by Whyte Panther(Luigi Fiorino)
Music First — sets of lyrics inspired by instrumentals
When I write music, the melody and lyrics usually come to me at the same time… here are a few examples of where I started with a known piece of music (3 classical) and let the music pluck the lyrics from my mind. I’ll provide a brief description and a link where you can follow the lyrics along with the music playing in the background… at some point, i may put them together in an almost karaoke-like presentation… but for now… here they are
The first such set of lyrics came to me some time ago when listening to what is UNDOUBTEDLY my favorite piece of classical music… Beethoven’s Mondschein (Moonlight Sonata). To say “lyrics” here is a BIT of a stretch, but the words that wer einspired were never really meant to be lyrics… just the visual that came to mind one night when listening to the piece.
Moonlight – Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata
The next piece cam to me on a particularly difficult night. I thought that my new found joy was about to leave my life and that my creative juices were going to dry up… happily, that was NOT the case. A friend of mine mentioned a friend of her son’s who was recording some covers of some popular music. I gave a listen to his home mastered recordings and wsa quite impressed. I came upon what he had listed as an “original work” under the name of “Country Boogie In G”. The piece immediately caught my ear and the phrase “Closing Time” kept popping into my mind during a particular bar of the music every time it came up. The next thing I know, the following story line popped out in time with the music.
Closing Time
I was watching “The Notebook” one night and the scene where Rachel McAdams’ character plays this Chopin piece on the piano brought these words out. I’ve always found the piece particularly moving, but on that night… the lyricist in me just took over.
Cry – Chopin Opus 28 #4
This last piece was playing one night many moons ago when I took a long reflective walk around the block just prior to separating from my first wife… it was a particularly difficult time because my two young children were involved. That particular piece “A Midnight Stroll” can be found here:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2969348/a_midnight_stroll.html?cat=42
But the words I am drawing attention to now are the lyrics inspired by Debussy’s “Claire De Lune” (is anyone really surprised that “moonlight” continues to be so inspiring?). Here I felt compelled to let the first 30 seconds of the music speak for itself… it is another amazingly compelling piece of music. This, like so many other great pieces of classical music show how… WITHOUT the restriction of VERBAL language… a composer can speak directly to the heart of the listener… now that having been said… here is the verbal language that emerged in my mind when last listening to the piece… I most sincerely hope that these words, like with the other pieces here, do NOT detract from the original composers’ music
Claire – Debussy’s Clair De Lune
Well I hope you enjoyed the little bit of background on these pieces along with the words they inspired in me… hope it might also inspire a few you you readers to take another listen to some of your favorite instrumental pieces and see what the music may inspire in you