum DAMN it i didn't mean to type that
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by dinn2
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
Its the simplicity of the tune that makes it addictive.
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by dinn2
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
I was tortured this morning by the " Candy Man Can " And I don't know why...
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by lamh trom
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
Yeh, but...
Candy man notwithstanding (puppet on a string tortured me this morning)
There are tunes and there are TUNES. What is it that makes one, in particular, lovely? There are SO many tunes, but of course, some appeal more than others. What's the one that pushed your "lovely" tune button?
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by bindicat
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
The first time I heard the Fanny Poer waltz, it stopped me short and I cold not get it out of my head. It had become the closing tune at our session, and I had not been there for a few weeks. I made an arrangement for my school orchestra and we played it in our spring concert.
Why do some tunes grab us so powerfully? That may be for the psychologists to answer. I think it has to do with music's particular patterns triggering memories and emotions deep within each of us. Every now and then, one really clicks.
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
I've always felt instantly drawn to the mixolydian tunes - they seem to have that signature lilt to them that hooks me - tunes like The Girl who Broke my Heart (reel) or the Mooncoin Jig.
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
Mmm. I've found that some tunes are easier to learn not necessarily because they ring a bell, but because the tune evokes something that "makes sense" to you. The tunes that are the hardest to learn are the ones you don't like particularly well.
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by bindicat
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
I find associations with places, people, and events also have a lot to do with it. I've been in halifax, nova scotia all week and I haven't been able to get Stan Rogers out of my head for days.
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by kennedy
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
Lisa Lynne's the Circle of Joy haunted me for weeks. It is a very happy tune. I would hope that that tune is about me.
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by feardearg
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
The Otter's Holt is one of those, for me. When I was very young I read Henry Williamson's story "Tarka The Otter", about the life and death of an otter in Devonshire, where he was living in the 1920s. The writing about the natural world and its creatures has an uncanny beauty and expresses that world's loneliness and menace (Williamson, a WW1 veteran, was quite a disturbed man).
A film was made of the book; on TV I had a glimpse of it - a well-trained otter dutifully trotting around to some banal soundtrack. I didn't linger. But Matt Molloy's rendering of The Otter's Holt and probably other tunes as well chimes in for me with the mood of the book - which I doubt is filmable, really.
I've yet to see a wild otter.
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by nicholas
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
Lamh... the Sammy Davis Jr Version?
Me, Cocaine Blues gets stuck easily in my head, but the words don't really "speak" to me. Gentleman Soldier... now THAT one speaks to me.
# Posted on August 18th 2007 by pastrings
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
bonnie kate. and james morisons hornpipe keep me going at the minite
# Posted on August 19th 2007 by m d
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
I had the 10 pound Float in my head every morning when I woke up for bout a month... Actually,it was just the A part, because I didn't know the name or the B part....
# Posted on August 19th 2007 by azfiddle
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
Anna's Big Coat, a lovely little tune from the Outer Hebrides. It was kind of the tune of the week at a music program I attended on South Uist.
Tame Her When the Snow Comes, from the Shetlands.
Roaring Water. When I play this, I always think of the beautiful, miles-long beach on the western side of South Uist.
The Shingly Beach by Tom Anderson. A shingly beach is one made of stones, not sand. The washed stones make the most wonderful sound, kind of a whoosh and a glissando combined, as the waves roll out and in. I can well imagine that sound inspiring a gorgeous, reverent tune like this one.
# Posted on August 19th 2007 by cathrynb
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
Sheila Coyle's.
Of all the tunes I've heard this has to be a strong contender for my all time favourite. I first heard it on a Four Men And A Dog album (Doctor A's Secret Remedies, I think) and their version has stuck in my head ever since. It's quite popular in local sessions.
There's an unnamed O'Carolan at the end of one of Fairport Convention's medleys that runs a close second, but it's a b*gger to play on the box.
# Posted on August 19th 2007 by bc_box_player
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
"The Durrow Reel" played by Kevin Griffin (Ceili Bandits, Hangin' at the Crossroads). The way he plays it exudes such, joy, humour and antiquity. He trancends playing the instrument.
It sounds like the banjo is playing itself.
# Posted on August 19th 2007 by chuneboi slim
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
I find that a tune with what I would call a 'lovely structure' would be the sort of thing that would stick in my head. The jig 'Ronald Cooper' would be such a tune, probably because of the lovely key changes. In the modern idiom a song that I can't get out of my head is I can't get you out of my head.
# Posted on August 19th 2007 by Free Reed
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
and so everything returns to Kylie
truly she is everything to all people
chuneboi, I would say the same about Kevin Griffin's playing on Belles Of Tipperary on that same CD, in fact the way the tracks are confusingly named we might even be talking of the same track
it just sort of steams out of the banjo like he found the tune in there when he picked it up
# Posted on August 19th 2007 by Bren
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
Bren. Indeed the "Belles " is a magnificent rendition by Kevin as well, but it is a separate tune. It could be in the same set though? I would have to check on that. I hope your not too cold over there cobber! chuneboi.
# Posted on August 20th 2007 by chuneboi slim
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
For me it's (at least at the moment) Jerry Holland's My Cape Breton Home. Lovely!
# Posted on August 20th 2007 by aikifiddler
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
Come on guys!
Isn't WHY a tune speaks to you really about the person who wrote it?
Sometimes there are tunes that just seem to speak to no-one!
When a writer puts a bit of their character, personality, (perhaps their soul?) into a tune, really CREATES it, rather than just plucking notes out of the air, this is when a tune really starts to speak to people. Isn't it about that bit of the tune, the Creator's own bit, that is really speaking to you? (- and so what is it saying?)
Thoughts please......
# Posted on August 20th 2007 by frannyc
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
It's an EarWorm in English too, these days.
Queen of the Fair is one of my earworms. One of my CDs has a set where "Happy to Meet Sorry to Part" is followed by "Queen of the Fair" and they have become connected in my head.
You can't remove an earworm. You just have to replace it with something else. "Slaibh na mBan" does the trick for me.
I disagree with the notion that earworms have a "bit of soul". Some earworms are absolutely bog-awful - they just have some cute riff that wriggles into your head.
# Posted on August 20th 2007 by Innocent Bystander
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
When I get glued to a song and then find another artist's rendition of it, I initially get excited only to be disappointed because I barely recognize the melody or rhythm, or whatever caused the strong emotional response in me originally. Sometimes it's the arrangement and individual style of the musicians that make an otherwise forgettable song seem inspired.
# Posted on August 20th 2007 by gilesg
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
I began playing flute because of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. There is a two-flute opening to the song "Reasons for Waiting" off of the "Stand Up" album that touches my soul and sends me to another place every time I hear it. It doesn't matter what I'm doing or the mood I'm in when it comes on. It has consistently done this for 40 years, now, which is amazing.
Why? I don't know.
# Posted on August 20th 2007 by Ailin
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
(Earworms don't 'speak' to you in the way we're discussing here: they just stick in your head, that's a very different thing.)
So if the tune only 'speaks' to you when its a specific person playing it, then it IS to do with the creator. Not just the one who wrote the tune in the first place, but the one who continues to create with it by making it their own.
('A bit of soul' in the tune is not the best way to describe it, but I am stuck for the right language to use on this one!)
# Posted on August 21st 2007 by frannyc
Re: Tunes that "speak" to you
It's more than a month later and I'm still hearing the Humours of Kilclogher rising up from the steady hum from the back of my husband's motorcycle - of all places. Over and above all the other tunes. An earworm indeed. But that particular tune is not unique.
My conclusion, having read the very interesting and illuminating reponses to my initial query, is that the tune that "speaks" to you is entirely subjective (duh!).
It depends I think on what you attach to it when you first hear it.; how you feel, what state of mind you are in, what emotions you can or may attach to it.
You might not hear the tune again until many years later, but when you do it opens things up like a Pandora's Box. You might not even remember why the tune once had significance to you. All you know is that you RESPOND to it. And isn't that enough?
# Posted on September 22nd 2007 by bindicat